Comparing it to the official NVMe hat or the CM5 IO board may reveal what components are missing under the bottom. Electronic companies usually use the same design for different products to reduce costs.
I was just wondering why the main board isn't just an I/O board for a replaceable compute module. It seems like an I/O board would be cheaper and simpler than a full Pi 500 motherboard, with the awkward surface mount chips delegated off to a standard compute module that they can just increase the volumes for. Being able to replace the compute module would also have benefits for customers, especially if they stayed compatible from one generation to the next, but even if it just lets you use a compute module with more/less RAM as the needs of various projects vary. But with more thought, I guess it's not that simple. A user-replaceable compute module makes things much more awkward (and more expensive) WRT having the huge heatsink, so there's at least one trade-off that would have to be made. Still, there's possibilities for third parties to make similar products based on compute modules - with a full mechanical keyboard, for example, and all the christmas tree lights that seem standard for computers and peripherals these days (I swear it's just to drive away people with sensory issues). How viable that would be as a commercial product I don't know, but for a company that already makes keyboards, or as a kit for customers to assemble based on recycling most of an existing keyboard, maybe it's not so crazy - it seems like mostly just a custom (3D printed?) box and a custom I/O board to fit that box plus pre-existing keyboard parts after all. Even just a custom I/O board with an example compatible box design as a starting point.
engineering pride can sometimes be crippling, to be a real engineer you gotta be willing to fail and share your learning to help enforce your own knowledge but also show others how not to do things and avoid mistakes
The lack of M.2 means I'll just wait for the 600. Maybe that will bring both colors back on the keyboard. No idea why they went full white on this one. 3:53 That's a programmable LED. It's a nice thingy to let people start programming. :) It's also useful if you use it as a notification LED for background tasks.
@@AsahelFrost they are available but the price of them may not be reasonable as there are always solutions available but the cost is really deciding factor
@UKsystems must be the difference between a $2 part and a $5 part, just use separate magnetics. well that's what I realized when I was making my router. unless you don't have space for the magnetics
I suspect they want to reuse that board for something completely different than a keyboard. With both M.2 and PoE connected it would probably get too hot without active cooling anyway
@@quaternion I think you're one of the few others like myself who've sussed out the Pi foundation's inspiration. If the PCIe fabric in the Broadcom chip has PCIe-to-PCI compatibility logic, I think I have an idea to make a system with a really good oldskool sound-blaster udigy, even if it means getting a 3d printed case for it.
I seriously wonder how long will it take for someone to: - take existing NVMe hat and find out the parts missing on the board - take existing PoE hat and find out the parts missing on this board - solder it all together - make RPi 500 pro plus :)
Should, though my iron/tip was not ideal, and the PCB was sapping off all the heat. I will likely work on it more with a little PCB heater so the iron doesn't have to heat up the entire board. Or use solder paste and hot air, next time! (I didn't have any solder paste on hand).
@@Level2Jeff you'll probably want a pcb heater even if using hot air, just makes everything easier, also its easy to melt the plastic connectors when using hot air so flux and iron + pcb heater might just be the easiest.
@@Level2Jeff In manufacturing, we called it paste solder, because solder paste was mostly flux and only used to tin or clean soldering iron tips. You need to select the paste solder to ensure proper reflow on the finest pitch components. If the balls are too large you get cold joints or solder bridges. We went to one specified for 0.015" pin spacing to get rid of these and tombstoning. That is when only one end of a passive flows, and it stands up from the boards. We used the Ungar Loner Irons in production and rework at Microdyne. Plato made special tips that used a collet for a 0.05" tip. I kept three irons on my test bench with different tips for different rework on new boards. That way I could quickly reword a board without sending it to rework and waiting hours or days for it to be returned. I did special jobs on engineering samples that sometimes had to ship same day. One thing that I've never seen mentioned is the resistance between the hot tip and the bench's ground. Our limit was thee ohms, because the disimilar matals generated a voltage. If the resistance was too high. it could damage IGFETs and other sensitive parts. I also see too many videos of soldering without an antistatic mat.
And IMHO that blade tip is _far_ too large for this sort of soldering, when you're working on an area, you're also inadvertently heating an area you're _not_ working on. So more bridging (and cold bridging) is bound to happen.
Watching Jeff soldering is like watching Bob Ross painting, its relaxing and there are some happy accidents but its always a joyful learning experience.
Dont fall into the trap of thinking you need a fine tip to solder small smd components. That is often counterproductive, as the thermal mass is too small to overcome the heatsinking of ground planes etc.
@@ferrumignisi can only think that all the people (and there is many) i see recommending the use of the finest tip you can get, have never actually soldered small smt. Its a good way to make a mess; thats about all.
A good method for soldering sockets like this is to use a smaller tip on your soldering iron and drag solder it. Makes for a cleaner and tidier solder joints.
@@AltCutTV Wouldn't that just trap more of the heat? I'm still wondering why the motherboard has to be inside the keyboard, like on a ZX Spectrum. It just seems like asking for trouble with all that CPU power.
@@TooSlowTube Well, it would be pretty much the same I suppose as the passive ventilation is just passing through the shell anyway. Or possibly through draft convection through the keyboard as far as air movement thermal dissipation goes. Of course if the SSD is on the topside as is, maybe it could touch the "CPU-cooler" as well, which would benefit the SSD if nothing else. No idea how much thermal pad spacing actually that would need though. I think the Spectrums heat problem was more about power converters than the processing. Fortunately neither is really much of an issue with the Pies. The larger keyboard case in itself is a factor for better cooling than the typical Pi case at least. A lot more wall area to heat in that housing. :)
It makes logical sense for them to keep the small HDMI port because the production machines are configured with reels of it already on and keeping the space for SSD on top makes sense because it keeps it a single sided board. It does not appear like it’s a great decision to start with, but that is why.
I predict it will be the main mode of failure, for anyone that uses one more than occasionally. It will also limit sales because anyone who looks into them will come across the perfectly reasonable, evidence based, criticism of that connector. This is another hard pass, for me, for that reason.
Really sad about the lack of M.2. SSD over USB is fine I guess, microSDs really do not cut the mustard for a desktop system these days. And I'd like to use a Hailo-10 whenever that comes out for edge AI. Good on Eben for setting a larger RAM standard at least.
I's just some business strategy to not make the M.2 available. They always tended not to add M.2 in standard instead forcing use of additional gadgets for it. The reason behind is probably a result of complicated business calculus held for years.
Annoying that the M.2 / NVMe header is not populated and wired up. When (not if) they come out with a Raspberry Pi 500A, I hope they put that M.2 header on the backside of the PCB and put a little door on there that you can pop off to install the NVMe drive without having to take apart the whole thing. Perhaps around the time that the 16GB Pi 5 comes out.
