Raspberry Pi Zero (PIZERO) Review
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Support
The Raspberry Pi forums are the most active forum of all of the single board computers, and provides excellent community support.
Raspberry Pi Foundation engineers monitor those forums, and jump in as needed.
I’d say the support for “regular” users and those new to the Pi and computers is excellent.
Support for highly technical users is more limited, I suspect largely due to manpower limitations for providing schematics and additional (currently closed) documentation.
Conclusion
Piece of advice: “Cavet Emptor”
I love the Raspberry Pi Zero, and I can see that I will use it in a *LOT* of embedded projects.
Unfortunately, a lot of people were attracted by the price, and spent a lot of time complaining in the forum about the very design choices the Raspberry Pi Foundation had to make to get the price down to $5:
- micro USB – keeps board size smaller, avoid through hole for a full size connector – but needs cable.
- mini HDMI – see above
- single USB port – avoids need for a hub chip
- no Ethernet – avoids need for a hub chip with Ethernet, avoids cost of Ethernet jack, keeps board size down
- no Wifi – keeps cost/size down, would have needed hub
- no Bluetooth – see above
It is really simple.
if you need the above, buy a Raspberry Pi Model B+ or Raspberry Pi 2 Model B!
You will find that it will likely be less expensive than adapter cables, external hub, external USB dongles.
The Raspberry Pi Zero is clearly aimed at hobbyists who will likely use it in small, dedicated projects, and those who are interested in embedding it into IoT (and other) projects.
I think the Raspberry Pi foundation is seriously underestimating the future demand for the Raspberry Pi Zero, as I suspect it will be embedded in pretty much everything – including IoT enabled toasters!
Frankly, I would not be surprised if the Pi Zero outsold the A+ and B+ put together!
What I liked:
- PRICE
- outstanding compatibility
- running at 1GHz
- small size
- no installed gpio header (so I could choose my own)
What I did not like:
- mini HDMI connector
- micro USB
- no analog audio out
Related Links
- ODROID XU4 Review
- ODROID C1 Review
- Mikronauts ODROID page
- Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Review
- Raspberry Pi Model A+ Review
- Raspberry Pi Model B+ Review
- Banana Pi Review
- Banana Pro Review
- MIPS Creator CI20 Review
- Ameridroid product page for the XU4 Shifter Shield (for ordering)
- ODROID-XU4 Wiki
- ODROID-XU4 Forums
- Raspberry Pi Model B+ USB WiFi Adapter Tests
- Banana Pi USB WiFi Adapter Tests
- Elf RoboPi/Raspberry Pi Robot
- RoboPi product page
- Pi Rtc Dio product page
- Pi Jumper product page
- EZasPi product page
Article Index
- Introducing Raspberry Pi Zero
- A Closer Look at Pi Zero
- Feature Comparison, Operating Systems, Software Compatibility
- Common Applications, Multimedia, Kodi, Hardware Compatibility, USB Hubs, WiFi
- Ethernet, GPIO: WiringPi, pigpio, Add-On Board testing, RoboPi
- More testing: Pi Droid Alpha, SchoolBoard ][, Pi Rtc Dio
- More testing: Pi Jumper, EZasPi, Benchmarks: Booting & Launching Apps, Compiling GNU Emacs
- More Benchmarks: SysBench 0.4.12, iperf client & server, NBench 2.2.3
- More Benchmarks: Unix Bench 5.1.3, hdparm, dd, Power Utilization, Documentation
- Support, Conclusion, What I liked, What I did not like
