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Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit

Danp

By Danp
in Raspberry Pi, Arduino & Other SBCs

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paulkerton

paulkerton

Posted
Posted

A proper throwback to the old school days of computing.

Great for kids as a starter device, that lets them go onto things like coding.

I'd have been all over one of these when I was 10!

paulkerton

paulkerton

Posted
Posted
Looks fantastic hardware, just a shame their default OS looks like it was also built in the 1970's! :)

 

Sadly it's that pig ugly customised version of LXDE over the top of Debian. You can always swap it out for something like Mate though.

synaesthesia

synaesthesia

Posted
Posted
These are great to recommend to kids/families who aren't otherwise eligible for help, particularly those doing compsci or similar. Work well with teams, google etc and plug into the same TV as their xbox or PS5 they can however oddly afford! ;)
paulkerton

paulkerton

Posted
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Yeah, it does look smart. I feel as though full-sized HDMI ports would have been a good idea, however, given the extra space available.

Probably, but I guess it's simpler to just use the setup from the Pi 4, even if it is a reconfiged board and not just a Pi 4 crammed into the case.

flyinghaggis

flyinghaggis

Posted
Posted (edited)
A proper throwback to the old school days of computing.

 

That's what I was thinking! They need to sell this in kit form so you can add your own keyboard case shaped in a variety of 1980's home computer themed shells (BBC Micro, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad, etc) :cool:

Edited by flyinghaggis
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synaesthesia

synaesthesia

Posted
Posted
That's what I was thinking! They need to sell this in kit form so you can add your own keyboard case shaped in a variety of 1980's home computer shells (BBC Micro, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad, etc) :cool:

 

Loads of these available for the off the shelf Pi 3 and 4s - certainly for the Vic20, C64 and Spectrum range.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

No sound port either!

 

No other means of video output other than HDMI so that would be specialist requirement, and at that point you'd just use the GPIO headers.

paulkerton

paulkerton

Posted
Posted
Still using SDCards too, you would think they would drop EMMC onboard for this by now - the compute module has that option.

Well, the compute module is for a completely different task, to be fair. I understand why they're sticking to SD cards for these particular device. SD allows you to tinker more. The compute module is for completed tasks and an alternative to embedded systems.

  • 2 weeks later...
dhicks

dhicks

Posted
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Loving the look of this!

 

Has anyone bought / tried one of thse yet? I'd be interested to know if the HDMI output works with a (cheap) USB capture device - we have all-in-ones (PCs and iMacs) and laptops / Chromebooks throughout the school, and children tend to have laptops at home these days, so the most practical way for people to hook up the display might be a cheap HDMI-to-USB adaptor from the Pi to the PC, then a simple full-screen "camera preview" on the browser.

dhicks

dhicks

Posted
Posted (edited)
I'd be interested to know if the HDMI output works with a (cheap) USB capture device

 

Just now trying out a new Raspberry Pi 400 with a £15 HDMI-to-USB cable:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0888PBG1D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00

 

Seems to be working well so far - might be a good solution for anyone wanting to use the Pi with an existing all-in-one or laptop.

 

Update: tested it playing a YouTube video, fullscreen inside a fullscreen webcam preview browser window. Seems to work very well - framerate seems fine, there's a very occasional small glitch in the image but nothing too bad. Sound doesn't seem to be transmitted via HDMI, I guess a snazzier USB capture device might be needed for that. There's also a little bit of latency, noticeable when moving the mouse around - fine for desktop use, but might add a bit too much lag if you're playing games.

Edited by dhicks
dhicks

dhicks

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What are your thoughts on the device?

 

Apart from the testing above, I've not used it much so far - I plan to use it in my other office, but that's closed at the moment over lockdown so it's not something I've been using as a desktop machine. The keyboard is quite compact, which I suspect might get annoying after a bit - I prefer a large, mechanical keyboard. What sort of thing are you thinking you'd use it for? It's a great device if you want something to tinker with, although if that's just for software stuff you might be as well off with a cheap Linux VM server somewhere.

flyinghaggis

flyinghaggis

Posted
Posted
Apart from the testing above, I've not used it much so far - I plan to use it in my other office, but that's closed at the moment over lockdown so it's not something I've been using as a desktop machine. The keyboard is quite compact, which I suspect might get annoying after a bit - I prefer a large, mechanical keyboard. What sort of thing are you thinking you'd use it for? It's a great device if you want something to tinker with, although if that's just for software stuff you might be as well off with a cheap Linux VM server somewhere.

 

Mainly a bit of tinkering and running RetroPi emulation. I think it would be a really good system to emulate some of the older 80's/90's computers. I'd been thinking about buying a Raspberry Pi 4 for ages and I love the look/design/form factor of the Pi 400. Really handy having an integrated keyboard IMO

  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

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