flexible lcd screen raspberry pi free sample

LCD, DPI, SPI, HDMI, NTSC/PAL, TFT, OLED, ePaper, etc. this is part of the jargon you will need some appreciation of in order to be able to choose the right display for your project.The first part covered HDMI, DSI and Composite Video. This second part will focus on displays that utilise GPIO and USB as a mean to connect the screen to you Raspberry Pi. Hopefully as we look at the various options some of the jargon will be clearer. We will also venture into some additional considerations and alternative approaches to complete the “picture” (pun intended).

GPIO is the acronym for General Purpose Input Output and the main bonus that comes with it is that you can reconfigure each pin as either an Input and Output but also deem them to provide a different type of interface for the various types of displays and boards in general.

You can find displays that use DPI, SPI, I2C and even UART or an ad-hoc interface. Some Interfaces like DPI are particularly fast but will require lots of GPIO to interface with the screen, others like SPI and I2C need very few pins but won’t be as fast as DPI. Ultimately choosing between them will be down to your projects requirements. Let’s look at examples for each.

As a reference for the pins we can use the invaluable pinout.xyz website with alink to the DPI interface. As you can see the interface can use up to 28 pins and therefore should only if can allocate the GPIO pretty much just for the display. A lotmore informationcan be found at the Raspberry Pi website.

Pimoroni’s HyperPixelis a 4.0″ high speed display with a resolution of 800×480 and 18 bit per pixel. It also features aversion with the a capacitive touchand has a breakout port for the I2C interface. There is also aGithub repositorywhere you can find its drivers.

TheGert VGA 666 brainchild of Gert Van Looproducedby Pi Supplyand distributed by many is a very nice and cheap way of reusing an old VGA monitor. It doesn’t use all of the DPI pins because, as it says on the tin, it only use the 6 bits per colour mode or RGB666 and unlike the HyperPixel leave some pins free to be reused. As it becomes more and more rare to find VGA monitors in lofts I suppose this board will become eventually obsolete but it is still worth considering especially when working on legacy projects.

TheAdafruit DPI Kippahoffers in a similar way to the HyperPixel an 18 bit per pixel with 800×480 resolution but this time the screen is an LVDS display with choice between 5″ and 7″. This board also comes with or without the capacitive touch. Additional resources can be found ontheir Github repository. An earlier breakout board that Adafruit offered led to aninteresting detailed project documented on this blogworth having a look if you want to know more about venturing the DPI way.

SPI and I2C are amongst the favourite by vendors as they offer pretty much what’s needed for most use cases, utilise few pins and can be used by other hardware platforms quite easily. So no surprise to see the likes of Waveshare having quite a selection covering pretty much all the various interfaces.

WithSPIthe amount of pins required is much less, it only requires 4-5 pins and that’s why vendors are often adding additional hardware to their displays. SPI allows to control more than one device on its bus but it’s generally not used for more than one.

As for SPI evenI2Crequires few pins, in fact it only needs 2 which makes this interface very light in terms of GPIO usage. One additional advantage is that it’s very easy to use other peripherals in parallel to the same I2C bus making this option quite versatile.

A good bonus in getting an SPI or I2C display is that in general they come with additional hardware like buttons, LEDs and others due to the availability of many spare pins.

This is anSPI display I found on Conrad, it is a 4.57 cm (1.8″) TFT display and can provide 262, 000 colours with a resolution of 128×160 pixels. This is not a HAT and can easily be used for other platforms.

In the middle theRPi Display from Watterottavailable fromtheir own shopis a 2.8″ TFT with touchscreen with a resolution of 240×320, dimmable backlight, 3 buttons and full HAT compliance.

Thelast one is from Adafruitand similarly to the Watterott comes with additional buttons, 4 in this case. The TFT screen resolution is 320×240, features a resistive touchscreen and the backlight is dimmable via PWM.Adafruit offers a number of these screenssome with higher resolution and screen size.

