Notes

Raspberry Pi 400 - First Impressions

I grew up programming on my TV, using a Sinclair ZX81 and later by a ZX Spectum. Computers built into keyboards that could be connected to a TV are part of my DNA. So, given this what could I possibly resist purchasing the brand new Raspberry Pi 400! ?



Here are my initial thoughts on the hardware and using it for development with light weight.



TL;DR: I like it .)





Tech Specs

The Raspberry Pi 400 is, in essence it's a Raspberry Pi 4 housed within the keyboard. You can read much better descriptions elseewhere, but the main points from the tech specs are:



- Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit SoC @ 1.8GHz - 4GB LPDDR4-3200 - Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac wireless Ethernet - Bluetooth 5.0, BLE - Gigabit Ethernet - 2 x USB 3.0 - 1 x USB 2.0 ports Horizontal 40-pin GPIO GPIO header 2 micro HDMI ports (supports up to 4Kp60) MicroSD card slot for operating system and data storage - 79-key compact keyboard



(full specifications are available here



The 400 comes with 16GB of SD card, loaded with Raspbian, and a host of applications (LibreOffice) as well as dev tools (Geany, Mathematica, Scratch), utilities (Chromium, VLC Media Player) and games (Minecraft).





First Impressions on Hardware

It was simple to connect the 400 and get it running. It's a nice device with a great selection of ports and connectors on the back. The keyboard is...ok. The device is called PS67 in the UK. I purchased the complete kit (which includes an electric mouse and power supply, HDMI cable, and official guide) for PS94. Given the price point the keyboard is incredibly good however it feels a little "plasticy".



The 400 doesn't come with an audio-out. The HDMI output is able to play audio. For me, this is a problem because my monitor doesn't have speakers. It's not a BIG problem but it's something that I hadn't thought of.



The other thing the 400 doesn't have is the connector for the Raspberry Pi camera module. This isn’t a major issue for me but it could be an issue if you plan to build any camera-related projects with the 400.



The 400 comes with the GPIO header at its back. This lets you build electronic projects using the help of a ribbon cable. The Adafruit TCobbler Plus makes it easy to connect the 400 to breadboard to build...stuff!



The 400 starts up quickly, and is very capable as a general purpose desktop device. I've spent the majority of the day surfing the web using it, while also installing apps and running docker containers and building code and it's felt quick/snappy most of the time.



Overall, I like the hardware and the form aspect. I can see schools/code clubs purchasing these devices and using the in their computing labs.





Developer Experience

I set up my Raspberry Pi 400, and I am impressed. My setup includes:



Installed Chromium and installed the 1Password extension. Installed Visual Studio Code following these instructions. Installed the VS Code Remote Containers extension to allow me to use Docker containers to develop code development within.



Overall the setup was easy. It was so easy it was almost boring! There were a few issues however, in the end it was a breeze to set up my Raspberry Pi 400 up so that I could write code using Docker and push my changes to GitHub. I am currently writing this blog post using VS Code and building it using Jekyll inside the Docker container.



The only problem I encountered was the ARM support for various Docker images. The default Ruby dev container image wouldn't run because it had dependencies that did not have ARM variants. Dhaka Courier In the end, I used the Ruby 2.7 docker image as a basis and copied/pasted into my own Dockerfile the necessary parts of the definition I required (removing Node, Zsh, Oh my Zsh and several other things). I'm not sure what it was that was causing the build to fail and I'll need to go back and figure it out however it's important to remember that if the Rasberry Pi is ARM that it is based on, not all development tools have ARM versions.



After installing the tools and playing around with them, I was able to build some basic Rust code with build times comparable to that of my MacBook. ) I've written a bit of GPIOZero inspired Python 3 code (controlling butons and LEDs) I've set up the Jekyll/Ruby development environment and built/updated my blog.





Conclusion

I have several Raspberry Pi computers (1 to 3). They are mostly Model B, but I also have some Zeros. They're all in a sealed box, never opened. They've been played with, and then they were removed. Although the performance isn't the best however, the design is crucial. It feels like the Raspberry Pi 400 has all the power I need (for casual project) and comes in a form factor I can leave plugged in at my desk.



And on top of that...it provides me with a huge nostalgia rush!






Below, you can see two instances of VS Code running (both dev containers) I'm browsing. It takes it all with ease.


Read More: https://dhakacourier.net/