I really wanted it to have a nod and a wink to the A500 design. like a centimeter of flat ventilation holes ridges at the back top. with a logo on the right.
Jeff, you make me feel so much better about my own inept soldering skills! I had to laugh out loud when I saw the small mountain of used solder wick! Been there, done that. Haha
On the side of the M.2 connector with the group of 5 pins before the M-key break, the top 3 of the 5 pins are GND, then after the M-key break you have the CLK, TX an RX differential pairs in that order and they are obvious by the traces leaving from them towards the SoC. Do they connect to the SoC or do they have some missing inline termination resistors? The rest of the pins in that row are *not* all ground and even though the signals are not connected between the M.2 slot and the SoC, I would not just short them all out to each other with solder blobs! On the opposite row, the group of 4 pins above the M-key should have 3.3V on the top 3 pins then the 4th pin in that group is a clock pin SUSCLK that should have a 32KHz clock signal on it. I think it's very lilely they have not populated the clock oscillator chip on the board and that clock is important to wake up some NVMe SSDs. Finally there are 3 more imprtant signals on that row of pins, PCIE_RST, /PCIE_CLKREQ and /PCII_PEWAKE that you should trace and see if they connect to any missing components. There may be some FETs that buffer or invert these signal and some resistors and perhaps they are missing and these signals ae disconnected. You may want to also check using a multimeter if the 3.3V are present on the M.2 conector pins, which may well be the case but the NVMe doesn't work because of the other PCIE_* pins and SUSCLK if missing. All in all it shouldn't be impossible to revive the M.2 slot with a bit of help from the Rpi M.2 hat schematic which is freely available online.
I'd recommend in addition to the metal spudger set, you should get yourself some plastic spudgers/shims. The plastic ones are much better for opening plastic cases without carving them up in the process (but they're thicker, so not always as easy to get into tight cracks, but still often useful for running down the length of something once you've got a corner open, etc.). Also, I'm pretty sure that keyboard connector keeps letting go because you're not actually fastening it all the way. You need to flip the bar down and then *slide* it in to lock it down.
i have a 400 and its a very capable machine and useful i run risc on it for nostalgia but its fast growing and working more and more as my main computer
You could have saved some time by checking the pins for power with a multi-meter. I'm super curious now, though. I wonder if you could just measure the backside area for voltages and throw some some caps to see if you can make it go. The M.2 NVMe pinout requirements are online, so as long as you can meet the needs then I wonder if there's actually data lines available?
I find it interesting how the heatsink carefully goes around the NVMe spacing. Either they will add a slot later, or more likely they deleted the slot late in the design process.
Could be both. I think it is not as much that they planned on shipping this as a base model and later adding the slot in the _Pi 500B Double-Plus MAXspec 2.0_ as that they had ambitious plans for the Pi 500 and ran in to hardware issues they couldn't resolve before the deadline. Now that they're shipping the Pi 500 as is, the engineers have some breathing room to work out the problems and add the slot into a revised model.
To me the power button seems a huge step backwards: Having to press 2 keys once in a while when you need to turn it on/off doesn't seem such a big deal. Turning it off accidentally every time your fingers slip the wrong way or you drop a pen or something on the keyboard? That would be a pain.
A couple tips for soldering on a pre-done board like this. Always clean the pads beforehand with solder braid. Give it a brush with some alcohol to get rid of the excess flux. You then get a flat, clean surface to lay the component on. It helps reduce movement as you're soldering as well. Do as you did with the flux, and preloading the iron with solder. Use your dominant hand with the iron, and with the other hand, hold the component down with a spudger, tweezers, or even a stick of some sort. Don't worry about bridges at first, just tack it down on both sides. Once you do that, flux it some more and carefully glide the iron on the PADS to let more solder lay down. Clean up with more solder braid after and alcohol bath.
@@Level2Jeff Incomprehensible to me. I've been hanging out for one of these for a particular project, but without RTC and the M2 slot it's not useful to me. Very disappointed.
Yeah, the m.2 hat has become mandatory on my own pi5 builds; the extra speed is too significant to ignore. Without the slot, you're better off with a pi5 than a pi500.
You're in luck. Jeff has done a dozen videos about various Arm based systems that are more powerful than any Raspberry Pi. If you place an order today, you can have one of your very own before Christmas.
yeah seriously, raspberry pies became a household name for being super hackable and then they decided to make the spiritual successor of the C64/Amiga NON SERVICABLE!? (this applies to the 400 aswell)
For what it’s worth I’ve seen people make mods around the framework 13 laptop’s main board to make a full computer in keyboard setup. User serviceable-ish I guess (depending on what exactly you want to try to fix, if it’s soldering stuff probably not intended)
A delete key that switches it off. Oh goody! I'll wait until they ship a finished version, with PoE and a working and accessible NVMe slot. Or an enterprising third party offers upgrades. They could have an unbeatable battery life in a laptop version.
I get what Jeff is saying about having a normal power button, but I feel like it is a downgrade from the Pi400. I'd rather they had left the power button on Fn+F10.
I’m disappointed about the lack of m.2 on the inside. That would’ve been a really compelling feature. I’d imagine the caps and what not could be improvised based on an example schematic but that seems a bit much on launch. Plus that tip on your iron was huge!
Depends on the drive, for sure. That may be one reason they decided to skip it on this product... worse than slow microSD is a flaky NVMe that's hard to get to!
I would recommend you an IPC class 3 soldering course. Not that you ever would have to use class 3, but rather class 2, but you would be teached in dedicated SMD soldering. I have to do this course every second year. This is military and medical electronics standards and would give you the skills of proper handsoldering SMD components. Even done once will give you a great insight. Btw, i suck at soldering inwards, gold terminals. In the X-Ray i almost everytime time have 'sinkholes', blobs, which aren't soldered :D It's hard to get the gold soldered perfectly imho. Thats a no-go. But be better than class 1! This is 'china' playtoys soldering. No joke!
Chaining m.2 to PCIe riser, PCIe->USB3.0/HDMI->PCIe x16 mining extender (which performs power supply injection) -> target card might make PCIe work without soldering the power section. And get a smaller soldering iron, you are not soldering plumbing.
@@Level2Jeff Well i have the Framework Laptop 16 and would advise, wait for the Next Mainboard Generation, There are currently alot of Problems with Heatmanagement (misconstructed CPU Contact Area + Liquid Metal Runoff Framework just started replacing their LM with PTM7958 in Production). I even soldered another Shim onto my Heatsink to get the CPU running in and over the stated Specs. The Laptop 13 is really solid as it isn't a First Gen Product anymore.