The first from the left is a monochromaticAdafruit OLED0.96″ display with a resolution of 128×64. It comes with a breakout connector and can therefore be used with Arduino and other platforms. Even in this caseAdafruit has more to offerin terms of this type of screens with colour ones and bonnets designs (a type of pHAT essentially. That goes to show that in the absence of a standard chaos reigns, thanks God we now have theuHAT). This particular display can also be driven via SPI.

The middlesdisplay is from Pimoroni, it is also an OLED, it measures 1.12″, has a resolution of 128×128 and offers a breakout connector specifically designed to easily interface to a Raspberry Pi. As they also recommend there is anice libraryyou can use with your Pi.

Thelast one is again from Adafruitand it is one of my favourites. It shows how tiny and useful these OLED screen can be. The form factor is a SHIM which is a small pHAT.In Yorkshire accent” “Shove Hardware In’t Middle”— pimoroni (@pimoroni)February 20, 2019

As pHAT the SHIM is not a standard either and in fact it’s only used by Pimoroni but it’s a nice way to identify this size of PCBs and I vote for IEEE to adopt the term officially! The display is monochrome and has a resolution of 128×23 and it’s just a great addition to your headless Pi. Adafruit offer many good quality tutorials and there isone also for this display.

LCD displays like theHD44780 16×2are very common and widely used, they are cheap, well known and there are plenty of resources available. When all you need is just a bit of feedback and text is sufficient then these are the go-to technology also due to their low power requirements. There is a reallynice article from the RaspberryPi Spywhich shows how to use the I2C backpack that allows to indeed use the HD44780 via I2C thereby saving many pins and allow for a more modular approach for your project. The backpack also controls the dimmable backlight.

ePaper displays get featured here as the ones I found all use SPI. ePapers are truly nice when you are tight with power i.e. running off batteries and when you don’t need the picture refreshed often, you’ll still need to refresh it periodically but you will not risk getting ghosting effects due to always displaying the same image for days or months. You will in fact be able to display something then power-off your Raspberry Pi for a week and still keep the image on the display. It’s nothing new as the Amazon Kindle got us used to but it’s great to get this technology in our project. The screens come in very many different sizes to fit anybody’s need. A word of caution though, be careful with these screens as they are very, very delicate to the touch and brake easily.

Repaper, Pi Supply, Pimoroni, Waveshare, Adafruit are the biggest players getting a slice of the ePaper market. They all offer different screen sizes and features. This type of display offers such a variety that it would require a series of articles in itself. The ePaper screens are coming from one or two manufactures but each vendor tries to create a different product by leveraging on the features that the controller board offers as well as the software resources that come with it.

Waveshare has probably the largest selection of screens ranging from 1.54″ to 9.7″, monochromatic and colour, and resolutions between 200×200 to 1200×825, they even havea new generation of flexiblescreens. They all appear to use the sameSPI driver boardwhich can either be connected to the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO or to other hardware platforms via a breakout connector. TheirWiki pagesoffer additional information and resources like demos and videos.

PaPiRus from Pi Supply was the first ePaper for the Raspberry Pi to get on the market after a very successfulkickstarter campaignwhich produced the HAT version of PaPiRus featuring 4 buttons, a breakout connector but most importantly an RTC circuit notoriously missing on the Raspberry Pi. ThePaPiRus HATsupports 1.44″, 1.9″, 2.0″, 2.6″ and 2.7″ ePaper screens whereas thePaPiRus Zerosupports 1.44″ and 2.0″. Pi Supply, now called Nebra Ltd, joined forces withRePapera couple of year ago and I’m sure we will soon see more from them in terms of offer. There is a buzzing community of people working onPaPiRus Github repositorywhich over the years added a lot of features to these boards.

A couple of years ago Pimoroni came out with their own ePaper boards. TheInky pHATfollowed by theInky wHATcalled this way as it exceeds the dimension of a HAT and lacks some of the features the HATs requires. (they have a tendency to coin new standards anyway :). The Inky pHAT is a 212×104 pixel e-paper display whereas the Inky wHAT has a resolution on 400×300. They are available in red/black/white, yellow/black/white or black/white for the pHAT only. More information on resources on theirGithub repository.

