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Been lurking for a bit. Was hoping to say hello with a constructive comment but I have to jump in here. I bought a Pi model B for my daughter. Nothing but terr

Been lurking for a bit. Was hoping to say hello with a constructive comment but I have to jump in here. I bought a Pi model B for my daughter. Nothing but terrible unreliability. Booting problems as you state, power problems with the USB ports, random hangs and crashes and problems getting half of the devices recommended to work. I kind of expected that for the money but the thing that really pissed me off was when I raised these issues constructively on their forum, I was met with nothing but vicious denial and had my post deleted and account closed within an hour. Possibly the worst bit was the insinuation that I was clearly an idiot and this was all my fault. I'm technically literate (I'm quite handy with anything from an oscilloscope to GDB) but I can't imagine this doing well in the hands of teachers I.e. one of the target markets. She now uses an old ThinkPad X61 and finds it a million times more useful and with all the extra bits required on the Pi to get it to work, considerably better value for money. Not impressed. When your policy is to silence critics the product should be distrusted. As for the initial design brief to produce a useful educational computer, I think it fails entirely based on the sheer amount of friction between opening the box and writing your first program. I was brought up on a diet of BBC Micros and Acorn machines and despite the brand association, the Pi is nowhere near the mark. Her school even bought 20 Pis that are wheeled out for open evenings and otherwise never used as well in favour of bog standard PCs running python.

vanderZwan 12y ago
I assume you did get the constructive feedback that you need a proper 5V power source? Because it will boot with lower, but then randomly crash all the time.
- custardcream 12y ago
  Yes. I did a V-I curve of the wall wart and it was fine. I inspected the ripple under load with my scope too. I also had it hooked to a TTI bench PSU at 5.000v and it still had problems (I have a large selection of proper test gear at my disposal). They didn't like those facts.
  - AlyssaRowan 12y ago
    Then you've got a dud. Lots of the first rev in particular had a few problems like this. That's ample evidence to exchange it for a new one. The later revs, particularly the B+, seem much more reliable (although occasional duds definitely do still happen).
    - custardcream 12y ago
      Well you're probably right but after that face full, it went in the bin as i don't have the inclination to see if my time will be wasted again.
tdicola 12y ago
Maybe you should look at exchanging your Pi for another one. Manufacturing defects are rare but can happen. I've used dozens of Pi's and never had bad reliability problems. Always use a quality 1 amp or more power supply, good name brand SD card, never remove power without running shutdown command to halt card writes, and never plug or unplug USB devices while powered up (older model boards don't handle the voltage drop well). I have never seen a corrupted SD card when following those rules.
- custardcream 12y ago
  I probably should have but I am disinclined to bother with it or promote it after getting a face full. If you can't hot plug a USB device, forget it. Power supply was a Thurlby PL330 linear bench PSU (£350 worth) so I'm sure that bit was fine. I'd rather pay £10 more for something that works. To be honest a lot of no brand Chinese Ali Express dev kit I've bought is more reliable so I'm not sure what they're doing wrong.
teekert 12y ago
I currently have 2 model B's and one A. I had an unsupported SD card in the beginning, which annoyed me (it wasn't mentioned anywhere that this could happen). But you can check here if a card will cause problems: http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals. After finding a good one: no more problems. I also blew up a cheap chinese power supply 1A/5V but since I have been using a 2.5A/5V power supply I have had no problems (I back feed it via the "front" usb port, the hub has power on the input line, although that is not recommended.) After that I never had any problems, 1 has been running OpenElec (XBMC) for more than a year now. Another one switches my lighting, also never any problems (running 24/7 for over a year), it is fed via the USB in my router. One of them also spent half a year in a data-center (http://raspberrycolocation.com/ http://raspberrycolocation.com/), it never failed. There is no excuse for being treated so poorly on the forums but I have the feeling like you just had bad luck so far. It happens, My Moto G had yellow pixels and a failing audio system. Still a good phone judging from the experience of others. If you really just want it to work out of the box, buy the recommended power supply (2A/5V I think), a good SD card or a preinstalled one with NOOBS (http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/ http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/).
- custardcream 12y ago
  My wife is on her 3rd Moto G due to charging problems so there are at least two anecdotes there. As said elsewhere (see entire thread) it was most likely a duff one. My problem is with the community and the support and the quality, none of which are suitable for the target market.
ZenoArrow 12y ago
I've only had good experiences with RasPis, but I do find the community management troubling (I've heard others also mention perfectly reasonable posts that were deleted). It's a shame, really, they're shooting themselves in the foot.
JamesH65 12y ago
As one of the mods on the Pi forum, I can categorically say - if you had a post deleted and your username banned, it was down to your behaviour, NOT criticism. We simply do not delete posts or accounts unless the poster is overly rude or clearly trolling. The forum is frequented by a lot of children, so it is essential that things are kept polite. This is reflected in the number of people banned from the forum in the last 3 years which is less than 50 (excluding spammers), and the excellent reports back we get from people of the high quality of forum etiquette and postings. So, I would have to take issue with your comments on the forum. If you were banned, you brought in on yourself. Can I also suggest that if your daughters school has some Pi's that are not being used, then the school send a teacher to a Picademy session - they are two day courses, free, held at the Raspberry Pi offices, specifically for teachers to give them ideas on how to use Pi's in the classroom. Lack of use usually means lack of knowledge of what is possible, rather than lack of ability in the device itself.
- custardcream 12y ago
  Total unadulterated bullshit. My first post (perhaps this was a grave mistake), I gave a concise rundown of all of the problems that I had during the process of provisioning the thing and explained my dissatisfaction. I was not rude or condescending. In fact I asked for suggestions and offered improvement advice. Perhaps advice (from someone who's being working in the embedded systems sector for 20 years isn't real advice?). If I'd bought a MacBook Pro and it had the same functional problems, I'd say the same things about it. If I bought a vacuum cleaner that didn't work, I'd say the same things about it. One of the problems was that the thing wouldn't output on composite at all (we didn't have a device handy that took HDMI in) and that I complained about the fact you have to poke keys in the dark to configure video (no video output) when you don't know if the hub or keyboard is working properly. Then that started the whole process of hoop jumping to get Linux running on it. Perhaps you remember me now? I had about 4 replies to my comment, two of which were backing up my claims and one which was actually helpful. Then the next thing I know, I went to reply to the post by someone trying to be helpful to say thanks and bang, no account. That's poor moderation and trying to hide dissatisfaction and criticism which is not acceptable. That's entirey your problem as a moderator. Well lack of use in their case is that they don't have the time to do the hoop jumping when it's pretty easy to fire up a python interpreter from an MSI package on a windows machine to get the same results. I thoroughly approve of this; the first experience of proper computer science education shouldn't be hoop jumping and trying to work out how to get the thing working. Much like the BBC Micro, it should be plug it in, turn it on and open the User Guide. 90% of people fall at the first hurdle and you made it a very high one. In absolutely no way would I recommend it to them. Now I'm going to take a stab: The Picademy thing sounds much like the old school "big vendor" sales approach. Come see our products and you'll buy and market them for us. Sorry but no banana. I can't recommend the Raspberry Pi in any way and would not enable any promotion of them.

