so? $49 is way too expensive for this. i can get a x86 from ebay way more cheaper than this.
who would even bother, the rpi zero is $5.
who would even bother, the rpi zero is $5.
The pi zero has no wireless, a single-core ARM11 CPU, no on-board flash storage, less than half as many GPIO pins, requires a higher supply voltage, etc etc.
The pi 3 is much more comparable, and at a much more comparable price, especially after you add in the price of the SD card, which is necessary. Pi 3 is also much bigger, and, I'm guessing, draws more power.
Stil I agree, its not really comparable. The Pis is mostly learning/teaching tool. I can see using this in a product directly. Something I would grab when I needed something more than an ESP.
Regarding the Emlid board, yes, it's way overpriced, but it doesn't seem a product aimed at makers -though it also tries to sell itself as such-. Once you add the board to make it useable the price will grow a lot. To me it has its uses as an industrial module manufacturers can stick into their products. I personally would rather get a NanoPi NEO2 plus its dock at a total cost of $28, or 10 more for 1GB RAM, and the OrangePI also has some boards with similar characteristics, but that's a personal choice: Nano/OrangePI boards are wonderful boards for makers and experimenters but if you're building something critical then you should look elsewhere. If the Emlid board satisfies safety requirements then its price is totally justified (and selling it as a makers board could do bad PR), otherwise they should make a breadboard friendly version at a lower price.
The direct competitor is the RPi3 and costs $35 which is $15 less and it doesnt require a breakout board to access it's IO. The eMMC is the only interesting aspect about this board.
SD card manufacturers can get away with using the shittiest flash and controllers they can find because SD cards can be replaced. eMMC is not user serviceable and therefore actually needs to be... you know... reliable.
This board is clearly not for hobbyists. It's intended for hardware startups that will design their own custom breakout boards.
Also, PIs aren't so solid. Definitely not good for industrial use.
The Pi Zero is easily obtainable now Adafruit have it for $5+shipping in the US, Kiwi-electronics have it for €5+shipping in Europe and Pimoroni have it for £5+shipping in the UK. Hardly a myth.
What you don't get however, is the ability to purchase them in any bulk quantity at that price. However the bulk price is still much less than $49.
[0]: https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-zero.html [1]: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero [2]: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400
Since you can't buy more than one, "shipping" is just a way to get the price up. It's like those eBay sellers who sell a $10 item for $1 and charge $12 for shipping, per item.
They will only sell you one of each per visit at that price.
Last time I bought a Pi Zero from them, I paid $0.99 for it.[2] Once again, they would only sell one per visit at that price when they were running that sale.
You aren't going to get enough for any kind of production run at that price, but they're not exactly unobtanium.
[0](http://www.microcenter.com/product/486575/Zero_W) [1](http://www.microcenter.com/product/486498/Zero_v13_Developme...) [2](https://i.imgur.com/uLf8bi8.png)
At least $11 and then there's shipping. and limits of one per customer.
Right now my Pi Zero is collecting dust because I know I can't find a second one easily. Meanwhile, I buy ESP8266s by the tens and use them for every throwaway purpose.