Been tempted by one of these for a while. £27.02 but code RPi3ESV brings down to 25.48.
Latest comments (57)
jrh_1979
4 Oct 17#57
Mine arrived today. English box, made in China. Looks fine. Will post an image later
stjoey164
28 Sep 17#56
Fair enough. It was cheap but I don't think I'll be buying from Gearbest again. It's price vs delivery time. I'm more geared towards shorter delivery times. No pun intended.
jrh_1979
27 Sep 17#55
No, but went for free slow post as in no hurry for it
stjoey164
27 Sep 17#54
Has anyone received theirs yet?
jrh_1979
19 Sep 17#53
Mine also dispatched today :thumbsup:
Pspvita
19 Sep 17#52
Still haven't had mine shipped from over a week ago.
jrh_1979
16 Sep 17#49
Not unusual with Gearbest. I take no notice of those deadlines. Said at purchase that they wouldn't be dispatched for a while. Must be awaiting stock
stjoey164 to jrh_1979
19 Sep 17#51
You're right jrh_1979. I got an email this morning saying the order has been shipped. Now I just need to research how to build a bartop arcade machine. :grin:
OB1
19 Sep 17#50
Bother, expired. Now £38.04 and no discount.
stjoey164
16 Sep 17#48
Something strange is going on with this. If you go to the product page on Gearbest it says Promo ends in x days and hours, but once the timer counts down, it starts all over again. Has anyone receieved an email confirming their Raspberry Pi has been shipped yet?
joey1352
10 Sep 17#17
I'm making a magic mirror as a Christmas present currently, a few months of relearning some coding will hopefully work out in the end. The possibilities are endless, for some simpler things though the pi3 is overkill, the pi nano I think it's called is great for simpler diy uses like sensors etc as simple replacements for things like nest heating. Was reading recently that someone has integrated Alexa into one as well but not looked into that myself
rambobambo to joey1352
11 Sep 17#24
That's very nice exciting.
Would you mind signposting to places where to start as I would love to do this but am a complete noob
joey1352 to rambobambo
11 Sep 17#28
Same here in all honesty, though thankfully I have a little background in programming and electronics so keen to get stuck in. Just ordered my pi so will start programming on it before building the frame around it. a decent guide is here for the simple stuff Magazine how to guide
drop me a pm when you get started would be interested to see how they turn out :thumbsup:
dyczko to joey1352
14 Sep 17#47
Hi. When you told pi nano, probably you thought about pi zero. Sensors you can do with arduino. Good project smart mirror. Where do you want to buy mirror?
Drittz78
13 Sep 17#46
Be careful as you might get stung for import tax as it's over £18
wavecrest1
13 Sep 17#45
Forgot to say - One of the reasons I keep it in the roof space is that it also does lots of other stuff - add a £3 DHT22 sensor and you can monitor and send alarms on the temperature and humidity in your roofspace.
I have mine doing this and it will easily run libreelec and navigates the interface far smoother than its older/smaller counterparts.
tonik
11 Sep 17#29
I use mine as a development server. It works really well. It's nice to have a simple Linux box you can just experiment with. If anything goes wrong you can just reformat SD Card.
c24w to tonik
11 Sep 17#41
What are you developing that might knacker the whole OS?!
davocc
11 Sep 17#40
I have four Pis - I use two as KODI/XBMC players, one as an experimental/prototype platform and one as a mini-server that does file serving, downloading and MQTT message handling. For those wanting to explore Linux systems management and configuration - this is a good segue as it's much simpler infrastructure. The lack of complicated hardware is a big bonus and the gear that is in there is well documented, well supported and there's usually a good tutorial to get from A->B: you can come up with an idea and pursue it in a practical sense. Raspbian is based on Debian which is a good distro to learn as it's favoured by a lot of embedded systems. Given its very low power consumption - you can use that to your advantage, for example I task it with downloading large files (e.g. multi-gigabyte ISO files) in the background. You can bounce your main PC, shut it down, put it to sleep, etc. - and your download continues in the background chewing < 800mw of power (depending on config). Compare that to a main PC left on overnight to do the same thing - probably pulling 200w+ at the wall. The GPIO pins have some curious uses too - for example by installing a program and putting a single wire onto one of the pins you can actually set up an FM transmitter that can be picked up by FM radios in your house, this lets you broadcast MP3s and other things - basically at zero cost. I was surprised how well that worked actually.
dineshonline
11 Sep 17#39
I see a few what can you do with it comments. A lot. Some of the easy/fun projects are below.
