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), 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!"
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Raspberry Pi Zero - A review (Read 139 times)