vanderZwan 12y ago

I assume you did get the constructive feedback that you need a proper 5V power source? Because it will boot with lower, but then randomly crash all the time.

custardcream 12y ago
Yes. I did a V-I curve of the wall wart and it was fine. I inspected the ripple under load with my scope too. I also had it hooked to a TTI bench PSU at 5.000v and it still had problems (I have a large selection of proper test gear at my disposal). They didn't like those facts.
- AlyssaRowan 12y ago
  Then you've got a dud. Lots of the first rev in particular had a few problems like this. That's ample evidence to exchange it for a new one. The later revs, particularly the B+, seem much more reliable (although occasional duds definitely do still happen).
  - custardcream 12y ago
    Well you're probably right but after that face full, it went in the bin as i don't have the inclination to see if my time will be wasted again.

tdicola 12y ago

Maybe you should look at exchanging your Pi for another one. Manufacturing defects are rare but can happen. I've used dozens of Pi's and never had bad reliability problems. Always use a quality 1 amp or more power supply, good name brand SD card, never remove power without running shutdown command to halt card writes, and never plug or unplug USB devices while powered up (older model boards don't handle the voltage drop well). I have never seen a corrupted SD card when following those rules.

custardcream 12y ago
I probably should have but I am disinclined to bother with it or promote it after getting a face full. If you can't hot plug a USB device, forget it. Power supply was a Thurlby PL330 linear bench PSU (£350 worth) so I'm sure that bit was fine. I'd rather pay £10 more for something that works. To be honest a lot of no brand Chinese Ali Express dev kit I've bought is more reliable so I'm not sure what they're doing wrong.

