The big 'ole Raspberry Pi topic

[TB-AV]

Sold out everywhere in the UK
I wanted to use one as a controller for my AKAI keyboard and drum pad.

How would that work?

[bradt]

I don't understand how they can make that thing for $5 much less sell it for that.

It doesn't even show as being a stock item over here from two big national resellers.

They removed a lot from it (ethernet port, zif sockets, soldered headers, USB port, etc), and lowered the cpu specs from the Pi2. But yeah $5 is cheap.

I believe this first run was only at microcenter and Adafruit in The US. I've only ever bought stuff like this through Amazon, Adafruit, or some of the other specialty electronics retailers online. Where do you generally get them?

[TB-AV]

Normally I will just see who has best price... Amazon, eBay, .. but if I need other parts or what have you, I will buy from..

MCM Electronics
Allied Electronics
Newark Electronics

It just all depends if there is a sale, shipping, combine with other stuff, etc. Like I might pay more for it but save on something else and shipping. You know a transformer or FX parts and things. Transformers are usually cheaper at the parts suppliers or you can get a better transformer.

[Fox Cunning]

How would that work?

Presuming it can run the same real-time Linux kernel as the bigger Raspberry Pi, I would pre-configure Fluidsynth and the Jack daemon with "aconnect" using a startup script, so that the input from the keyboard/drum pad goes to the output of Fluidsynth.

If I decide I don't want a display I would then use the GPIO headers with momentary switches to do things like change bank/program, adjust volume and so on. I would have to write my own "driver" for that, but it's fairly easy.

It would need a small, low power amp and speakers (which I already have) to be complete.

At the moment I use a 10 years old 10" laptop to control my LPK25 and LPD8

[TB-AV]

Ok, I see... I was thinking of controller in the other direction.

As in LPK25 as controller.. .so that would make the Pi the host for the soft synth.

Or do you mean the Pi is going to be some sort of device between the LPK25 and an existing computer? Like a midi interface of some sort?

[Dan Graves]

So now the case costs more than the computer!

I don't understand how they can make that thing for $5 much less sell it for that.

It doesn't even show as being a stock item over here from two big national resellers.

Only selling through RS and Adafruit in the U.S. as of now.
More retailers to follow ASAP, from what i read.

[Fox Cunning]

This:

As in LPK25 as controller.. .so that would make the Pi the host for the soft synth.

You're right: technically the LPK25 is a MIDI controller (and nothing else); the Pi would provide the synth, sound fonts, effects, and so on. No (other) computers needed.

[bradt]

Adafruit has Pi Zeros in stock, but act fast. In the time it took me to order they sold 35 of the 70 listed.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2885

[bradt]

Aaaaand they're all gone again. Took 20 minutes to sell them from the time they were listed. wow!

They are still showing the budget packs in stock though: https://www.adafruit.com/products/2817

[TB-AV]

R-Pi V3 $35

50-60% over R-Pi 2, 10X R-Pi 1

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-3-on-sale/

[Dan Graves]

Yeah, the increase in performance (partially due to the 64 bit architecture) is rather interesting.
The amount of RAM staid the same though, which i don't quite get, since manufacturers usually double the RAM when switching to a 64 bit chipset and architecture.
The onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth do make this an excellent platform for IoT applications though, like my daughter's automated blogging birdfeeder project.
Once mine comes in i'll benchmark it against my RPi2 webserver.

[TB-AV]

It wouldn't surprise me to see one with some more memory. As it sits, the wi-fi and BT really make the cost like what? $20.. even $15 for the PC. With shipping you will pay $10-$20 for external wifi and BT

[bradt]

Pi Zero got an update recently. Now for the same low price of $5, the board comes with a camera connection.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/zero-grows-camera-connector/

[Dan Graves]

Pi Zero got an update recently. Now for the same low price of $5, the board comes with a camera connection.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/zero-grows-camera-connector/

Finally, now i can replace my daughter's birdfeeder project RPi A with an RPi 0, which means we can use the larger birdhouse that she's  been wanting to use for ages 

[Cue Zephyr]

I want to try RetroPi for a bit. Can anybody recommend it - or not?