Adafruit has also got some ePaper displays. TheAdafruit SHARP Memory LCDdoesn’t seem to be supported for the Raspberry Pi nor I could find any resources that would indicate that but it is an interesting display for which at some point a library could be made available. It has an SPI interface, has a resolution of 168×144, it is ultra low power but most importantly has a fast-refresh rate comparable to an LCD. Although this is technically not an e-Ink display it is still worth considering for a specific set of use cases where it is important to be able to read the display in broad daylight and also refresh the images particularly fast.

Thelast display from Adafruitis in fact three SPI, Tri-Color (Red, Black, White) eInk / ePaper Displays with SRAM with screen sizes of 1.54″, 2.13″ and 2.7″ and resolutions of 152×152, 212×104 and 264×176. They come with a small SRAM chip in order to be able to store the buffer whilst a microcontroller fills it up essentially. This is particularly useful with small Arduino like boards. Once again there is no support for the Raspberry Pi but worth looking at if anything to see how much investment there is on the market for this type of technology.

This is somewhat a limited case and doesn’t really provide a “display” as you would expect it to be. I thought though that it would be worth covering this product as it will be useful under some use cases. UART allows for example for the display to be quite far from the Raspberry Pi distance wise and it is such a ubiquitous standard that it will find support in many if not all programming languages and it will certainly be something you can use on other hardware platforms too.

These aren’t displays in a traditional sense, you have to think of them as displays with their own graphics which you can sort of drive and customise to your needs via UART.NEXTION is a Human Machine Interface (HMI) solution combining a TFT touch display with an onboard processor and memory, developing by a free and downloadable NEXTION Editor software. Using the NEXTION Editor software, you can quickly develop the HMI GUI by drag-and-drop components (graphics, text, button, slider etc.) and ASCII text based instructions for coding how components interact at display side. With just 2 wires (RX, TX), NEXTION display quickly connects to MCU via 5V TTL Serial to provide event notifications that MCU can act on, and utilizes simple ASCII text based instructions so the MCU can easily provide progress and status updates back to your HMI user.

The TFT screens with integrated 4-wire resistive Touch Panel feature RGB 65K true to life colours, 4M flash memory and an on board micro-SD card for firmware upgrade. A lot more information can be found viatheir Wiki.

Thisarticle from Random Nerd Tutorialsexplains a bit more what to do and how using an Arduino but it shouldn’t be too far off using a Raspberry Pi instead.

In searching material for these articles I came across some exotic approaches and some other less uncommon ones like driving a HD44780 directly from the GPIO. There are several articles describing the connections and the programming here a small selection:

This way of using the HD44780 display won’t be as straight forward as using it with the I2C interface showed above and won’t use as few pins either but it is nevertheless an easy option to add a display in a headless configuration or in any case where graphics is not required and characters are possibly used to navigate through a menu and show some limited output for your program.

USB can offer good performances and similarly to what HDMI or Video Composite could offer a fairly long leash for the the screen to be located away from the Raspberry Pi. There aren’t many displays that offer support for the Raspberry Pi although there could be more to come.

Some of the technologies deal with how the display is connected to the Raspberry Pi, some are to do with how the images are actually displayed. In both cases you will have differences in performances and that will be one of the parameters to factor in your requirements i.e. Do you display static pictures or videos? Do you need colours? How many? Is power consumption an important factor?

After you’ve chosen the right display for your project you might also need a case for your Raspberry Pi, your display and whatever else you need for your idea to work in a nice enclosure.

There are several vendors which offer general purpose cases some of which I showed in the previous article. Of particular note isModMyPi which has a huge selection of casesmany of which designed by them.

Some displays don’t come with aFrame Bufferoption which allows your OS to output to the screen for example during boot time. Seeing what happens during boot or more generally be able to use the display as a standard output for you OS is very useful. Many projects will then integrate this functionality in their drivers and request the OS maintainers to natively include it for ease of installation.

