Raspberry Pi -can anyone tell me where to buy one?

shegirl

Thanks everyone.I registered interest with both Farnell and RS yesterday.He clearly won't have it in time for his birthday next month and will be disappointed (he wasn't meant to know I wanted it for his birthday but someone let it slip lol) but he'll be happy knowing he'll get one eventually!

Fifer

shegirl wrote: »

Thanks everyone.I registered interest with both Farnell and RS yesterday.He clearly won't have it in time for his birthday next month and will be disappointed (he wasn't meant to know I wanted it for his birthday but someone let it slip lol) but he'll be happy knowing he'll get one eventually!

Sadly, we're all disappointed but at least few, if any of his mates will have one, so he shouldn't feel left out.

In fairness, the Raspberry Pi people are all volunteers and I think they are both astonished and completely overwhelmed by the demand for what was initially meant to be a cheap, low cost tool for schools.

shegirl

Fifer wrote: »

Sadly, we're all disappointed but at least few, if any of his mates will have one, so he shouldn't feel left out.

In fairness, the Raspberry Pi people are all volunteers and I think they are both astonished and completely overwhelmed by the demand for what was initially meant to be a cheap, low cost tool for schools.

He doesn't have any mates-severe autistic but amazing with computers and has had an interest in programming and design for a few years now,he's not even 13 yet lol-so thankfully he won't feel left out His school wants to get one for him too aswell as looking at other things for programming.

They probably are overwhelmed and it's hardly suprising,people have gone nuts for them!

In the mean time he's looking at designing cases for it.

Raksha

I was looking to get one of these for my 14 year old, but I've now been pointed in the direction of this http://www.arduino.cc/ - it's a similar device, maybe not as technically advanced as the Raspberry Pi, but it's been available for longer and has more flexibility (add ons are available for many projects, as well as books with project ideas for 'evil geniuses' LOL)
HTH

Fifer

shegirl wrote: »

He doesn't have any mates-severe autistic but amazing with computers and has had an interest in programming and design for a few years now,he's not even 13 yet lol-so thankfully he won't feel left out His school wants to get one for him too aswell as looking at other things for programming.

I suspect he'll love it when he does get his hands on it. There are some threads about cases on the Raspberry Pi project forums. Perhaps keep him busy figuring out a housing whilst he waits for it to arrive?

marvell-kid

I am using Arduino for a current project, but I wouldn't match it up to a rPi.
The arduino is the step between just a PIC/CPU and the rPi.
Arduino needs a lot of shields to be built (or bought) and added to the device as well as coding them. You are building the device from pretty much scrap, but its a lot easier that using other programming languages and PICs (along with countless other ways)
The rPi is basically a desktop computer you would have at home, but simplified so that its functionality is to program.

If your son is into programming, get him to look at arduino.cc as they are amazing things. Here is a link to my current project (its my Final Year Uni project), but if your son is already intrested in programming then he will pick it up a lot quicker than me.
http://iep-riggersremote.blogspot.co.uk/
dont worry if some sayings are over yours or his head, as they are specialist to the live events world.

shegirl

marvell-kid wrote: »

I am using Arduino for a current project, but I wouldn't match it up to a rPi.
The arduino is the step between just a PIC/CPU and the rPi.
Arduino needs a lot of shields to be built (or bought) and added to the device as well as coding them. You are building the device from pretty much scrap, but its a lot easier that using other programming languages and PICs (along with countless other ways)
The rPi is basically a desktop computer you would have at home, but simplified so that its functionality is to program.

If your son is into programming, get him to look at arduino.cc as they are amazing things. Here is a link to my current project (its my Final Year Uni project), but if your son is already intrested in programming then he will pick it up a lot quicker than me.
http://iep-riggersremote.blogspot.co.uk/
dont worry if some sayings are over yours or his head, as they are specialist to the live events world.

Thanks,I'll look into that too IF there are any other suggestions they'd be welcome also,he's always been very advanced with computers and seems to very naturally pick things up with them while others sit puzzled,so it's al worth it for him.He'll never have a normal life or live independently but there's no doubt he could have a future in the computing world somewhere!

shegirl

Fifer wrote: »

I suspect he'll love it when he does get his hands on it. There are some threads about cases on the Raspberry Pi project forums. Perhaps keep him busy figuring out a housing whilst he waits for it to arrive?

That's what I was thinking Hopefully that'll put him off wanting to build his own laptop aswell,at least for a while anyway:rotfl:

[Deleted User]

You could always buy him a dirt cheap, old laptop and then get him to install linux on it...

shegirl

ringo_24601 wrote: »

You could always buy him a dirt cheap, old laptop and then get him to install linux on it...

Got a couple of old ones lol he has linux,has a mac,has xp (his favourite windows),and a windows 7 in the house,then all his operating systems he switches through -fedora,mint,ubuntu,kubuntu,xubuntu,has an old windows 95 laptop lol

His most recent purchase has been an old amiga!He loves consoles and computers old and new,seems to like experiencing the different systems,games etc

The house is starting to become a bit of a museum tbh:rotfl: