RPi Zero – for $5

According to the video on the official RPi site they will be selling RPi Zero’s for $5

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero

I’m not sure what the actual retail price would end up, including the postage from their distributers, probably $15 or $20 ?

On Element14 is €12.8 (Price is before tax and shipping and in UK) but they are all sold out.

Unfortunately the 5$ seems to be only an ads.

Seemed far to good to be true !

zoomx wrote:On Element14 is €12.8 (Price is before tax and shipping and in UK) but they are all sold out.

Unfortunately the 5$ seems to be only an ads.

As I said in the other thread : No ethernet, only 1 USB, adding shipping make it almost the same price of my OrangePi-PC that I received last week which has more memory and more USB.

Adafruit, on Wed. had the RPi zero orderable at $5. I got a backorder notice.

A cheap WiFi USB dongle would get your LAN going on it.

I don’t understand all the insinuations about it not being 5$
It will be. Most shops however started only offering packages (= rpi + cables + micro sd card + …), which naturally cost more
And since only 10k were produced, only allowed 1 per customer (which makes shipping prices suck)

But expect these to come at 5$ a board once supply isn’t limited, and you can pick them up without extra stuff.
Pihut.com already offered their first boards without a package for 4£, which is pretty much exactly what you would expect .

So somewhere early next year you will have dirt cheap raspberry pi boards to use in your projects, and they will cost about 5$ a piece .

Pimoroni still had some, yesterday. To me, a Pi Zero w/ WiFi dongle looks like a great little unit, in combination with WiringPi.

racemaniac wrote:
So somewhere early next year you will have dirt cheap raspberry pi boards to use in your projects, and they will cost about 5$ a piece .

racemaniac wrote:So somewhere early next year you will have dirt cheap raspberry pi boards to use in your projects, and they will cost about 5$ a piece .

zoomx wrote:On Element14 is €12.8 (Price is before tax and shipping and in UK) but they are all sold out.

Unfortunately the 5$ seems to be only an ads.

We seem to have 2 threads about this.

@stevech posted a new thread about an hour after my thread.

I think I better merge these threads if possible.

In terms of availability, I will need to wait a few months for stock to be available via eBay or AliExpress, as the cost from Element14 in Australia Is very high especially when postage is added.

I have to source most parts from AliExpress, as Australia doesn’t have a large enough population or economy to support a hobby electronics market for small independent businesses like PiHut

RogerClark wrote:We seem to have 2 threads about this.

@stevech posted a new thread about an hour after my thread.

I think I better merge these threads if possible.

In terms of availability, I will need to wait a few months for stock to be available via eBay or AliExpress, as the cost from Element14 in Australia Is very high especially when postage is added.

I have to source most parts from AliExpress, as Australia doesn’t have a large enough population or economy to support a hobby electronics market for small independent businesses like PiHut

RogerClark wrote:
<…>
In terms of availability, I will need to wait a few months for stock to be available via eBay or AliExpress, as the cost from Element14 in Australia Is very high especially when postage is added.

I have to source most parts from AliExpress, as Australia doesn’t have a large enough population or economy to support a hobby electronics market for small independent businesses like PiHut

Hi Ray,

I have not heard of TronixLabs! but i just did a quick price comparison with Adafruit, and for example and Rpi2 on Adafruit is $29.95 and on Tronixlabs its 59.95 (AUD).

current exchange rate is slight above 0.70 USD= 1 AUD, which means Tronixlabs have a price premium of someething like 40% above Adafruit, and Adafruit are not exactly a cheap supplier.

We have 2 local chains of electronics shops, Jaycar and Altronics, both of which are good for components ( but at least 5 times more expensive than even some local online suppliers),

but as our population is small, we cant support the diversity and availability that you get from being in a large economic or geographic centre of population like the USA or Eurpoe.

RogerClark wrote:but as our population is small, we cant support the diversity and availability that you get from being in a large economic or geographic centre of population like the USA or Eurpoe.

@darth_llamah

Surely you can just buy from any of the other suppliers in the EU without paying too much postage ?

