Jun 252019
 
How much power does the Pi4B use? Power Measurements

Each time a new Pi comes out, I usually publish some power consumption figures, mainly for those people who want to estimate battery durations. So my tests are quite simple. Procedure With just an HDMI screen and a USB keyboard/mouse dongle connected, the Pi current usage was measured using my non-invasive UNI-T clamp meter and a slightly mutilated Anker USB-C lead (to be able to clamp round just the red +ve wire I have to open it up) connected to the Tronsmart 3A power supply I’ve been happily using with my Pi4B. In the past […more…]

Jun 242019
 
Raspberry Pi 4 launches with BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 64-bit SoC running at 1.5GHz with dual 4K display capability

Raspberry Pi 4B launches today. It’s a fresh new generation of Pi with brand new silicon – the Broadcom BCM2711, quad-core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC running at 1.5GHz. The new VC6 GPU is able to drive dual 4Kp30 displays and can handle H.265 decode at 4Kp60. It has true Gigabit ethernet (independent of USB), USB 3.0 and dual 4K HDMI outputs (micro). There’s also 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless and a choice of 1GB, 2GB or 4GB LPDDR4 memory (depending on which model you select). Pi4B is the same form factor as […more…]

Dec 212018
 
Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi – “Live project blog” pt5 Road Testing

The installation ‘proper’ was finished in the previous post (part 4), so I grabbed a small ‘weather window’ and went out for a 16 mile ride on one of my regular routes to test out the system. It was very windy and rather cloudy but I was very keen to see how the bike dashcam would perform in a real-life situation. What can I say? It worked perfectly as an electronic rear-view ‘mirror’ all the way round. With the Perspex ‘wedge shim’ it was pointed at exactly the right angle. I could see whether there […more…]

Dec 142018
 
Making a fairly simple bike dashcam with Raspberry Pi - "Live project blog" pt1

Anyone who follows me on twitter can’t fail to have noticed some cycling related comments recently. Yes, cycling is the current interest. I’ve ridden about 1100 miles in the last 6 months and have learned enough to bore you to death with talk of heart zones and various items of clothing you can buy to make winter rides more bearable. But I won’t! Although I will say that I’m reliably informed by close friends that simultaneously wearing both my balaclava in ‘full ninja’ mode AND my cycle helmet cover makes me look like a ‘tit’. […more…]

Dec 112018
 
New Raspberry Pi Family Photo including Pi3A+ plus Zero WH

When a new Raspberry Pi model is released, I like to add it to the Pi Family Photo. The aim of doing this is to maintain a record of pretty much all of the versions of the Raspberry Pi which could be purchased by the public. (I don’t include prototypes.) What’s New This Time? A few people commented at the last update (Pi3B+) back in March that I hadn’t included the Zero WH. The reason for that was that I didn’t own one. I hadn’t considered it a ‘new Pi’ because it was the same […more…]

Dec 042018
 
How Much Power does Raspberry Pi 3A+ plus Use?

When a new Pi comes out, I usually publish some power consumption figures, mainly for those people who want to estimate battery durations. So my tests are quite simple. Procedure With just an HDMI screen and a USB keyboard/mouse dongle connected, the Pi is powered using a bench power supply at 5.2V (supply current limit = 3 Amps) wired, via my eMeter’s calibrated 20 Amp shunt, to the µUSB power input on the Pi. Current and voltage are measured using the eMeter (with clamp meter to confirm) and calibrated shunt whilst performing four different activities […more…]

Mar 162018
 
Raspberry Pi 3B Plus Family Photo Update March 2018

One of my other little launch week traditions for a new Pi launch is to update the Pi Family Photo. This time we’ve got three new members since a year ago when it was last updated for the Pi Zero W launch. The aim of doing this is to maintain a record of pretty much all of the versions of the Raspberry Pi which could be purchased by the public. I do have some other rare ones which I don’t include because it seems a bit like gloating. Perhaps one day I’ll do a blog […more…]

Mar 152018
 
How Much Power Does Raspberry Pi 3B+ Use? Power Measurements

Since the original Pi came out I’ve been interested in how much power it consumes. It’s become something of a launch week tradition to publish a new chart and some data. So much so that several people ask for it on launch day. This time the first was within 7 minutes of launch, which is a new record… Did you test the energy consumption? — El Datavizzardo (@datavizzard) March 14, 2018 Why? The main reason I do this is that, if you are running a Pi on batteries, you need to be able to know […more…]

Mar 142018
 
New Raspberry Pi model 3B+ 1.4 GHz, 330Mbit Ethernet, 802.11ac, PoE

It’s Pi day (if you do dates in the illogical MM/DD/YY format) so Raspberry Pi is releasing a new version of the Pi 3B. It’s called the 3B+, which is logical because it has more to offer than the 3B and is also in keeping with previous Pi naming conventions. It contains several incremental improvements, but taken together they provide a substantial upgrade in performance with a faster processor, addition of 5GHz wifi and 330Mbit ethernet and PoE. More detail further down. Here’s the new board… New Chip BCM2837B0 1.4GHz Probably the most significant change […more…]

Nov 142017
 
Full pHAT

In April this year I designed a HAT-sized PCB that would allow two pHATs to fit on one Pi. I was thinking it might make a good “over the summer” KickStarter campaign. But events conspired against me. I had trouble tracking down a source of the right stacking headers and I needed a break over the summer. So I sat on it until recently. Then, a couple of weeks ago I found a suitable header and now we’re back on track. What no KickStarter? I’ve decided to crowdfund this project by taking pre-orders at the […more…]