@@Level2Jeff As i have the Laptop 16 i would advise wait for the Next Mainboard Generation the current has a misconstructed Heatsink (CPU Contact Area acts as a Heat"Narrower" not a Heatspreader (i soldered another Shim onto the Vaporchamber for Tests and revealed the Heatsink could handle 63w sustained TDP with a proper Contact Area instead of Frameworks advertised 45w)) the newest Batches have PTM7958 instead of Liquid Metal as they had Problems with Runoff which only showed after the Systems where deployed into Reallife. The Laptop 13 is a really solid Device as of now.
@@SpartanCE117as an owner of an FW16, I concur haha. The FW13 is great and I’ll always recommend it. The 16… not as much. I definitely got it more as a “putting my money where my mouth is” sort of thing where I did need a dGPU capable laptop but also acknowledged I’d likely be facing a lot of teething pains versus what next generation or maybe the next next gen would see. I hope in another 4-5 years though FW16 will be fully recommendable as they figure things out, especially with new GPU modules ideally.
I wanted to get this for my younger cousin for christmas, but it doesn't make any sense at $120, especially with just a 32GB memory card. I'll probably just get him one of those cheap intel mini pcs & put linux on it.
A used mini business dektop from lenovo, hp or dell cannot be beat. Ebay is flooded woth them after their leasing expires. They come with a windows 10 license in BIOS, have SATA and NVME slots, PCIe, 10 USB Ports, full size HDMI and display ports… got one recently with an intel i5 8400T, 2x 128GB SSDs for €150.
You need some 959T Soldering Flux lightly wet your soldering tip with some solder then a few drops of the 959T flux on the board pins.. then drag proper soldering tip across the leads.. The solder will then wick from the tip onto the pins... I hold down the board with blue stick gum (looks like gum)... After soldered is done place a few drops of 959t on the pins and drag a dry soldering tip over the pins to wick away any excess solder or bridges... You need a magnifying glass or microscope to view if there are any solder bridges..
For micro soldering there's 2 methods I've seen work good. Drag soldering with a precision tip, or use solder paste and a heat gun. Solder paste can get you factory quality results.
Jeff, I dunno if you reply much to comments on this channel, but do you think the 500 would be a good first SBC for a 13 year old? I've been thinking about getting my friend's daughter something she can play with to step into programming, Linux, GPIO controls, etc. that she won't have to worry about breaking. She has a Surface laptop for flashing SD cards or UART. I've also considered a microcontroller car/robot kit, and some books of course. Just curious your thoughts.
Yes, I think it's a great introduction-get that GPIO breakout board I mention in my main channel video, and let her learn Linux with it! My kids use the Pi 400 in our 'library' room, and I'll soon be upgrading it to a Pi 500.
I think they didn't put it just yet, because they figured out some instability of the board drawing too much energy from the power source (mini usb if is still the same as generations back). Passing on usb-c, therr are lots of alternatives to amperage and voltage feeding the board. So I think that if you provide the power for your nvme separately, that should simply work.
Of topic here. Is the a rugged Raspberry Pi 5. I thought there used to be ones. I want to out one outside that is in a waterproof box that can withstand all the elements and extreme items. So I can do things like take time lapse pictures.
I'm posting this from a Pi 400 and I love the idea behind _The Keyboard is the Computer,_ but I have to be honest... I use an external keyboard. I have so many cables coming out the back (power, camera, mic, HDMI, mouse) that I can't put it on my lap. I'd like to see the Pi Foundation sell the Pi 500 with two keyboards, the second being just a shell with bluetooth. They can advertise the Pi 500 as perfect for sitting up straight at your desk _and_ for slouching back in a sofa, watching Jeff Geerling on UA-cam! Heck, they could include a second mouse, too, and push "cooperative computing" where two people can work on the same project on the screen using two different mouse and text cursors. "Multi-pointer" is already builtin to X, so it's not like they'd have to do a bunch of software development.
I read a review of the pi500 a couple of days back, which said it had a door in the bottom for expansion cards like the amiga had. I guess they were just guessing after seeing this. Although I want one until retropi is released for the pi5 i dont really have any use for the pi500 yet.
There is a small chance that this is an internal test board. They may make a few like this with the extra footprints but depending on popularity there is a high chance I will make a revision without extra features that are not used.
You said early in the video that the type C port features OTG also. Does this mean one could use the Pi 500 as regular keyboard for a desktop or laptop?
I disagree with the power button change. fn+F10 meant you wouldn’t turn off the Pi 400 accidentally. With the new Pi 500 position, it’s easy to hit the power button instead of DEL.
@@mattsadventureswithart5764 Projects like the Raspberry C64 Pi have existed - pi zeros, B sized - but as far as I've seen none of them are IO boards for a CM4 or CM5. I would think someone with keyboard design experience would be able to do a more integrated package, but I am not a person with that design experience.
Some missed opportunities and unfortunate decisions (which were almost certainly made for cost efficiency). * NVME and PoE on-board would have been killer. It's nice to see that these were not only considered, but at least taken into account on the board - but just that one more step to getting them implemented would have been awesome. * Likewise, full-sized HDMI on this would have been appreciated. It's not a huge deal to use adapters, but it's one more thing to have to remember, and managing dongles is always a pain.. * Speaking of cable management, putting the GPIO pins between the ethernet and the rest of the ports makes cable management more of a pain than it needs to be. The placement on the 400 was better IMHO. Still a worthwhile upgrade over the 400 if you want the whole "computer in a keyboard" thing. Just could always be improved.
A massive oversight by Raspberry Pi not to include an M.2 slot, especially as there is space and silkscreen for it. Would not mind betting that they may release a more expensive M.2 version at a later date.
It gets to "who is this for?" Like you said, a computer for kids, but also maybe a good option as a portable back up computer, cheaper than a full laptop. I'd like to see it where a line of pi cases and keyboards are compatible to where you could plug the two together to make a unit like this. That way, you could choose a keyboard that matches your preferences. This keyboard would be a downgrade for me. My main set up is a laptop used in a desktop set up, so I'd be better off getting a raspberry pi and case and plugging stuff into that.
I love the Pi 400 already for being my daily linux system for experimenting and the central ssh hub for all other linux systems I run. It is not taking much space on the desk. But to have extra memory there is always something sticking out of the 400's rear end. I really would have loved the internal NVME or M.2 slot. Currently there is no reason for me to buy a 500 unless they add the NVME or M.2. Having PoE is nice, saving WiFi bandwidth and making the PSU obsolete would mean 3 functions, LAN, Power and Video over two cables. It would have been perfect if that just was possible over one USB-C, Monitor with HUB, one cable all in.
Regarding the possible M2 slot there, I wonder what would that cost the company to add? 5USD or 10USD? Were they afraid that they would need to price much higher their device? Were thermal issues reason for not having it?
