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krabbeerlandsen74 · 1 year

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Raspberry Pi 400 - First Impressions

I grew up programming my TV with a Sinclair ZX81 followed by a ZX Spectum. Computers integrated into keyboards that can be plugged into televisions are part of my DNA. So, given this how can I not buy the latest Raspberry Pi 400! ?

Here are my first thoughts about the hardware and how it can be used to aid in light development.

I like it .)

Tech Specs

The Raspberry Pi 400 is essentially the equivalent of a Raspberry Pi 4 inside a keyboard. You can find more details elsewhere, but these are the most important points of the tech specifications:

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 It supportsBluetooth 5.0 and BLEGigabit Ethernet 2 USB 3.0 – 1 x USB 2.0 ports — Horizontal 40-pin GPIO head 2 micro HDMI port (supports up to 4Kp60) 79-key compact keyboard

(full specifications are available here).

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

First Impressions on Hardware

It was easy to connect the 400 and get it running. It's a great device, with a wide range of ports and connectors on the back. The keyboard is...ok. The keyboard costs PS67 in the UK. I purchased the complete kit (which includes a mouse, power supply, HDMI cable, and the official manual) for PS94. The keyboard is excellent for the price, but it feels a bit "plasticy" given the price.

The 400 doesn't come with an audio-out. Huliypin The HDMI output can play audio. This is an issue for me as my monitor does not come with speakers. Although it's not a major issue, it's a problem I didn't think of.

Another thing that the 400 doesn't include is the connector to connect the Raspberry Pi camera module. This isn't an issue for me, but if you're looking to build any camera projects then the 400 isn't the right option.

The 400 has a GPIO header on the back, so with a ribbon cable you can build electronics projects quickly. The Adafruit TCobbler Plus makes it simple to connect the 400 and breadboard to build...stuff!

The 400 is quick to boot up and is extremely efficient as a general-purpose desktop device. I've been browsing the internet on it, as well as installing applications and running docker containers and writing code, and it's felt fast/snappy almost all the time.

Overall, I am impressed with the hardware and the form factor. I can see code clubs and schools purchasing these devices and using the in their computing labs.

Developer Experience

I spent the entire day setting up my Raspberry Pi 400, and I am awestruck. My setup includes:

Setup 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 dev containers for code development within.

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

The only issue that I hit is the ARM support for various Docker images. The default Ruby development container image couldn't run because it had dependencies that did not have ARM versions. I used the Ruby 2.7 docker images as a starting point and copied/pasted the components I needed into my Dockerfile (removing Node, Zsh Oh My Zsh and some others). I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, so I will be required to revisit and correct it.

After installing the tools and playing around with them, I was able to create a basic Rust code in a time comparable to my MacBook's. I've written some Python 3 code that is GPIOZero built (controlling the butons and LEDs) and created a Jekyll/Ruby development container. I also updated and built my blog.

Conclusion

I have several Raspberry Pi computers (1 2, 3 and 1). They are mostly Model B, but I also have some Zeros. They all sit in a container, unopened. I've played with them, and then put them away. A large part of that is because the performance hasn't been impressive, but the design factor is a major factor. It feels like the Raspberry Pi 400 has all the power I need (for casual project) and comes in a design that I can plug it in my desk.

In addition to that...it gives me a massive nostalgia rush using it!

In the image below, I have two instances of VS Code (both running dev containers) as well as a browser. It takes it all with ease.

#Huliypin

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