Notes

Raspberry Pi 400 - First Impressions

I grew up programming my TV with a Sinclair ZX81 , followed by ZX Spectum. Computers integrated into keyboards that can be plugged into a TV are a part of my DNA. Given this, how could I resist buying the new Raspberry Pi 400! ?



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



I like it.



Tech Specs



The Raspberry Pi 400 is, essentially, a Raspberry Pi 4 housed within the keyboard. You can read much better descriptions elsewhere however the most important 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 802.1b/g/n/ac wireless LAN The Broadcom BCM2711 quad core SoC supportsBluetooth 5.0, BLEGigabit Ethernet 2 USB 3.0 – 1 x USB 2.0 ports – Horizontal 40-pin GPIO Head - 2 x micro HDMI port (supports upto 4Kp60) 79-key compact keyboard



(full specifications are available here).



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



First Impressions on the Hardware



It was simple to plug in the 400 and get it to work. It's a nice device with a great selection of ports and connectors on the back. The keyboard is good. The keyboard costs PS67 in the UK. The kit, which includes a mouse and power supply, HDMI cable, official guide, and power supply, was purchased for PS94. At this price, the keyboard is very good however it feels a little "plasticy".



The 400 is not equipped with an audio-out. Audio is provided via the HDMI output. For me, this is an issue since my monitor does not come with speakers. Although it's not a major issue, it's something I hadn't thought of.



The connector to connect the Raspberry Pi camera module is another thing that the 400 is missing. It's not an issue for me, but if you're looking to build any camera-related projects, then the 400 isn't the right option.



The 400 comes with a GPIO header in the back, which means that with a ribbon cable you can build electronic projects with ease. I have an Adafruit T-Cobbler Plus that makes it easy to connect the 400 to the breadboard and build...stuff!



The 400 boots up very quickly, and is very capable as a general purpose desktop device. It's been an excellent device to browse the internet installing apps, installing applications, running docker containers and building code.



Overall the hardware is great and I really like the design. These devices can be purchased by code clubs and schools to be used in their computing labs.



Developer Experience



I spent the day setting up my Raspberry Pi 400, and I am impressed. My setup has included:



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



On the whole the setup was simple. It was so simple it was almost boring! While there were some issues, it was simple to install my Raspberry Pi 400 so that I could write code using Docker and push changes to Github. I am currently writing this blog post in VS Code and building it using Jekyll inside the Docker container.



The only problem I encountered was the ARM support for different Docker images. Because it had dependencies that did not include ARM variants, the default Ruby development container image didn't build. I used the Ruby 2.7 docker images as a base , and then copied/pasted the components I needed into my Dockerfile (removing Node, Zsh, Oh My Zsh and a few others). I'm not sure exactly what exactly was failng to build and I'll need to go back and figure out the details, but it's worth remembering that the Rasberry Pi is ARM built, it's not all development tools have ARM versions.



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



I have several Raspberry Pi computers (1 to 3). They are mostly Model B, but I also have a few Zeros. Minecraft servers They all sit in a box, unused. I've played with them and then put them away. Part of that is because the performance hasn't been impressive, but the design factor is a significant one. I feel like the Raspberry Pi 400 has enough power to handle a variety of projects, and is small enough that I can leave it connected to my desk.



It's a great nostalgia rush!



Below you can see two instances of VS Code running (both dev containers), and I'm browsing. It does everything in its stride.


Homepage: https://minecraft-servers.me/