SPI and I2C are interfaces on which vendors are rather productive and the choice here is much wider than with DPI. The answer I believe is that hopefully DSI but certainly already the HDMI interfaces render using the DPI less of a need and more of a luxury, SPI and I2C are enough when it comes to provide some feedback to the end user and in some cases even pretty good graphical contents.

AtThe Things Network in Amsterdam Pi Supply now Nebra Ltdhas officially presented a new Pocket Projector which comes either standalone or as HAT for the Raspberry Pi.

I guess pico projectors as maybe OLED, flexible and foldable, bigger ePaper displays, screen cast or mirroring are what we could see in the near future for the Raspberry Pi. Some of these are already there if using the right OS but whatever it’s going to be hopefully now you have a better understanding of how to choose the best display for your Raspberry Pi.

With the shiny pins facing up, gently slide the tail of the display into the ZIF connector. As the name implies, the tail should go into the connector with Zero Insertion Force.

Power: The orange wire goes from the 3.3v pin on the breakout board to the 3.3v power on the RPi. We used Pin 1, but any of the 3.3v power pins will work.

SDA: The green wire goes from D1 (SDA) to pin 3 (GPIO 2 (I2C Data)) on the RPi. Or, if you’re feeling weird, you can connect to D2, since the jumper SDA=SDA is closed tying D1 and D2 together.

You also need to give them permission to access some hardware interfaces, where “pi” is the name of the account you’ll be using (the default is “pi”).

If changing the interface on the breakout board isn’t an option, change the code to use SPI instead. Make sure SPI is enabled on your Pi. Then import “spi” instead of “i2c” and define serial as “spi(device=0,port=0)”.

You’ll also need to change the wiring a bit. Luma’s documentation includes a nice SPI wiring table, though you’ll ignore the pin numbers for the display. It’s also nice to look at the Raspberry Pi pinout to remember that GPIO numbers are not the same as the pin numbers on the RPi.

We love to hear about your projects! If you bring up a transparent OLED on raspberry pi, let us know! Find us around the web (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Forum) and let us know what you’re working on.

In this article, we will explore the benefits of using Raspberry Pi for digital signage and how PosterBooking provides a free digital signage slideshow player for the Raspberry Pi.

One of the biggest benefits of using Raspberry Pi for digital signage is its low cost. A basic Raspberry Pi computer costs around $35, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses and organizations that want to create digital signage displays. Additionally, the Raspberry Pi is a small and compact device, making it easy to install and set up in a variety of locations.

Another benefit of using Raspberry Pi for digital signage is its flexibility. The Raspberry Pi can be used with a wide range of software and hardware, allowing users to create digital signage displays that are customized to their specific needs. For example, the Raspberry Pi can be used with a variety of digital signage software, such as PosterBooking, to create dynamic and interactive displays.

PosterBooking is a free digital signage slideshow player that can be used with the Raspberry Pi. The software is designed to be user-friendly and easy to set up, making it a great option for businesses and organizations that want to create digital signage displays without spending a lot of money on hardware or software.

In conclusion, using Raspberry Pi for digital signage can provide a cost-effective and flexible solution for businesses and organizations that want to create dynamic and engaging displays. PosterBooking is a free digital signage slideshow player that can be used with the Raspberry Pi, providing users with a user-friendly and easy-to-use software to create and manage their digital signage displays. With the ability to add weather, news, and RSS feeds, built-in scheduling and analytics, PosterBooking is a great choice for those looking to get started with digital signage.

Compared to those traditional LCD displays, the AMOLED screen features precise light-control capability, representing more delicate colors, more picture details, and more vivid video image

Compared to normal LCD displays, the AMOLED screen features ultra high contrast radio, which means hundredfold light/dark performance. Even when representing gradations and details like the deep starry sky, it is able to bring you immersive experience easily.

The regular LCD requires backlight and color film to work, i.e. it represents colors by controlling the white light from backlight layer to pass through the color film, and generally there"s so called light-leak issue.

