Can you actually *buy* a Raspberry Pi these days?

[balrog]

I just looked a couple places and the $30/$60 RPi4 or the $10 RpiZero are sold out or insanely priced.
What's a tinkerer to do?

 

[sibelman]

fwiw, the Pico can be had at pishop.us

 

[shoengine]

Probably on the secondary market. I'm fortunate to have some 3Bs laying around to futz with. I was looking for a 4GB 4 and nothing.

Canakit has one but you have to buy the whole kit.

 

[bmc1313]

have a microcenter near you? you used to be able to buy them there in person. haven’t been in a while though

 

[passedpawn]

I got a ton. Just sayin. All 3B's. I've got those nifty 7" screens for all of them.

 

[day_trippr]

I haven't bought an RPi since mid-2020. Up to that point I scored Pi's from the Cambridge Massachusetts Microcenter store at "Loss Leader" pricing over the years, but the last few times I've been in there the pickings were slim, mostly bundled RPi4s with small RAM.

My active fleet as of this moment includes 12 RPi's, mostly 2s, then 3s, and a couple of Ws, all doing dedicated tasks. I also have a couple of 8GB 4s I bought in 2020 (yes, it's been that long) I've been playing with on and off, and at least one spare 2 (might have two) and a spare 3 for backing up the fleet.

I understand the RPi5 is not far off. Can't wait for the commensurate disruption to OS and drivers

Cheers!

 

[bruce_the_loon]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ould-be-unconstrained-in-second-half-of-2023/
They say their production recovery plan is going as expected.

 

[balrog]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ould-be-unconstrained-in-second-half-of-2023/
They say their production recovery plan is going as expected.

I did just see that story this morning and await a return to normal pricing with feverish anitci-










-pation.

 

[shoengine]

I've been watching Canakit's website and over the last month or so they've slowly been replenishing the cheaper kits. Although the bare boards have yet to restock so you may be paying for things you don't care about.

 

[MT_Keg]

Is the BigTreeTech BTT PI a suitable alternative?

https://www.amazon.com/BIGTREETECH-...s_a_1_3?keywords=btt+pi&qid=1688530439&sr=8-3

 

[ShaneB]

If you live near a microcenter store they get stock in every week. In the last month I purchased 2x pi zero W ($15usd), and a pi 4b 4gb ($55usd). My local microcenter has a ton of pi zero W that haven't sold out and the pi 4b will sell out same day. If you check their website in the morning you can see when they get them in stock and you will have a good chance of getting one same day, they will sell out before closing. I haven't see any pi zero2 W in stock but those seem like the most desirable for being powerful and only $15.

they also have a ton of pico W in stock but I haven't messed with them, still using esp32.

 

[day_trippr]

As I mentioned a few posts back, MC RPi store stock typically evaporates "same day". And they apparently will not do on line sales, so it pretty much comes down to in-person luck...

Cheers!

 

[ShaneB]

As I mentioned a few posts back, MC RPi store stock typically evaporates "same day". And they apparently will not do on line sales, so it pretty much comes down to in-person luck...

Cheers!

I've been successful checking the stock online each morning then driving to the store if it's in stock, not practical for most people but the flagship microcenter store is about 20min from me. If I wanted to I could of went to the car then back inside to buy another one, they had about 15 (pi 4b 4gb) left in stock by the time I got there.

 

[day_trippr]

Don't know about CA but the Cambridge store is very restrictive wrt RPi sales: one per customer.

That said I assume that's "customer visit" and that someone determined enough could cycle through the cashier queue multiple times in a day...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

Do Pi 3b's have any value anymore? I've got a bunch of them here with cards and 7" LCDs etc. Might sell them as a lot on ebay. I seem some out there for random prices.

 

[day_trippr]

I would say they are worth at least $35 bare.

Cheers!

 

[Jetpack_Maniac]

For those still browsing and looking, there are Pi alternatives like Rock, Banana Pi, Orange Pi, etc that should be compatible (affordable and obtainable) replacements for many of the uses.

 

[chucknorris101]

cant believe no one here has posted this yet - Find Raspberry Pi computers in stock - rpilocator alerts and inventory - no MC inventory, but plenty of other shops.

In the last few days the dam has broken as it were, I think theyre finally recovering. Things are still selling out because of the pent up demand, but I have multiple alerts a day seemingly for pi 4s and others. I think he took off the zero w's as they are getting very common.

 

[spittybug]

Is this the 'new normal' for America? Vote carefully my friends.

 

[DuncB]

Do Pi 3b's have any value anymore? I've got a bunch of them here with cards and 7" LCDs etc. Might sell them as a lot on ebay. I seem some out there for random prices.

Sell them in NZ they are going for over a hundred us dollars on trade me the equivalent of ebay here.

 

[waynerob11]

I am trying with a PIR to blank a raspberry pi screen, and I have written this script - it runs OK buy only displays "display_blank 1 on the serial monitor and doesn't change - i replaced the pir with no change - the pir is on GPIO 23 (pin16) - what's wrong with the code.
import os
import time
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(23, GPIO.IN)

while True:
if GPIO.input(23):
os.system("vcgencmd display_power 1")
else:
os.system("vcgencmd display_power 0")
time.sleep(1)

 

[shoengine]

I just looked a couple places and the $30/$60 RPi4 or the $10 RpiZero are sold out or insanely priced.
What's a tinkerer to do?

https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-4-2gb.html
2, 4 and 8 GB bare boards are in stock. I just picked up an 8 GB for $75

 

[balrog]

I may have found a source for a Pi.
It's on the other side of the country, so I'll need an assist, @seatazzz

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4bs-inside-spin-scooters

 

[seatazzz]

I may have found a source for a Pi.
It's on the other side of the country, so I'll need an assist, @seatazzz

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4bs-inside-spin-scooters

Saw that on the local news website yesterday and thought WTF? Caught my eye because I thought someone was just giving them away. With the issues we're having downtown these days I'm surprised that any of those scooters are still intact.

 

[suprchunk]

They are definitely out there, and slowly building back up. And rpilocator helped with some of my needs, a few times.

It was rough for the last few years, waiting for stock to popup and trying to beat everyone else just to buy one. The resellers really put a hurt on the market, or scalpers I should say?

But all of mine are in 3D printers, and I still need more to finish more printers.

 

[shoengine]

I may have found a source for a Pi.
It's on the other side of the country, so I'll need an assist, @seatazzz

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-4bs-inside-spin-scooters

huh, haven't seen any of these around. Tons of Link and Lime, a few Bird, but so far haven't seen any Spins.