Is keyboard better than the 400? I bought one the kits that was sold with the raspberry pi 4 before they sold the 400, and used it as my main computer for a while and some of keys quit working or I would have to hit them hard.
A little bit better, definitely. Still not as nice as my Apple Magic Keyboard (my current favorite for fast typing), but it's better than the Pi 400 and a lot better than the general Pi Keyboard.
Haha I was considering adding that to my main video. Love the look of the black versions of their older accessories... then put a little rainbow stripe on the bottom right and you have a modern ZX Spectrum!
Looks like they got rid of the num lock functionality on the keyboard in order to give a dedicated power button; seems like a decent trade off as power button is used far more than a numeric keypad, especially in a home environment the 500 is targeting.
I don't think it makes sense at all to have the power button there. It seems like the first machine ever putting power button right next to the most used keys like "Delete" and "Backspace" and then it's also on the corner, one bad move at your desk and the machine will power off?! This is, if the button does not need a qualifier to be pressed to be functional, but still, it's a weird place. I would put a power button on the side maybe or at the back, you don't need such a key on desktop keyboard, since you can use whatever shortcut to power it down or start by pressing the "any" key e.g.. I also think NumLock is nice to have, I use it all the time, just to expand available hotkeys and automation triggers (and for typing, if it would be there physically).
Comparing it to the official NVMe hat or the CM5 IO board may reveal what components are missing under the bottom. Electronic companies usually use the same design for different products to reduce costs.
Definitely worth a 2nd try!
@@Level2Jeff Level2Jeff has some Red Shirt tendencies, but chaotic good, rather than chaotic neutral. It apparently runs in the family.
I was just wondering why the main board isn't just an I/O board for a replaceable compute module. It seems like an I/O board would be cheaper and simpler than a full Pi 500 motherboard, with the awkward surface mount chips delegated off to a standard compute module that they can just increase the volumes for. Being able to replace the compute module would also have benefits for customers, especially if they stayed compatible from one generation to the next, but even if it just lets you use a compute module with more/less RAM as the needs of various projects vary.
But with more thought, I guess it's not that simple. A user-replaceable compute module makes things much more awkward (and more expensive) WRT having the huge heatsink, so there's at least one trade-off that would have to be made.
Still, there's possibilities for third parties to make similar products based on compute modules - with a full mechanical keyboard, for example, and all the christmas tree lights that seem standard for computers and peripherals these days (I swear it's just to drive away people with sensory issues). How viable that would be as a commercial product I don't know, but for a company that already makes keyboards, or as a kit for customers to assemble based on recycling most of an existing keyboard, maybe it's not so crazy - it seems like mostly just a custom (3D printed?) box and a custom I/O board to fit that box plus pre-existing keyboard parts after all. Even just a custom I/O board with an example compatible box design as a starting point.
This would also apply to the POE hat as well.
Exactly what I was thinking. 😂
I ordered one and plan to investigate this.
That takes courage: finding out your idea didn't work and yet still sharing the process. Thanks.
Heh the only way to get better is to fail quite a bit!
Probably would have worked if he had a lick of microsoldering skills.
@@jamesdavies686 How's your soldering skills?
@@geographicaloddity2 I could no scope solder a m.2 connector
engineering pride can sometimes be crippling, to be a real engineer you gotta be willing to fail and share your learning to help enforce your own knowledge but also show others how not to do things and avoid mistakes
"i'm really good at bridging these solder joints" - Jeff
Me too Jeff, me Too.
The lack of M.2 means I'll just wait for the 600. Maybe that will bring both colors back on the keyboard. No idea why they went full white on this one.
3:53 That's a programmable LED. It's a nice thingy to let people start programming. :) It's also useful if you use it as a notification LED for background tasks.
There should be an m.2 connector on it, the pads are there. Is this the final prod version?
@@valkaielod I wonder if they planned to use the board in multiple SKUs.
The POE circuitry is why there are separate magnetics for the Ethernet.
We needed a 'in PCB' RJ45 connector and was easier to get with external magnetics.
@@richardjones1373 Ah ok, so it is possible to get RJ45s with integrated magnetics with the centre taps brought out to extra pins for PoE?
you can do PoE on Pi's 3B+ and later with their PoE compliant Magjacks.
@@AsahelFrost they are available but the price of them may not be reasonable as there are always solutions available but the cost is really deciding factor
@UKsystems must be the difference between a $2 part and a $5 part, just use separate magnetics. well that's what I realized when I was making my router. unless you don't have space for the magnetics
I think they messed up the m.2 placement anyway, it should be on the bottom side so there could be a door to install it through
I suspect they want to reuse that board for something completely different than a keyboard.
With both M.2 and PoE connected it would probably get too hot without active cooling anyway
You mean like in the Amiga 500? 😉
@@quaternion I think you're one of the few others like myself who've sussed out the Pi foundation's inspiration.
If the PCIe fabric in the Broadcom chip has PCIe-to-PCI compatibility logic, I think I have an idea to make a system with a really good oldskool sound-blaster udigy, even if it means getting a 3d printed case for it.
I seriously wonder how long will it take for someone to:
- take existing NVMe hat and find out the parts missing on the board
- take existing PoE hat and find out the parts missing on this board
- solder it all together
- make RPi 500 pro plus :)
Use more flux and reheat the solder. Surface tension will make it reflow “perfectly”.
Should, though my iron/tip was not ideal, and the PCB was sapping off all the heat. I will likely work on it more with a little PCB heater so the iron doesn't have to heat up the entire board.
Or use solder paste and hot air, next time! (I didn't have any solder paste on hand).
@@Level2Jeff you'll probably want a pcb heater even if using hot air, just makes everything easier, also its easy to melt the plastic connectors when using hot air so flux and iron + pcb heater might just be the easiest.
@@Level2Jeff my first Level 2 Jeff reply 😀
A follow up on the M2 hack would be great. Someone can probably figure out the missing components.
@@Level2Jeff In manufacturing, we called it paste solder, because solder paste was mostly flux and only used to tin or clean soldering iron tips.
You need to select the paste solder to ensure proper reflow on the finest pitch components. If the balls are too large you get cold joints or solder bridges. We went to one specified for 0.015" pin spacing to get rid of these and tombstoning. That is when only one end of a passive flows, and it stands up from the boards.
We used the Ungar Loner Irons in production and rework at Microdyne.
Plato made special tips that used a collet for a 0.05" tip. I kept three irons on my test bench with different tips for different rework on new boards. That way I could quickly reword a board without sending it to rework and waiting hours or days for it to be returned. I did special jobs on engineering samples that sometimes had to ship same day.
One thing that I've never seen mentioned is the resistance between the hot tip and the bench's ground. Our limit was thee ohms, because the disimilar matals generated a voltage. If the resistance was too high. it could damage IGFETs and other sensitive parts. I also see too many videos of soldering without an antistatic mat.