Unlike LCD, the AMOLED features active emissive technology, each pixel on the AMOLED will light up by itself like a firefly, or turn off completely, to create brighter highlight or true black shadow, while retaining rich details.

To get started, open up Example1_Text under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example1_Text. Upon opening this example, you"ll notice that our void loop() is empty. This is because we only need to draw the image to our OLED one time in order for it to stay there. We first initialize our screen with CS connected to pin 10 and RES connected to pin 9, with the line SSD1320 flexibleOLED(10, 9);. Then in our setup loop we use flexibleOLED.begin(160, 32); to begin a display that is 160x32 pixels. We then use the following lines to first clear the display, set the font, the location where we"d like to type, and the text we"d like to type. The final line tells the display to show what we"ve just written to the display buffer.

To get started, open up Example2_Graphics under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example2_Graphics. This example will draw a grayscale image from pre-converted image data, in this case, an image of a macaque. In order to convert your own images to a format readable by the OLED, check out this neat Python script for converting Bitmaps to arrays for the grayscale OLED. First you"ll need a *.bmp file that is 160 pixels wide and 32 pixels tall. Once you have your *.bmp, generating an image array is as simple as running the python script from the command line like below. (Make sure you put in the proper file paths)

This large array must then be copied into a *.h file in the same folder as your sketch. Go ahead and name it something memorable, my sketch folder looks like this, with my array sitting in the TestImage.h file

To get started, open up Example3_Lines under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example3_Lines. This example draws a few shapes on the display. Once again, it simply writes the image to the display and leaves it there. Play around with the parameters that draw each rectangle and circle to determine how this affects their positioning and size. The stock example code should look something like the below image.

In this example, we"ll feed bitmaps directly into the screen using a serial terminal like Tera Term. If you"re not too familiar with using a terminal, check out our overview of serial terminal basics and download Tera Term. This is useful because we don"t have to convert our bitmaps into a prog_mem or anything. To get started we"ll first have to make sure our microcontroller can properly parse the serial input into pixel data. Go ahead and open up Example4_BMP_Eater under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example4_BMP_Eater. Once you have this open and uploaded, check out the getBitmap() function, which checks the structure of what we"re sending over serial and then writes it to the screen. Now that our microcontroller is ready for data, it"s time to open up Tera Term and start sending data. A new instance of Tera Term should prompt you to enter the COM port. Be sure to enter the port that your microcontroller is on.

Once we"ve done this, we"ll need to change the baud rate of our terminal to match the microcontroller"s baud of 57600. Do this by going to Setup > Serial Port... and select 57600 from the drop-down menu. Now that we"ve opened a connection to the OLED we can start sending images to it. To do this, all we need to do is go to File > Send File... and select the bitmap we want to send to our screen. Go to Documents > Arduino > Libraries > SparkFun_Flexible_Grayscale_OLED_Breakout > Examples > Example4_BMP_Eater. This folder should contain a few bitmaps. If you got fancy and created your own bitmap in the second example, you can load that up as well. Select your file, make sure you"re sending it in a binary format (the image below shows the binary box checked).

To get started, open up Example5_AllTheText under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example5_AllTheText. This example displays all of the text capabilities of the OLED. Take a look at the text example functions below to see how each one writes the corresponding text.

Changing the type of text is simply a matter of using the setFontType() and changing the font used by the screen. Also notice how we must use different cursor positions for our lines of text to prevent them from overlapping each other.

This next example will play us a nice little game of fake pong. To get started, open up Example6_Pong under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example6_Pong. The meat and potatoes of this pong example is contained in the shapeExample() function, shown below.

Most of this function is simply math to move the paddles and ball around the screen and check for collisions. The actual drawing of the objects is executed in the last few lines of the function, right before the flexibleOLED.display(): function. The shapeExample() function is called repeatedly in our void loop() to progress the positions of the Pong pieces. The OLED should look something like the below GIF with this code uploaded.

