3 ms·

the average pi costs about $200 these days (if you can find one)

by nimbius 4y ago

VTimofeenko 4y ago
Check out rpilocator.com. I was able to get 4 different pis at MSRP over the course of this year.
- mhzsh 4y ago
  Recently, though? This worked earlier this year, but one vendor had at least 90x RPI4-8B in stock yesterday and they were gone in seconds. rpilocator didn't even see it.
  - mindcrime 4y ago
    I've bought 2 or 3 Pi's this year at the regular price, thanks to rpilocator. The most recent was a couple of months ago. You do have to kinda watch it a bit obsessively if you're really serious about finding one, but it can be done. Or you could also just constantly refresh the page(s) of a couple of vendors that you know to get stock on some regular / semi-regular basis. Adafruit is one, and Elektor seems to get stock now and then as well.
  - VTimofeenko 4y ago
    I think the latest one I got was in July and it was a CM4 8GB/32GB
- jchw 4y ago
  I'm jealous. Every time I see adafruit get restocked, it's all gone less than 10 minutes later. I've basically given up on Raspberry Pi at this point.
  - VTimofeenko 4y ago
    That mirrors my experience with Adafruit. I had better luck with digi-key and pishop. Honestly I lost count how many times I perked up from the alert on rpilocator only for the stock to disappear while I was going through the checkout.
wwweston 4y ago
Yeah, I went looking for one about two months ago and decided it wasn't worth it. The value calculation has always been a bit iffy vs "let's see what small-factor desktop machines people are dumping in the local classifieds" if what you want is a cheap PC to mess with. That's probably very much true for software instrument / sequencing stuff. Because of the ecosystem, the value calculation has been better for the Pi if you're building projects that are a small computer built into a larger electronic setup. But at the current price & availability I'm definitely trying to figure out what other single board options are easy enough or considering learning more about the microcontroller space.
deathanatos 4y ago
… they are perpetually out of stock, even in brick and mortar retail. Which makes it all the much odder for RPi to write what amounts to a press piece about their hardware. You don't need more marketing, you need the price to not be $∞ due to supply issues.
- jonp888 4y ago
  They're only out of stock because they only sell in retail channels what is left over after industrial customers have bought everything they need. So if you look at this as an advert about industrial usage aimed at industrial users, it makes sense.

the average pi costs about $200 these days (if you can find one)

VTimofeenko 4y ago

Check out rpilocator.com. I was able to get 4 different pis at MSRP over the course of this year.

mhzsh 4y ago
Recently, though? This worked earlier this year, but one vendor had at least 90x RPI4-8B in stock yesterday and they were gone in seconds. rpilocator didn't even see it.
- mindcrime 4y ago
  I've bought 2 or 3 Pi's this year at the regular price, thanks to rpilocator. The most recent was a couple of months ago. You do have to kinda watch it a bit obsessively if you're really serious about finding one, but it can be done. Or you could also just constantly refresh the page(s) of a couple of vendors that you know to get stock on some regular / semi-regular basis. Adafruit is one, and Elektor seems to get stock now and then as well.
- VTimofeenko 4y ago
  I think the latest one I got was in July and it was a CM4 8GB/32GB
jchw 4y ago
I'm jealous. Every time I see adafruit get restocked, it's all gone less than 10 minutes later. I've basically given up on Raspberry Pi at this point.
- VTimofeenko 4y ago
  That mirrors my experience with Adafruit. I had better luck with digi-key and pishop. Honestly I lost count how many times I perked up from the alert on rpilocator only for the stock to disappear while I was going through the checkout.

wwweston 4y ago

Yeah, I went looking for one about two months ago and decided it wasn't worth it. The value calculation has always been a bit iffy vs "let's see what small-factor desktop machines people are dumping in the local classifieds" if what you want is a cheap PC to mess with. That's probably very much true for software instrument / sequencing stuff. Because of the ecosystem, the value calculation has been better for the Pi if you're building projects that are a small computer built into a larger electronic setup. But at the current price & availability I'm definitely trying to figure out what other single board options are easy enough or considering learning more about the microcontroller space.

deathanatos 4y ago

… they are perpetually out of stock, even in brick and mortar retail. Which makes it all the much odder for RPi to write what amounts to a press piece about their hardware. You don't need more marketing, you need the price to not be $∞ due to supply issues.

jonp888 4y ago
They're only out of stock because they only sell in retail channels what is left over after industrial customers have bought everything they need. So if you look at this as an advert about industrial usage aimed at industrial users, it makes sense.