And IMHO that blade tip is _far_ too large for this sort of soldering, when you're working on an area, you're also inadvertently heating an area you're _not_ working on. So more bridging (and cold bridging) is bound to happen.
Check the NVME hat, the POE hat, and the CM5 IOB. I'd bet a fancy pizza that they reused the same schematics, and thus the parts will be the same.
Watching Jeff soldering is like watching Bob Ross painting, its relaxing and there are some happy accidents but its always a joyful learning experience.
Haha. I figured it's time to start practicing SMD soldering. I've only ever done through hole, which is typically a lot easier.
@@Level2Jeff they say it's easier with hair fan method, but I've never tried myself.
Dont fall into the trap of thinking you need a fine tip to solder small smd components. That is often counterproductive, as the thermal mass is too small to overcome the heatsinking of ground planes etc.
@@jeremyglover5541 Absolutely correct, super fine soldering iron tips are horrible things to use.
@@ferrumignisi can only think that all the people (and there is many) i see recommending the use of the finest tip you can get, have never actually soldered small smt. Its a good way to make a mess; thats about all.
THREE Jeff videos? What a treat!
For Jeff its just 1 video
A good method for soldering sockets like this is to use a smaller tip on your soldering iron and drag solder it. Makes for a cleaner and tidier solder joints.
Well, if you add your Raspberry Pi 400 to your Pi 500, you could get a Pi 900.
* _drooling because I am so smart_ *
Oh my God!
😮😂
Wow the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child Initiative) was launched too early. Now they could achieve this goal using this Raspberry board!
Archer:one laptop per child which, unfortunately, became one thousand laptops per warlord.
My money is on the NVME equipped version will be called the pi 500 plus. Just like the Amiga 500 plus of its namesake 😊
Would be nice if the slot was underside the board though. Then the shell could have a access like.. 🐣
No, it will be like Amiga 600 and Amiga 600HD.
@@AltCutTV Wouldn't that just trap more of the heat? I'm still wondering why the motherboard has to be inside the keyboard, like on a ZX Spectrum. It just seems like asking for trouble with all that CPU power.
@@TooSlowTube Well, it would be pretty much the same I suppose as the passive ventilation is just passing through the shell anyway. Or possibly through draft convection through the keyboard as far as air movement thermal dissipation goes.
Of course if the SSD is on the topside as is, maybe it could touch the "CPU-cooler" as well, which would benefit the SSD if nothing else. No idea how much thermal pad spacing actually that would need though.
I think the Spectrums heat problem was more about power converters than the processing. Fortunately neither is really much of an issue with the Pies. The larger keyboard case in itself is a factor for better cooling than the typical Pi case at least. A lot more wall area to heat in that housing. :)
When it'll get a proper M.2, it'll be SO worth it for me
Looking forward to it
if the Pi foundation really cares about the space, swap the Mini HDMI ports to Type C ports, or even just one full size HDMI
Pi 600 🤞
3AM (east coast USA) video drop? Shout out to the rest of those with insomnia!
I ised to do my best work at this time. No phhone cals, no one else in the shop and it's very quiet.
Greetings from the future (11AM)
Three-eleven, only two hours into my 72-hour shift, sneaking in to break Macdonalds iced non-dairy product freeze machines.
on Ronald's private staff.
lol, are you a flat earther by any chance?
@@halvarf No, but you're a moron. I built Telemetry equipment for NASA. What have you ever done?
It makes logical sense for them to keep the small HDMI port because the production machines are configured with reels of it already on and keeping the space for SSD on top makes sense because it keeps it a single sided board. It does not appear like it’s a great decision to start with, but that is why.
I predict it will be the main mode of failure, for anyone that uses one more than occasionally. It will also limit sales because anyone who looks into them will come across the perfectly reasonable, evidence based, criticism of that connector. This is another hard pass, for me, for that reason.
bet they didn't do they own manufacturing and ordering it from an OEM
@@RustedCroaker raspberry pi is the oem
Really sad about the lack of M.2. SSD over USB is fine I guess, microSDs really do not cut the mustard for a desktop system these days. And I'd like to use a Hailo-10 whenever that comes out for edge AI. Good on Eben for setting a larger RAM standard at least.
Hopefully everything is there and just going to be populated at launch.
@@JayrosModShop it's already launched, what are you dreaming about
IMO it's pretty likely that Raspberry Pi will do a version that costs maybe 20$ more and adds PoE and the M.2 expansion.
I's just some business strategy to not make the M.2 available. They always tended not to add M.2 in standard instead forcing use of additional gadgets for it. The reason behind is probably a result of complicated business calculus held for years.
@@YonatanAvhar You mean "$20" more.
Annoying that the M.2 / NVMe header is not populated and wired up. When (not if) they come out with a Raspberry Pi 500A, I hope they put that M.2 header on the backside of the PCB and put a little door on there that you can pop off to install the NVMe drive without having to take apart the whole thing. Perhaps around the time that the 16GB Pi 5 comes out.
Micro-HDMI really kills this form factor :/
Yes, that and no NVMe is a letdown. 😥
Agreed. There's plenty of room for full-size ports. They could have used vertical ports, if they didn't want to shift things around.
agreed i would 100x prefer a single regular hdmi
Pi400 also had micro, best for schools you don't change it, though one of each might have worked.
If you get a good quality cable and do not use the port that much, I’m just leave the cable in it is okay
so maybe later we could see, in addition to the standard pi 500,
pi-530,
pi-542,
pi-560
and pi-580;
in "P" or "no-P" mode (with or without POE)???
I really wanted it to have a nod and a wink to the A500 design. like a centimeter of flat ventilation holes ridges at the back top. with a logo on the right.
Jeff, you make me feel so much better about my own inept soldering skills! I had to laugh out loud when I saw the small mountain of used solder wick! Been there, done that. Haha
After you do it, you're like "ooh. Yeah so maybe I really should have a microscope and not just eyeball it" when you move away the iron.
@@Level2Jeff Exactly. The problem is I just don't do enough soldering to either get good at it or buy everything I would need to do SMT stuff right.
On the side of the M.2 connector with the group of 5 pins before the M-key break, the top 3 of the 5 pins are GND, then after the M-key break you have the CLK, TX an RX differential pairs in that order and they are obvious by the traces leaving from them towards the SoC. Do they connect to the SoC or do they have some missing inline termination resistors?
The rest of the pins in that row are *not* all ground and even though the signals are not connected between the M.2 slot and the SoC, I would not just short them all out to each other with solder blobs!