1) You can use it as an old games console to play games like Mario, Contra etc. retropie.org.uk 2) You can use it to block ads completely on your wifi. see pi-hole.net/ 3) You can run XBMC on it, Plex on it and add a hard drive for a cheap NAS + Media solution. (Stick it behind the TV) 4) Run openhab on it with google assistant. (hey google, turn my lights on) openhab.org/
piman67
11 Sep 17#37
Do you pay Import Tax on these?
jrh_1979 to piman67
11 Sep 17#38
Highly unlikely
jinsta
11 Sep 17#36
Building up a little bartop at moe too so great timing..Heat!
mikesloper
11 Sep 17#32
Somethings not right. Thought these were made on the UK.
Raydar81 to mikesloper
11 Sep 17#34
I thought they were made under* the UK.
reddragon105 to mikesloper
11 Sep 17#35
Motherboard? It's a whole PC so there's some RAM, GPU, audio and network stuff on there too. If you only receive a motherboard, you've got a broken Raspberry Pi.
Some are made in China, especially during times of high demand in the UK. The ones that come from RS Components (an official reseller) are generally made in China. So there's nothing wrong with them being made in China, but with Gearbest not being an official reseller I would advise to check it over thoroughly when it arrives to make sure it is genuine. As far as I've heard there aren't any fake/clone Pis yet but I would definitely be checking to make sure all the components are the right chipsets, etc.
They were made primarily for educational purposes, so following a tutorial to use one to turn on a lightbulb is a perfectly valid use. The first thing I ever used mine for was turning an LED on/off. Then I learned how to turn it on/off via a transistor. Then I figured out how to do that over a local network, then securely over the internet. Now I've got a Pi Zero in my coffee machine so I can switch it on from my phone when I'm on my way home.
cargill85
10 Sep 17#15
I like to think I'm up to date with technology but embarrassingly I have no idea what to do with this.....
jrh_1979 to cargill85
10 Sep 17#16
Check the first link above. Can be used for a bit of fun (old computer/console emulator) or more serious uses (servers/streaming etc)
Stephen.Butler to cargill85
10 Sep 17#18
It's basically a mini computer that you can do a variety of things with. You could load an operation system on to it, or use it as a media player (plex, Kodi) the list is long.
BungalowBill to cargill85
11 Sep 17#22
My RPI1 is now an ADS-B receiver tracking planes overhead, I've got two RPI3's - one is a combined VPN, MQTT and PiHole (Ad free DNS) server, the other is a Google Home with the AIY kit. Oh and two RPI Zero W's with cameras as outdoor CCTV servers. Good kit!
mcek to BungalowBill
11 Sep 17#23
I'm looking at using a Pi Zero W for a dump1090 project, what antenna do you use? And is an old Model B good enough for processing the data?
And I am using the original Raspberry Pi 1 Model B and it is more than capable. I did need a powered USB hub to get enough power to the tuner.
I am using the pre-built PiAware. This is the live output I am getting from it from the Cantenna in my loft:
Good entry-level enthusiast project IMO.
mutav
11 Sep 17#31
The Rasperry Pi folks call it a Single-board computer which describes it better than motherboard
jamesdew
11 Sep 17#30
These must be fake, are they exported from Wales to china then back again at a lower cost?
AlexBleubolt
11 Sep 17#27
your only saving £7 to wait for it to come from china etc, doesn't seem like a deal
bojangles
11 Sep 17#26
UK model is made at the Sony Factory in Pencoed, South Wales.
umirza85
10 Sep 17#19
Problem with these and why i love the new (or older) pi Zeros is that people don't realise how powerful these really are. Always saddens me to see people following tutorials to put the pi3 into a project to turn on a lightbulb.
To put this into perspective for anyone new to the pie I am using a pie to run an arcade cabinet, along with openhab for my house.....and I'm sure I could do a few other things with it.
Syferus to umirza85
11 Sep 17#20
You should be very glad when you see anyone willing to learn to anything with a Pi. Do you expect anyone to start by doing something terribly complex?