@mrbrunette

Ray,

I think there is also a general perception that here in Aus some large overseas companies impose an “Australia Tax” where like for like products have around a 25% additional cost here, even factoring in currency exchange rates.
This isn’t just for physical objects, it includes thinks like digital downloads.

There was even a Senate inquiry where the heads of Apple Australian and Microsoft etc were asked to appear before a Senate panel to account for lack of local tax that these companies are paying and also their additional prices to Australian customers

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ … mi9k9.html

However as no specific legislation came from this, nothing has changed.

Here is an article by the consumers association (Choice) detailing the additional prices

https://www.choice.com.au/electronics-a … tralia-tax

RogerClark wrote:@darth_llamah

Surely you can just buy from any of the other suppliers in the EU without paying too much postage ?

darth_llamah wrote:I do most of my shopping in chinese web shops and eBay even though shipping takes 2-4 weeks (unless seller resides in EU)

darth_llamah wrote:
I’ve been fast enough to order one at The Pi Hut- 4£ incl. tax (+2.5£ shipping) so it’s not only an ad.
Element14 is not the cheapest place to buy- original RPi (first batch ever) was almost 2x more expensive than it was advertised IIRC.

zoomx wrote:darth_llamah wrote:
I’ve been fast enough to order one at The Pi Hut- 4£ incl. tax (+2.5£ shipping) so it’s not only an ad.
Element14 is not the cheapest place to buy- original RPi (first batch ever) was almost 2x more expensive than it was advertised IIRC.

same here with the chinese-is-my-first-option thing.

Here in my country there is almost impossible to find stuff for electronics development. If you have luck and find the parts you need, then they are just too expensive. So the best option is to buy them on aliexpress or ebay and have patience waiting the 5-6 weeks it usually take to arrieve (the worst part is that the goods actually arrive fast to the country, then the internal logistic are just too slow).

I hope we can see the RPi zero from chinese suppliers soon. At least in terms of build quality, chinese RPi 2 I own are perfect, no problems so far.

There are authorized reseller in China for the RPi and I see them at Banggood and/or Gearbest at the MSRP, so I guess I though those were genuine. I don’t think you can get the Broadcom SoCs and build your own anyhow. I would expect them to get the Pi0 once supplies allow.

Luc_Exe wrote:
I hope we can see the RPi zero from chinese suppliers soon. At least in terms of build quality, chinese RPi 2 I own are perfect, no problems so far.

I read some moths ago that all the first production was in China. No problems at all. They decided to produce also in UK, if I remember well it is a Sony factory, but they didn’t stop the production in China.
I don’t know today.
Quality isn’t a problem since most of productions are made in China factories, think to all smartphones like iphone.

But since all modern production are made by robots, the idea is to produce near the markets.

zoomx wrote:I read some moths ago that all the first production was in China. No problems at all. They decided to produce also in UK, if I remember well it is a Sony factory, but they didn’t stop the production in China.
I don’t know today.
Quality isn’t a problem since most of productions are made in China factories, think to all smartphones like iphone.

But since all modern production are made by robots, the idea is to produce near the markets.

Re:RPi as an educational tool

I read a few interesting posts about this on SlashDot.

Hightlighting that its hard to develop using the RPi Zero, due to lack of ports etc.
Hence you need really need another full RPi to develop on, and then just deploy code to the Zero to run and test.

I can see how the Zero could be embedded into other equipment, as its form factor and cost are suitable for that.
But a full RPi would make a better teaching tool.

True… for a compiler.
But many/most simple/moderate complexity apps are done in Python.
I/O apart, one can code/test w/Python on a PC/Mac/Linux, then take the source to an RPi big or small.

RogerClark wrote:
Hightlighting that its hard to develop using the RPi Zero, due to lack of ports etc.

Mi RPi Zero arrived today. Alas, I cannot find my Mine-HDMI cable. Only need it to do initial setup, then….
My other RPIs I run head-less, using VNC.

Too few ports someone said? Heh? Same, except you connect a USB hub to get as many USB ports as need be. Powered or not. Can power the RPi off of the hub too. WiFi dongle for network connectivity – is what I’ve used. So I don’t see the rationale for the claim.