On the opposite row, the group of 4 pins above the M-key should have 3.3V on the top 3 pins then the 4th pin in that group is a clock pin SUSCLK that should have a 32KHz clock signal on it. I think it's very lilely they have not populated the clock oscillator chip on the board and that clock is important to wake up some NVMe SSDs.
Finally there are 3 more imprtant signals on that row of pins, PCIE_RST, /PCIE_CLKREQ and /PCII_PEWAKE that you should trace and see if they connect to any missing components. There may be some FETs that buffer or invert these signal and some resistors and perhaps they are missing and these signals ae disconnected.
You may want to also check using a multimeter if the 3.3V are present on the M.2 conector pins, which may well be the case but the NVMe doesn't work because of the other PCIE_* pins and SUSCLK if missing.
All in all it shouldn't be impossible to revive the M.2 slot with a bit of help from the Rpi M.2 hat schematic which is freely available online.
I'd recommend in addition to the metal spudger set, you should get yourself some plastic spudgers/shims. The plastic ones are much better for opening plastic cases without carving them up in the process (but they're thicker, so not always as easy to get into tight cracks, but still often useful for running down the length of something once you've got a corner open, etc.).
Also, I'm pretty sure that keyboard connector keeps letting go because you're not actually fastening it all the way. You need to flip the bar down and then *slide* it in to lock it down.
I highly recommended iFixit's "Jimmy". It has a thin, slightly flexy-blade which is perfect for popping open annoying cases like this.
The all in one keyboard form factor with ports on the back makes me think of the 8bit computers on my childhood, albeit using modern technology.
Same...now I don't have to retro fit my 600xl. It does need the m.2 and full size HDMI ports. Then I'll be all over this.
It would be cool to take a dead Atari 800 and put an Rpi inside, keeping the keyboard.
i have a 400 and its a very capable machine and useful i run risc on it for nostalgia but its fast growing and working more and more as my main computer
Looks like there maybe a POE version and/or NVMe version. Pi500e, Pi500n, Pi500en?
You could have saved some time by checking the pins for power with a multi-meter.
I'm super curious now, though. I wonder if you could just measure the backside area for voltages and throw some some caps to see if you can make it go. The M.2 NVMe pinout requirements are online, so as long as you can meet the needs then I wonder if there's actually data lines available?
I find it interesting how the heatsink carefully goes around the NVMe spacing. Either they will add a slot later, or more likely they deleted the slot late in the design process.
Could be both. I think it is not as much that they planned on shipping this as a base model and later adding the slot in the _Pi 500B Double-Plus MAXspec 2.0_ as that they had ambitious plans for the Pi 500 and ran in to hardware issues they couldn't resolve before the deadline. Now that they're shipping the Pi 500 as is, the engineers have some breathing room to work out the problems and add the slot into a revised model.
To me the power button seems a huge step backwards:
Having to press 2 keys once in a while when you need to turn it on/off doesn't seem such a big deal.
Turning it off accidentally every time your fingers slip the wrong way or you drop a pen or something on the keyboard? That would be a pain.
A couple tips for soldering on a pre-done board like this. Always clean the pads beforehand with solder braid. Give it a brush with some alcohol to get rid of the excess flux. You then get a flat, clean surface to lay the component on. It helps reduce movement as you're soldering as well. Do as you did with the flux, and preloading the iron with solder. Use your dominant hand with the iron, and with the other hand, hold the component down with a spudger, tweezers, or even a stick of some sort. Don't worry about bridges at first, just tack it down on both sides. Once you do that, flux it some more and carefully glide the iron on the PADS to let more solder lay down. Clean up with more solder braid after and alcohol bath.
Thanks for "taking one for the team"..
RTC is not mentioned - is it there? What about the battery for it?
There are pads for it to the right of the keyboard FFC, but it's not populated. Probably another feature that could show up in the future.
@@Level2Jeff Incomprehensible to me. I've been hanging out for one of these for a particular project, but without RTC and the M2 slot it's not useful to me. Very disappointed.
I really hope this isn't a final production unit, as we NEED that M.2. I could care less about PoE.
Yeah, the m.2 hat has become mandatory on my own pi5 builds; the extra speed is too significant to ignore. Without the slot, you're better off with a pi5 than a pi500.
Pimoroni are expecting stock on the 15th, so I guess it IS the production version
I was waiting for this.
"not meant to be user serviceable" What?? noo
and the lack of M.2 port means theres no way im getting this. we can do better
You're in luck. Jeff has done a dozen videos about various Arm based systems that are more powerful than any Raspberry Pi. If you place an order today, you can have one of your very own before Christmas.
yeah seriously, raspberry pies became a household name for being super hackable and then they decided to make the spiritual successor of the C64/Amiga NON SERVICABLE!? (this applies to the 400 aswell)
For what it’s worth I’ve seen people make mods around the framework 13 laptop’s main board to make a full computer in keyboard setup. User serviceable-ish I guess (depending on what exactly you want to try to fix, if it’s soldering stuff probably not intended)
A delete key that switches it off. Oh goody!
I'll wait until they ship a finished version, with PoE and a working and accessible NVMe slot.
Or an enterprising third party offers upgrades.
They could have an unbeatable battery life in a laptop version.
I get what Jeff is saying about having a normal power button, but I feel like it is a downgrade from the Pi400. I'd rather they had left the power button on Fn+F10.
I’m disappointed about the lack of m.2 on the inside. That would’ve been a really compelling feature. I’d imagine the caps and what not could be improvised based on an example schematic but that seems a bit much on launch. Plus that tip on your iron was huge!
This is a very cool concept. With ARM going mainstream this might be able to be a newer version of the AIO form factor!
14:12 is it your favourite soldering bit, this one is my favourite.
That soldering iron tip made we cry inside a little bit....great job getting it on though!
Adding a NVME could really mess with thermal management.
Interesting device nonetheless.
Depends on the drive, for sure. That may be one reason they decided to skip it on this product... worse than slow microSD is a flaky NVMe that's hard to get to!
They could add separate passive cooler for it and maybe add some more holes in plastic to enhance cooling. It's not anything extra expensive .
If the pi foundation would release the Gerber's we could verify and add m.2.
I would recommend you an IPC class 3 soldering course. Not that you ever would have to use class 3, but rather class 2, but you would be teached in dedicated SMD soldering. I have to do this course every second year. This is military and medical electronics standards and would give you the skills of proper handsoldering SMD components.
Even done once will give you a great insight.
Btw, i suck at soldering inwards, gold terminals. In the X-Ray i almost everytime time have 'sinkholes', blobs, which aren't soldered :D It's hard to get the gold soldered perfectly imho. Thats a no-go.
But be better than class 1! This is 'china' playtoys soldering. No joke!
Pi500 laptop, but it's the 80s style where the screen is 10 times as wide as it is tall ;p
Haha, and no mouse!