This sort of snobbish attitude is what turns some away from even bothering in the first place.
umirza85 to Syferus
11 Sep 17#25
I'm not sure where I was putting down people learning..... Sort of sounds like I was praising the new pi Zeros and giving people another option. Calm down there buddy.
Raydar81
11 Sep 17#21
I remember buying one and I tried and tried and it just didn't work I ended up giving it away to my nephew. Back when I bought it I also bought an early Android box Mk808b plus. I've seriously modded the Mk808b plus with a new Wi-Fi antenna as the original looked like a bit of heroine chasing leftovers and I also slapped it into the spare raspberry pi case I had. Plus I just managed to install openelec on the Mk808b plus and it runs superb....
jrh_1979
10 Sep 17#6
Never had anything fake from Gearbest
josh971 to jrh_1979
10 Sep 17#13
the only thing i've ever bought from GearBest was fake Xiaomi
Mitch_s_s to josh971
10 Sep 17#14
How do you know if something is fake?
mcek
10 Sep 17#10
I believe there are UK made and Asia made Raspberry Pi's, I'd rather buy from a UK seller anyway for warranty and peace of mind.
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Opening post
Latest comments (57)
Was reading recently that someone has integrated Alexa into one as well but not looked into that myself
Would you mind signposting to places where to start as I would love to do this but am a complete noob
a decent guide is here for the simple stuff
Magazine how to guide
and have a look here at some of the prebuilt modules to make it more complex
Magic mirror source code community
drop me a pm when you get started would be interested to see how they turn out :thumbsup:
For those wanting to explore Linux systems management and configuration - this is a good segue as it's much simpler infrastructure. The lack of complicated hardware is a big bonus and the gear that is in there is well documented, well supported and there's usually a good tutorial to get from A->B: you can come up with an idea and pursue it in a practical sense. Raspbian is based on Debian which is a good distro to learn as it's favoured by a lot of embedded systems.
Given its very low power consumption - you can use that to your advantage, for example I task it with downloading large files (e.g. multi-gigabyte ISO files) in the background. You can bounce your main PC, shut it down, put it to sleep, etc. - and your download continues in the background chewing < 800mw of power (depending on config). Compare that to a main PC left on overnight to do the same thing - probably pulling 200w+ at the wall.
The GPIO pins have some curious uses too - for example by installing a program and putting a single wire onto one of the pins you can actually set up an FM transmitter that can be picked up by FM radios in your house, this lets you broadcast MP3s and other things - basically at zero cost. I was surprised how well that worked actually.
1) You can use it as an old games console to play games like Mario, Contra etc. retropie.org.uk
2) You can use it to block ads completely on your wifi. see pi-hole.net/
3) You can run XBMC on it, Plex on it and add a hard drive for a cheap NAS + Media solution. (Stick it behind the TV)
4) Run openhab on it with google assistant. (hey google, turn my lights on) openhab.org/
Some are made in China, especially during times of high demand in the UK. The ones that come from RS Components (an official reseller) are generally made in China. So there's nothing wrong with them being made in China, but with Gearbest not being an official reseller I would advise to check it over thoroughly when it arrives to make sure it is genuine. As far as I've heard there aren't any fake/clone Pis yet but I would definitely be checking to make sure all the components are the right chipsets, etc.
They were made primarily for educational purposes, so following a tutorial to use one to turn on a lightbulb is a perfectly valid use. The first thing I ever used mine for was turning an LED on/off. Then I learned how to turn it on/off via a transistor. Then I figured out how to do that over a local network, then securely over the internet. Now I've got a Pi Zero in my coffee machine so I can switch it on from my phone when I'm on my way home.
With this USB tuner - amzn.eu/ddO…v2i
And I am using the original Raspberry Pi 1 Model B and it is more than capable. I did need a powered USB hub to get enough power to the tuner.
I am using the pre-built PiAware. This is the live output I am getting from it from the Cantenna in my loft:
Good entry-level enthusiast project IMO.
To put this into perspective for anyone new to the pie I am using a pie to run an arcade cabinet, along with openhab for my house.....and I'm sure I could do a few other things with it.
This sort of snobbish attitude is what turns some away from even bothering in the first place.
pcworld.com/art…tml