Notes

Raspberry Pi 400 - First Impressions

I used to program on my TV using the Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectum. Computers integrated into keyboards that plug into a TV are part of my DNA. Given this I couldn't resist the latest Raspberry Pi 400! ?



Here are my initial thoughts about the hardware and using it for development that is light in weight.



I like it.



Tech Specs



The Raspberry Pi 400 is, in essence, a Raspberry Pi 4 housed within a keyboard. You can find more detailed descriptions elseewhere 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 & 5.0GHz) IEEE 802.1b/g/n/ac wireless LAN The Broadcom BCM2711 quad core SoC supportsBluetooth 5.0 and BLEGigabit Ethernet 2 USB 3.0 – 1 USB 2.0 ports – Horizontal 40-pin GPIO head 2 x micro HDMI port (supports up to 4Kp60) 79-key compact keyboard



(full specifications are available here



The 400 comes with an SD card that is 16GB, that comes pre-installed with Raspbian and a variety of applications (LibreOffice) and dev tools (Geany, Mathematica, Scratch) and utilities (Chromium, VLC Media Player), and games (Minecraft).



First Impressions on Hardware



It was a breeze to plug the 400 into and start it up. It's a great device, with a great selection of ports and connectors at the back. The keyboard is okay. The device costs PS67 in the UK. I bought the complete kit (which includes a mouse, power supply, HDMI cable, and the official manual) for PS94. The keyboard is very good for the price, but it does feel a little "plasticy" when you consider the price.



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



The connector for the Raspberry Pi camera module is another thing that the 400 lacks. It's not an issue for me, but if you're hoping to build any camera projects then the 400 isn't a good choice.



The 400 comes with a GPIO header in its back. This allows you to easily build electronics projects using an ethernet cable. I have an Adafruit T Cobbler Plus that allows you to connect the 400 to an Arduino and build...stuff!



The 400 starts up quickly, and is very capable as a general-purpose desktop computer. It's been an excellent device for browsing the web installing apps, installing applications, running docker containers and building code.



Overall, I am impressed with the hardware and also the form factor. The devices can be bought by schools and code clubs to use in their computing labs.



Developer Experience



I've spent the morning setting my Raspberry Pi 400 up, and I'm pretty impressed. My setup includes:



- Set up Chromium and installed the 1Password extension. Then, I installed Visual Studio Code using these instructions - Installed the VS Code Remote Containers extension to allow me to utilize Docker dev containers to develop code within



Overall, the setup was simple. It was so simple it was almost boring! While there were some problems, it was easy to install my Raspberry Pi 400 so that I could write code, use Docker and push changes to Github. Skinnight For example, I'm currently writing this blog post using VS Code, building it using Jekyll inside the Docker container.



The only issue I had was the ARM support for various Docker images. Because it had dependencies that didn’t have ARM variants and the default Ruby development container image didn't build. In the end, I used the Ruby 2.7 docker image as a base and then copied/pasted into my own Dockerfile the necessary parts of the definition I needed (removing Node, Zsh, Oh my Zsh and some other things). I don't know what I did wrong, and I'll need to revisit the process and fix it.



After installing the tools and played around, I've built an extremely basic Rust code (with the same build time as my MacBook! I've written some Python 3 code that is GPIOZero built (controlling LEDs and butons) and set up a Jekyll/Ruby development container. I also built/updated my blog.



I own several Raspberry Pi computers (1 3, 2 and 3). The majority of them are Model B format, but I also have a few Zeros, too. They all sit in a container, unopened. They've been used, and then they were put away. While the performance isn't great but the design is important. It's as if the Raspberry Pi 400 has the capability I require (for casual projects) and is an enclosure that I'm happy to plug into my desk.



It gives me a massive nostalgic rush!



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


Read More: https://skinnight.com/