To get started, open up Example7_Logo under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example7_Logo. This example simply shows us how to display what was already in the OLED"s buffer. All we have to do is initialize the screen without clearing the buffer, give the flexibleOLED.display() command, and the OLED will show the SparkFun logo. It"ll look similar to the image below.

To get started, open up Example8_NoiseDrawing under File > Examples > SparkFun Flexible Grayscale OLED Breakout > Example8_NoiseDrawing. This example writes noise directly to the display and also to the buffer. However, the buffer is incapable of grayscale so we will only get black and white noise when calling the writeToBuffer() function. We can see upon closer inspection that each of these functions writes noise from the A0 and A1 pins, so make sure these aren"t connected to anything. The output will look something like the below image. Notice how the noise from the buffer is only in black and white.

If you don`t know or don`t want to write a display program on Raspberry Pi, it`s better to get an HDMI controller board from us, and Panox Display will send a config.txt file for reference.

We"ve sourced a new LCD screen especially for our Pico Display Pack - it"s a lovely, bright 18-bit capable 240x135 pixel IPS display and fits the Pico perfectly. We"ve surrounded it with four tactile buttons so you can easily interface your Pico with your human fingers and an RGB LED that you can use as an indicator, for notifications or just for adding extra rainbows.

Pico Display lets you turn a Pico into a compact user interface device for a bigger project, capable of giving instructions, displaying readouts and even incorporating elaborate nested menus. If you"d rather use your Pico as a standalone device you could make a little rotating slideshow of images, display beautiful graphs from sensor data or build your own Tamagotchi or matchbox sized text adventure game.

The labels on the underside of Pico Display will show you which way round to plug it into your Pico - just match up the USB port with the markings on the board.

The easiest way to get started is by downloading and copying our custom MicroPython uf2 to your Pico, it includes all the libraries you"ll need to use our add-ons. The beginner friendly tutorial linked below will show you how to get to grips with pirate-brand MicroPython.

Pico Display also works very nicely with CircuitPython and Adafruit"s DisplayIO library - look for the Display Pack ST7789 example in the library bundle to get started!

Pico Display Pack communicates with the LCD display via SPI on pins LCD_CS, LCD_DC, LCD_SCLK, and LCD_MOSI. We also PWM the BL_EN pin (with gamma correction) for full, linear, backlight control. LCD_RESET is tied to the RUN pin on Pico so the LCD will be fully reset whenever Pico is.

There is also an onboard RGB LED (ideal to use an activity indicator!) which is also PWMed (with gamma correction) on pins LED_R, LED_G, and LED_B. If you want to use the LED pins for something else there are three cuttable traces on the underside of the board.

Power is supplied through 3V3 meaning that you can use Pico Display Pack both on USB power and from external supplies (from 1.8V to 5.5V) making it ideal for battery powered projects.

Raspberry Pi Pico is a flexible, low cost microcontroller development board from the folks at Raspberry Pi, based on their very own chip - the RP2040. It"s easily programmable over USB with C/C++ or MicroPython, and ideal for using in all sorts of physical computing projects, devices and inventions - we"re so excited to see what you make with it!

We"ve called our Pico-sized add-ons packs, as they"re designed to attach to the back of your Pico as if it were wearing a very stylish back pack (or a miniature jet pack, if you prefer). We"ve also got Pico bases (larger add-on boards with a space to mount your Pico on top) and some other boards that let you do interesting hackerly things like using multiple packs at once - click here to view them all!

This 18-bit capable 320x240 pixel IPS display adheres majestically to the back of your Pico, and has lush colours and great viewing angles. Just like our original Display Pack, we"ve surrounded it with four tactile buttons so you can use your human fingers (or other non-human appendages) to interface with your Pico. There"s also an RGB LED that you can use as an indicator, for notifications or just for adding extra rainbows.