4 or 5 lines by 80 characters like the TRS80 Model 100. Maybe 240x960 or 320x1600?
Actualy, there is Laptop Case for the Pi400
@@LordDragon1965 Great way to play Deskape then.
Chaining m.2 to PCIe riser, PCIe->USB3.0/HDMI->PCIe x16 mining extender (which performs power supply injection) -> target card might make PCIe work without soldering the power section.
And get a smaller soldering iron, you are not soldering plumbing.
Definitely, but the speeds will be lower. Still quick and feasable solution though.
All they needed to do is full size HDMI and nvme slot on the bottom for easy access...
Maybe even an option with a battery
I would like to see full size hdmi ports as well, they probably have stock of billions of the micro hdmi ports that they have to use.
@@CyberDunk2077 they Woodstock enough to get through a couple of months of production
Can't wait for the Pi 9000 that is actually usable for something other than a thin client to connect to a VDI or a simple browser.
Exactly. This is junk, quite frankly. I'm hoping it's an early preproduction version.
I wish my grandma had wheels so I could use her as a bike!
Thanks for this review !
I wonder if Honeywell PTM would have a noticeable impact on performance here? On a passively cooled X86 PC I have, it made a massive difference.
Framework is using the RP2040 Chip for their Laptop 16 Input Modules (Keyboard, Macropad, Numpad) and is running it with QMK Firmware.
Someday... someday I'll get a Framework!
@@Level2Jeff Well i have the Framework Laptop 16 and would advise, wait for the Next Mainboard Generation, There are currently alot of Problems with Heatmanagement (misconstructed CPU Contact Area + Liquid Metal Runoff Framework just started replacing their LM with PTM7958 in Production). I even soldered another Shim onto my Heatsink to get the CPU running in and over the stated Specs. The Laptop 13 is really solid as it isn't a First Gen Product anymore.
@@Level2Jeff As i have the Laptop 16 i would advise wait for the Next Mainboard Generation the current has a misconstructed Heatsink (CPU Contact Area acts as a Heat"Narrower" not a Heatspreader (i soldered another Shim onto the Vaporchamber for Tests and revealed the Heatsink could handle 63w sustained TDP with a proper Contact Area instead of Frameworks advertised 45w)) the newest Batches have PTM7958 instead of Liquid Metal as they had Problems with Runoff which only showed after the Systems where deployed into Reallife. The Laptop 13 is a really solid Device as of now.
@@SpartanCE117as an owner of an FW16, I concur haha. The FW13 is great and I’ll always recommend it. The 16… not as much. I definitely got it more as a “putting my money where my mouth is” sort of thing where I did need a dGPU capable laptop but also acknowledged I’d likely be facing a lot of teething pains versus what next generation or maybe the next next gen would see.
I hope in another 4-5 years though FW16 will be fully recommendable as they figure things out, especially with new GPU modules ideally.
I wanted to get this for my younger cousin for christmas, but it doesn't make any sense at $120, especially with just a 32GB memory card. I'll probably just get him one of those cheap intel mini pcs & put linux on it.
A used mini business dektop from lenovo, hp or dell cannot be beat. Ebay is flooded woth them after their leasing expires. They come with a windows 10 license in BIOS, have SATA and NVME slots, PCIe, 10 USB Ports, full size HDMI and display ports… got one recently with an intel i5 8400T, 2x 128GB SSDs for €150.
This is meant for uses raspberry pies good for an actual computer it may not be best
Get a used sff or micro computer under $100. Much more powerful and shouldn't need any adapter. Some even come with ssds.
Dreaming for sure, but a 500+ with a number or track pad, nvme hatch, full size hdmi... Will still get one of these but moping over the lack of nvme..
You need some 959T Soldering Flux lightly wet your soldering tip with some solder then a few drops of the 959T flux on the board pins.. then drag proper soldering tip across the leads..
The solder will then wick from the tip onto the pins... I hold down the board with blue stick gum (looks like gum)...
After soldered is done place a few drops of 959t on the pins and drag a dry soldering tip over the pins to wick away any excess solder or bridges...
You need a magnifying glass or microscope to view if there are any solder bridges..
For micro soldering there's 2 methods I've seen work good. Drag soldering with a precision tip, or use solder paste and a heat gun. Solder paste can get you factory quality results.
M.2 is on the wrong side of the board, you have to take the heatsink off. So, I wonder if they will include an SSD in a pro model?
Seems a shame that these aren't designed with disassembly in mind.
Are those PCI-e lanes on the m.2 connected up tho ? The hard part would be adding the extra 0201 capacitors.
It would be cool to see a board made for this case using the CM5. They could add options like a mvme drive.
i'd love to see these motherboards as standalone blades for a cluster
Not sure if this was already determined, but that UART port might actually be a coin cell battery for the RTC, if it were implemented.
5:55 if the plastic breaks, blame it on redshirtjeff
Jeff, I dunno if you reply much to comments on this channel, but do you think the 500 would be a good first SBC for a 13 year old? I've been thinking about getting my friend's daughter something she can play with to step into programming, Linux, GPIO controls, etc. that she won't have to worry about breaking. She has a Surface laptop for flashing SD cards or UART. I've also considered a microcontroller car/robot kit, and some books of course. Just curious your thoughts.
Yes, I think it's a great introduction-get that GPIO breakout board I mention in my main channel video, and let her learn Linux with it!
My kids use the Pi 400 in our 'library' room, and I'll soon be upgrading it to a Pi 500.
@@Level2Jeff Thanks, Jeff. I saw you had pre-emptively answered my question in your main channel's video after watching this one.
The form factor makes me think of the compute blade, maybe they will release a compute blade like version in the future.
Jeff is doing his Louis Rossmann imitation! 😂
Ha, or EEVBlog!
I think they didn't put it just yet, because they figured out some instability of the board drawing too much energy from the power source (mini usb if is still the same as generations back). Passing on usb-c, therr are lots of alternatives to amperage and voltage feeding the board. So I think that if you provide the power for your nvme separately, that should simply work.
I'm wondering about all those pads by the Ethernet jack. Maybe they are considering a PoE-powered Pi 500?? That would be amazing.
Could the little header be for an optional fan rather than UART?
Good question! This only has 3 pins, the fan header has 4, so I'm guessing it's for UART... haven't asked Pi though.
Of topic here. Is the a rugged Raspberry Pi 5. I thought there used to be ones. I want to out one outside that is in a waterproof box that can withstand all the elements and extreme items. So I can do things like take time lapse pictures.
Probably you just need the pcie capacitors, 3.3v and modify the device tree to turn the m.2 pci-e on?