teekert 12y ago

I currently have 2 model B's and one A. I had an unsupported SD card in the beginning, which annoyed me (it wasn't mentioned anywhere that this could happen). But you can check here if a card will cause problems: http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals. After finding a good one: no more problems. I also blew up a cheap chinese power supply 1A/5V but since I have been using a 2.5A/5V power supply I have had no problems (I back feed it via the "front" usb port, the hub has power on the input line, although that is not recommended.) After that I never had any problems, 1 has been running OpenElec (XBMC) for more than a year now. Another one switches my lighting, also never any problems (running 24/7 for over a year), it is fed via the USB in my router. One of them also spent half a year in a data-center (http://raspberrycolocation.com/ http://raspberrycolocation.com/), it never failed. There is no excuse for being treated so poorly on the forums but I have the feeling like you just had bad luck so far. It happens, My Moto G had yellow pixels and a failing audio system. Still a good phone judging from the experience of others. If you really just want it to work out of the box, buy the recommended power supply (2A/5V I think), a good SD card or a preinstalled one with NOOBS (http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/ http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/).

custardcream 12y ago
My wife is on her 3rd Moto G due to charging problems so there are at least two anecdotes there. As said elsewhere (see entire thread) it was most likely a duff one. My problem is with the community and the support and the quality, none of which are suitable for the target market.

ZenoArrow 12y ago

I've only had good experiences with RasPis, but I do find the community management troubling (I've heard others also mention perfectly reasonable posts that were deleted). It's a shame, really, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

JamesH65 12y ago

As one of the mods on the Pi forum, I can categorically say - if you had a post deleted and your username banned, it was down to your behaviour, NOT criticism. We simply do not delete posts or accounts unless the poster is overly rude or clearly trolling. The forum is frequented by a lot of children, so it is essential that things are kept polite. This is reflected in the number of people banned from the forum in the last 3 years which is less than 50 (excluding spammers), and the excellent reports back we get from people of the high quality of forum etiquette and postings. So, I would have to take issue with your comments on the forum. If you were banned, you brought in on yourself. Can I also suggest that if your daughters school has some Pi's that are not being used, then the school send a teacher to a Picademy session - they are two day courses, free, held at the Raspberry Pi offices, specifically for teachers to give them ideas on how to use Pi's in the classroom. Lack of use usually means lack of knowledge of what is possible, rather than lack of ability in the device itself.

custardcream 12y ago
Total unadulterated bullshit. My first post (perhaps this was a grave mistake), I gave a concise rundown of all of the problems that I had during the process of provisioning the thing and explained my dissatisfaction. I was not rude or condescending. In fact I asked for suggestions and offered improvement advice. Perhaps advice (from someone who's being working in the embedded systems sector for 20 years isn't real advice?). If I'd bought a MacBook Pro and it had the same functional problems, I'd say the same things about it. If I bought a vacuum cleaner that didn't work, I'd say the same things about it. One of the problems was that the thing wouldn't output on composite at all (we didn't have a device handy that took HDMI in) and that I complained about the fact you have to poke keys in the dark to configure video (no video output) when you don't know if the hub or keyboard is working properly. Then that started the whole process of hoop jumping to get Linux running on it. Perhaps you remember me now? I had about 4 replies to my comment, two of which were backing up my claims and one which was actually helpful. Then the next thing I know, I went to reply to the post by someone trying to be helpful to say thanks and bang, no account. That's poor moderation and trying to hide dissatisfaction and criticism which is not acceptable. That's entirey your problem as a moderator. Well lack of use in their case is that they don't have the time to do the hoop jumping when it's pretty easy to fire up a python interpreter from an MSI package on a windows machine to get the same results. I thoroughly approve of this; the first experience of proper computer science education shouldn't be hoop jumping and trying to work out how to get the thing working. Much like the BBC Micro, it should be plug it in, turn it on and open the User Guide. 90% of people fall at the first hurdle and you made it a very high one. In absolutely no way would I recommend it to them. Now I'm going to take a stab: The Picademy thing sounds much like the old school "big vendor" sales approach. Come see our products and you'll buy and market them for us. Sorry but no banana. I can't recommend the Raspberry Pi in any way and would not enable any promotion of them.