3 ms·

IMO the only reason to buy an A+ is if you are going to be using these commercially at scale, where the minimal price and power consumption differences are goin

IMO the only reason to buy an A+ is if you are going to be using these commercially at scale, where the minimal price and power consumption differences are going to add up.

jbhatab 12y ago
Is it even reasonable to use a raspberry pi for production? Wouldn't you want to go custom with an electronics manufacturer at some point?
- Someone1234 12y ago
  Depends on scale of your product. For example, let's say you have a company which does school scoreboards, you might install 3x a month, 36/year. You can do a custom Pi solution for $35 (+software), or buy the commercial solution for $150+/board. For that type of operation you likely wouldn't make your money back having someone else produce a bespoke board for your 36/year installations. Even at three times that number it likely wouldn't be cost effective. You see this a lot in niche installations. Up until somewhat recently many POS terminals in small stores were just standard desktop PCs wrapped in a custom case and with some custom software (sometimes written in VB6(!)).
  - lucaspiller 12y ago
    > Up until somewhat recently many POS terminals in small stores were just standard desktop PCs wrapped in a custom case and with some custom software Even in larger stores they ran Windows. I used to work for a large supermarket in the UK and the checkouts even now run on Windows NT and Windows XP with a custom UI. There are special versions of Windows for this sort of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Industry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Industry
- angdis 12y ago
  There is yet another form factor from Raspberry Pi-- the "compute module", it is a board that fits into a sodimm socket. This is a competing product for the Intel Edison. These are both practical form factors that can go into production assuming a stable and long term supply.

IMO the only reason to buy an A+ is if you are going to be using these commercially at scale, where the minimal price and power consumption differences are going to add up.

jbhatab 12y ago

Is it even reasonable to use a raspberry pi for production? Wouldn't you want to go custom with an electronics manufacturer at some point?

Someone1234 12y ago
Depends on scale of your product. For example, let's say you have a company which does school scoreboards, you might install 3x a month, 36/year. You can do a custom Pi solution for $35 (+software), or buy the commercial solution for $150+/board. For that type of operation you likely wouldn't make your money back having someone else produce a bespoke board for your 36/year installations. Even at three times that number it likely wouldn't be cost effective. You see this a lot in niche installations. Up until somewhat recently many POS terminals in small stores were just standard desktop PCs wrapped in a custom case and with some custom software (sometimes written in VB6(!)).
- lucaspiller 12y ago
  > Up until somewhat recently many POS terminals in small stores were just standard desktop PCs wrapped in a custom case and with some custom software Even in larger stores they ran Windows. I used to work for a large supermarket in the UK and the checkouts even now run on Windows NT and Windows XP with a custom UI. There are special versions of Windows for this sort of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Industry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Embedded_Industry
angdis 12y ago
There is yet another form factor from Raspberry Pi-- the "compute module", it is a board that fits into a sodimm socket. This is a competing product for the Intel Edison. These are both practical form factors that can go into production assuming a stable and long term supply.