Pico Display 2.0 lets you turn a Pico into a user interface device for a bigger project, capable of giving instructions, displaying readouts and even incorporating elaborate nested menus. If you"d rather use your Pico as a standalone device you could fill up all that prime screen real estate with digitally generated, Mandelbrot-esque art, beautiful graphs or readouts from lots of sensors. You could even make a device for getting folks to share their secrets via Telnet!

The labels on the underside of Pico Display Pack 2.0 will show you which way round to plug it into your Pico - just match up the USB port with the markings on the board.

The easiest way to get started is by downloading and copying our custom MicroPython uf2 to your Pico, it includes all the libraries you"ll need to use our add-ons. The beginner friendly tutorial linked below will show you how to get to grips with pirate-brand MicroPython.

MicroPython code written for the original Display Pack can be easily converted to run on Display Pack 2.0 by changing DISPLAY_PICO_DISPLAY to DISPLAY_PICO_DISPLAY_2.

This screen is a wee bit taller than the surrounding buttons, so it"s worth taking care when pressing the buttons that you"re not also pressing down on the screen, particularly at the edge with the ribbon cable. Careful pressing with fingertips rather than full on thumb mashing is the way forward.

Even though it"s bigger than our other Pico Packs, Display 2.0 will still work with Pico Omnibus or Pico Decker, if you want to use more than one Pico Pack at once. Please note that if you plug Display 2.0 into a Pico Decker, it will overhang the addon slot next to it.

Raspberry Pi Pico is a flexible, low cost microcontroller development board from the folks at Raspberry Pi, based on their very own chip - the RP2040. It"s easily programmable over USB with C/C++ or MicroPython, and ideal for using in all sorts of physical computing projects, devices and inventions - we"re so excited to see what you make with it!

We"ve called our Pico-sized add-ons packs, as they"re designed to attach to the back of your Pico as if it were wearing a very stylish back pack (or a miniature jet pack, if you prefer). We"ve also got Pico bases (larger add-on boards with a space to mount your Pico on top) and some other boards that let you do interesting hackerly things like using multiple packs at once - click here to view them all!

This is a 1.54 inch e-paper display with 200x200 resolution, SSD1681, SPI interface, and the e-ink screen display supports partial refresh and 4 grayscale.

This is a 1.54 inch e-paper display with 200x200 resolution, SPI interface, andthe e-ink screen display is capable to display images with black and white content. Your image holds indefinitely without power – put up your image, then shut down the power.Once these e-paper display modules are updated they don"t require any power and can actually be disconnected entirely and the content will remain on the display indefinitely.This e-ink screen GDEH0154D67 is perfect for low power devices powered by solar or batteries.

You can refer to the following link for the procedures and instructions of automatic e-paper display bitmap conversion:ImageToEpd. Also you could use our free e-paper software to prepare your bitmap image for this display, or make the picture on our bitmap conversion website:Image to Array

{"specs":[],"skus":[{"id":6341,"useViewType":false,"productId":208,"templateId":1,"code":"","name":"1.54 inch e-paper display module partial refresh E-ink screen, GDEH0154D67","price":0.00,"retailPrice":0.00,"weight":0.00,"status":"1","isDefault":"1","createDate":"2022-12-05 15:07:34","updateDate":"2022-12-05 15:07:34","productSkuSpecs":[],"skuId":0}],"specConfs":[]}

A detected touchscreen will also cause the fbheight and fbwidth parameters in /proc/cmdline to equal 480 and 800 respectively (the resolution of the screen). You can verify this by running:

Depending on your display stand, you might find that the LCD display defaults to being upside-down. You can fix this by rotating it with /boot/config.txt.

If some windows in X are cut off at the side/bottom of the screen, this is unfortunately a side-effect of developers assuming a minimum screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels.

At the moment you can’t use HDMI and the LCD together in the X desktop, but you can send the output of certain applications to one screen or the other.

You may need to increase the amount of memory allocated to the GPU to 128MB if the videos are 1080P. Adjust the gpu_mem value in config.txt for this. The Raspberry Pi headline figures are 1080P30 decode, so if you are using two 1080P clips it may not play correctly depending on the complexity of the videos.