Possibly! A few other people are going to take a crack at it soon...
at 8:51 - did I hear 'this is the pi 400'? ( what do you call an audible 'typo' ? ) of course I knew you meant pi 500 🙂
I'm posting this from a Pi 400 and I love the idea behind _The Keyboard is the Computer,_ but I have to be honest... I use an external keyboard. I have so many cables coming out the back (power, camera, mic, HDMI, mouse) that I can't put it on my lap. I'd like to see the Pi Foundation sell the Pi 500 with two keyboards, the second being just a shell with bluetooth. They can advertise the Pi 500 as perfect for sitting up straight at your desk _and_ for slouching back in a sofa, watching Jeff Geerling on UA-cam!
Heck, they could include a second mouse, too, and push "cooperative computing" where two people can work on the same project on the screen using two different mouse and text cursors. "Multi-pointer" is already builtin to X, so it's not like they'd have to do a bunch of software development.
I read a review of the pi500 a couple of days back, which said it had a door in the bottom for expansion cards like the amiga had. I guess they were just guessing after seeing this. Although I want one until retropi is released for the pi5 i dont really have any use for the pi500 yet.
There is a small chance that this is an internal test board. They may make a few like this with the extra footprints but depending on popularity there is a high chance I will make a revision without extra features that are not used.
I had a 400 that I have taken apart like 20 times, and I haven't had any problems with the pi yet.
You said early in the video that the type C port features OTG also.
Does this mean one could use the Pi 500 as regular keyboard for a desktop or laptop?
Likely yes (I haven't seen anyone try it), though the SoC would have to be active, so the Pi would draw 3-4W (which is a lot for a keyboard haha).
I disagree with the power button change. fn+F10 meant you wouldn’t turn off the Pi 400 accidentally. With the new Pi 500 position, it’s easy to hit the power button instead of DEL.
I have great hope for a more serviceable mechanical keyboard variant
I would have hoped for it to be CM5 based, but
Could you not just hack a CM5 into a mechanical keyboard case, if you want that?
@@mattsadventureswithart5764 Projects like the Raspberry C64 Pi have existed - pi zeros, B sized - but as far as I've seen none of them are IO boards for a CM4 or CM5.
I would think someone with keyboard design experience would be able to do a more integrated package, but I am not a person with that design experience.
I do have to say that I prefer the 400 I/O placement.
Altough I haven’t used either, so I might not have thought of every scenario.
Some missed opportunities and unfortunate decisions (which were almost certainly made for cost efficiency).
* NVME and PoE on-board would have been killer. It's nice to see that these were not only considered, but at least taken into account on the board - but just that one more step to getting them implemented would have been awesome.
* Likewise, full-sized HDMI on this would have been appreciated. It's not a huge deal to use adapters, but it's one more thing to have to remember, and managing dongles is always a pain..
* Speaking of cable management, putting the GPIO pins between the ethernet and the rest of the ports makes cable management more of a pain than it needs to be. The placement on the 400 was better IMHO.
Still a worthwhile upgrade over the 400 if you want the whole "computer in a keyboard" thing. Just could always be improved.
I would like to see 2.5Gb ethernet. It's so cheap to implement now that there's no excuse not to.
Pity the case is designed to keep you out! Should be good when they finish it?
I wonder if they'll release a "pro" version with PoE, NVMe, and maybe... a camera connector?
Jeff, maybe use a Pimoroni NVMe Base
Duo for Raspberry Pi 5
PIM704
Oh shoot, Pi 500 is released? Didn’t expect that.
As the rp2040/Raspberry Pi pico was released two months after the Raspberry Pi 400 it would be strange if it would already be inside the 400 😄
Nice video, very interesting. (11:10 Some lights attached to your camera might be helpful for you.) 👍
Videos like this are the best!!❤
A massive oversight by Raspberry Pi not to include an M.2 slot, especially as there is space and silkscreen for it. Would not mind betting that they may release a more expensive M.2 version at a later date.
It gets to "who is this for?" Like you said, a computer for kids, but also maybe a good option as a portable back up computer, cheaper than a full laptop. I'd like to see it where a line of pi cases and keyboards are compatible to where you could plug the two together to make a unit like this. That way, you could choose a keyboard that matches your preferences. This keyboard would be a downgrade for me. My main set up is a laptop used in a desktop set up, so I'd be better off getting a raspberry pi and case and plugging stuff into that.
It'd be awesome if there were attachments for nice keyboards like the Keychron or something so you could slap a Pi 500 on the bottom.
@@Level2Jeff yes, exactly
Pi is getting greater each iteration. But I'll wait until the NVME PoE version.
Thank Goodness for Jeff the computer guy who I just talked to today!
I love the Pi 400 already for being my daily linux system for experimenting and the central ssh hub for all other linux systems I run. It is not taking much space on the desk. But to have extra memory there is always something sticking out of the 400's rear end. I really would have loved the internal NVME or M.2 slot. Currently there is no reason for me to buy a 500 unless they add the NVME or M.2. Having PoE is nice, saving WiFi bandwidth and making the PSU obsolete would mean 3 functions, LAN, Power and Video over two cables. It would have been perfect if that just was possible over one USB-C, Monitor with HUB, one cable all in.
Regarding the possible M2 slot there, I wonder what would that cost the company to add? 5USD or 10USD?
Were they afraid that they would need to price much higher their device? Were thermal issues reason for not having it?
It's rather a business strategy than question of additional costs... unfortunately.
Is keyboard better than the 400? I bought one the kits that was sold with the raspberry pi 4 before they sold the 400, and used it as my main computer for a while and some of keys quit working or I would have to hit them hard.
A little bit better, definitely. Still not as nice as my Apple Magic Keyboard (my current favorite for fast typing), but it's better than the Pi 400 and a lot better than the general Pi Keyboard.
Bruce Wayne: Does it come in black?
Haha I was considering adding that to my main video. Love the look of the black versions of their older accessories... then put a little rainbow stripe on the bottom right and you have a modern ZX Spectrum!
@ yes!
Looks like they got rid of the num lock functionality on the keyboard in order to give a dedicated power button; seems like a decent trade off as power button is used far more than a numeric keypad, especially in a home environment the 500 is targeting.
I don't think it makes sense at all to have the power button there. It seems like the first machine ever putting power button right next to the most used keys like "Delete" and "Backspace" and then it's also on the corner, one bad move at your desk and the machine will power off?! This is, if the button does not need a qualifier to be pressed to be functional, but still, it's a weird place. I would put a power button on the side maybe or at the back, you don't need such a key on desktop keyboard, since you can use whatever shortcut to power it down or start by pressing the "any" key e.g..
I also think NumLock is nice to have, I use it all the time, just to expand available hotkeys and automation triggers (and for typing, if it would be there physically).
dude why u trying the ssd with all the pins briged on that connector.
Why don't they use a compute module for that?