Raspberry announces B+

[ranjeetrain]

Raspberry has become a phenomena; for a good reason. They have a community of passionate builders. Their core team indeed listens to the community and pays heed to the conversations. The proof is various hardware revisions of the Pi board.

July '14, Raspberry released yet another hardware revision to the famous Model B, called B+. The new version has many long awaited changes and has received a very warm welcome in the Pi community. Here is what has changed since last revision.

A new board layout - The new redesigned layout is a lot more streamlined and will be much easier for hobbyists. It comes with 4 holes in a square formation, which will allow for easy mounting by enthusiasts without the need for an elaborate casing.

Expanded GPIO header - GPIO is what makes the Pi the perfect tool for system designers and builders. GPIO is what makes it expandable and so generic that anyone could use it for any purpose. Imagination is the limit.

In the B+ the number of pins on GPIO header has increased to 40 (from 26). The new GPIO header takes the usability of the board to another level while still maintaining full backward compatibility with any software written for the previous version of GPIO header.

More USB ports - Model B+ comes with not one, not two but four full speed USB 2.0 ports. Two of which are readily available for users. Furthermore, the ports have better hotplug and overcurrent behaviour.

External storage - The B+ now comes with a push-push micro-SD slot, which is more rugged compared to SD card slot the previous version came with.

External display - The board comes with an HDMI display on board. Apart from the HDMI, there is also a 3.5mm AV out.

Networking - 10/100 Ethernet connectivity is as it is from the previous version. For a gigabit interface probably we need to wait till V2.

Camera - There is an interface on the board, presumably for interfacing it with an imaging device. Great news for system builders.

Better audio - Here is the news that will excite some of us. The audio circuit had been improved by incorporating a dedicated low-noise power supply. :yahoo:

Improved power consumption - The power consumption of the board has been reduced by replacing linear regulators with switching ones. Resultant savings in power consumption up to 1W. Good news for people wanting to use this for surveillance/download/NAS projects :yahoo:



Finally I have decided to get one for some projects!

Sorry, I can't edit the original post. But here is a smaller image!

[IMG2]http://images20.fotki.com/v685/photos/3/3269643/12997447/rsz_bS-vi.jpg[/IMG2]

 

[Nero9]

thanks for the info mate. could you pls resize the image if possible

cheers

 

[Hiten]

I don't follow digital audio so don't know if this is workable, but a Raspberry with this - HiFiberry with a touch screen to select music would be great.
Regards.

 

[manniraj]

I don't follow digital audio so don't know if this is workable, but a Raspberry with this - HiFiberry with a touch screen to select music would be great.
Regards.

I use Pi + ODAC with Openelec OS and android app for remote control. Very good combination and also added benefit of playing movies with this OS. If not the MPD will work out well for music only with a very good app.

 

[ranjeetrain]

Yes Hiten, Manniraj is right on the money. Using an Android tab/phone is the best way to do it. That way you sacrifice nothing (except if you don't own an Android device currently). Most people own at least one device running Android these days. This makes it a great combination.

There are many apps on Android to control another computer suitable for various needs.

But the HiFiBerry does seems like a great way to put together an entry-level front-end well under US$ 100.

 

[Hiten]

Reason for touch screen is we can have small footprint dedicated media interface instead of laptop. Straight digital out to quality DAC.
-x-x-
Just few noob thoughts. I guess there are some electronics interface licensing issues related to electronics hardware industry, otherwise taking a digital out from a storage media should not be difficult. A cheap mobile has android, touchscreen and storage. And we can access songs in it. It has built in DAC, so taking digital should be easy. But I doubt any such device exists. Otherwise whole digital audio industry would be in jeopardy. Just guessing.
Regards.

 

[Kushanava]

Hi Guys!!
I have been reading about raspberry and am thinking of using it as a source in future.
However I am not sure if this can be treated as a low noise, audiophile transport.
How would you compare it with a silent PC or a Mac as a Transport ? Would love understand the strengths an Weakness of Raspberry ...

 

[manniraj]

Hi Guys!!
I have been reading about raspberry and am thinking of using it as a source in future.
However I am not sure if this can be treated as a low noise, audiophile transport.
How would you compare it with a silent PC or a Mac as a Transport ? Would love understand the strengths an Weakness of Raspberry ...

I am using it for both movies/music playback with ODAC and I think that its a VFM for dedicated music playback albeit with linux based distros and not Windows. So not many are comfortable in using Linux on the PC but yes there will be some installation/tweakings/configuration issues and would be a good learning curve. There are lots of information on the net to help you out and it will definitely not disappoint you as a digital transport.

 

[Hiten]

... the only gadget I found is something like this
QA-550--SD Card WAV Digital Audio Player
if one can tolerate the looks and if I remember correctly this was made by a diyAudio member (Cannot find the link) with good specifications. Few revisions were also made to improve. No affiliation to seller. Just sharing what is possible and the ease of use available with digital audio.
regards.