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The Cabin >> Raspberry and Other Pies >> Raspberry Pi Zero - A review
http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1461802364

Message started by Fernando on Apr 27^th, 2016, 8:12pm

Title: Raspberry Pi Zero - A review
Post by Fernando on Apr 27^th, 2016, 8:12pm

Finally got it the cables to get it working. As stated before in other thread about the the Raspberry Pi Zero (aka R-Pi:0) (http://www.hondosackett.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1461094910), It is basically a Model A/A+ without the LCD and Camera Ports. Which is funny - as in, the Raspberry Pi Foundation just released a 8MegaPixel camera for the Raspberry Pi for it's camera port for less than $25. Cameras that usually sold for this port usually go for double that. And none of them will work for the R-Pi:0.

Getting it together, I noticed that the Micro-SD Card Holder is not spring loaded like in the Model A+/B+, R-Pi2 and R-Pi3. Whether it is my SD Card holder is broken or it was never spring loaded, remains to be seen. I'll be ordering another one by next week. At least the Micro-SD Card went in and was snug inside the holder.

Getting the appropriate adapters and cables was another $6, raising the cost of the R-Pi:0 to $11. Consider that the Model A+ is $25 which is twice the size with 1/2 the RAM and a slower CPU.

The Jessie Raspbian I use on the R-Pi2 worked well on the R-Pi:0. It booted up fast, under 30 seconds, and I was able to run Libre Office on it and did a few things on it. Since the CPU is a single core unit like on the Model A/A+/B/B+ but a lot faster, I noticed the CPU Meter throttling up to 45% when running Libre Office. On the older R-Pi's, they throttle up even higher with 60% on the Model B/B+ and over 80% on the A/A+. Remember - the R-Pi:0 has the same amount of RAM as the Model B/B+ at 512MB but double the RAM of the Model A/A+ 256MB. So the Model A/A+ has to do the same amount of work with 1/2 the RAM and a slower CPU of the R-Pi:0.

I did not test the Internet as I do not have a USB Multi-Port Hub and no Wireless at home. Technically you can get all the Model A/A+ and the R-Pi:0 on a wireless network with a USB Wireless adapter and a USB Multi Port Hub. Besides no Ethernet port like on the other Model A/A+, only having 1 USB port on the R-Pi:0 is a major downfall for it.

I do know with the model B/B+, though you can access the internet and flash, some flash heavy sites will bog it down to a crawl, but they will work fine on the R-Pi2. Of course you already know, the R-Pi2 has 1GB of RAM and a 4 core CPU (compared to 512MB with a single core CPU). The R-Pi:0 will probably do better accessing the internet with flash because of its faster CPU. The only thing holding it back is its RAM Size. Flash is a RAM Hungry App...

But for $5... (or around $12 with all the cable adapters you are going to need for it...), you can not beat the price and power of the R-Pi:0. There are some systems out there that are touting that they can beat that but their boards range at a minimal $9 and like the R-Pi:0 you still need a few adapters to use them, which raises up their prices!

I heard you can boot Wheezy off the R-Pi:0 like I did on the R-Pi2 but some of the configurations will mess up the R-Pi like the Overclocking Option. This is untested, but it will be interesting to say the least. I would have to go through config file of Wheezy and comment out the overclock feature on it before I can try to boot it on the R-Pi:0. If it works, "Horray for backwards compatibility!"

Title: Re: Raspberry Pi Zero - A review
Post by Hondo I. Sackett on Apr 27^th, 2016, 10:43pm

Cool! Sounds good. Can you add USB on the I/O pins? It would make a decent mini laptop CPU then. If you could add USB and touch screen to the I/O it would makenangood tablet too.

Title: Re: Raspberry Pi Zero - A review
Post by Fernando on Apr 28^th, 2016, 1:09am

http://www.hondosackett.com/Fernando/RaspberryPi/RPi0.jpg

No USB on the GPIO, just like on the others. But I know that three of the pins can be set as a Serial TTY Port, just like on the others. I forget which pins they are.

But in following the Model A/A+, many people get a powered USB Hub and add it to the single USB Port. With the R-Pi:0, it needs to have a mini-connector to connect to it.
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-micro-USB-Hub-for-Raspberry-Pi-Zero/
http://lifehacker.com/add-a-usb-hub-with-a-case-to-a-raspberry-pi-zero-1751368895
http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/38807/powered-usb-hub-for-pi-zero

Title: Raspberry Pi Zero - A review - continued...
Post by Fernando on May 4^th, 2016, 10:34pm

In the past posts on other threads I was touting how it is possible for many R-Pi systems to be bootable with Wheezy Raspbian. Apparently, this is a 50/50 chance of Wheezy working with the R-Pi:0. It turns out that if you have Wheezy that has not been updated and upgraded, it will not boot the R-Pi:0. But if your Wheezy was updated and upgraded, it will boot the R-Pi:0.

Why? The only answer I can give is that Wheezy has been given the added patches that will work on the R-Pi:0.

I discovered this today when I was testing out SD Cards and found a number of micro-SD's that would not boot on the R-Pi:0 but will on the R-Pi 2. It turns out that those cards that do not work on the R-Pi:0 were Wheezy Raspbian that were not updated or upgraded, but the 2 Wheezy Raspbian micro-SDs I have that works on the R-Pi:0 were updated and upgraded. That solved the mystery.