2. Desktop computer: With the right accessories, the Raspberry Pi can be used as a desktop computer for everyday tasks such as browsing the internet, creating documents, and playing games.

4. Internet of Things (IoT) projects: The Raspberry Pi can be used to build Internet of Things (IoT) projects, such as a smart home system or a weather station.

If you"re interested in using a Raspberry Pi for your next project, be sure to check out flux.ai, the world"s largest community-driven public library of Raspberry Pi footprints, symbols, datasheets, and simulation models. With such a wide range of resources available, you"ll have everything you need to get started on your next project.

This is a flexible E-Ink display HAT for Raspberry Pi, 2.9inch, 296×128 resolution, with embedded controller, communicating via SPI interface, supports partial refresh. Compared with normal e-Paper panels, this flexible panel allows bending without being damaged, and it"s thinner and lighter. Combined with the advantages like ultra low power consumption, wide viewing angle, clear display without electricity, it is an ideal choice for applications where curved surface display is required, such as industrial instruments, smart wearable-devices, and so on.

Raspberry Pi (single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom.computer science in schools and in developing countries.target market for uses such as robotics. It is widely used in many areas, such as for weather monitoring,HDMI and USB standards.

After the release of the second board type, the Raspberry Pi Foundation set up a new entity, named Raspberry Pi Trading, and installed Eben Upton as CEO, with the responsibility of developing technology.Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales,

There are three series of Raspberry Pi, and several generations of each have been released. Raspberry Pi SBCs feature a Broadcom system on a chip (SoC) with an integrated ARM-compatible central processing unit (CPU) and on-chip graphics processing unit (GPU), while Raspberry Pi Pico has a RP2040 system on chip with an integrated ARM-compatible central processing unit (CPU).

In 2014, the Foundation released a board with an improved design, Raspberry Pi Model B+. These first-generation boards feature ARM11 processors, are approximately credit-card sized, and represent the standard mainline form factor. Improved A+ and B models were released within a year. A "Compute Module" was released in April 2014 for embedded applications.

The Raspberry Pi 2 was released in February 2015 and initially featured a 900 MHz 32-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with 1 GB RAM. Revision 1.2 featured a 900 MHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor (the same as that in the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, but underclocked to 900 MHz).

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B was released in February 2016 with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, on-board 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB boot capabilities.

On Pi Day 2018, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ was launched with a faster 1.4 GHz processor, a three-times faster Gigabit Ethernet (throughput limited to ca. 300 Mbit/s by the internal USB 2.0 connection), and 2.4 / 5 GHz dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi (100 Mbit/s).Power over Ethernet (PoE) (with the add-on PoE HAT), USB boot and network boot (an SD card is no longer required).

The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B was released in June 2019ARM Cortex-A72 processor, on-board 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, full gigabit Ethernet (throughput not limited), two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, 1–8 GB of RAM, and dual-monitor support via a pair of micro HDMI (HDMI Type D) ports for up to 4K resolution. The version with 1 GB RAM has been abandoned and the prices of the 2 GB version have been reduced. The 8 GB version has a revised circuit board. The Pi 4 is also powered via a USB-C port, enabling additional power to be provided to downstream peripherals, when used with an appropriate PSU. But the Pi can only be operated with 5 volts and not 9 or 12 volts like other mini computers of this class. The initial Raspberry Pi 4 board has a design flaw where third-party e-marked USB cables, such as those used on Apple MacBooks, incorrectly identify it and refuse to provide power.Tom"s Hardware tested 14 different cables and found that 11 of them turned on and powered the Pi without issue.C0. The manufacturer is now using this chip for the Pi 4 B and Pi 400. However, the clock frequency of the Pi 4 B was not increased in the factory.

The Raspberry Pi 400 was released in November 2020. A modern example of a keyboard computer, it features 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM on a custom board derived from the existing Raspberry Pi 4 combined with a keyboard in a single case. The case was derived from that of the Raspberry Pi Keyboard.

A Raspberry Pi Zero with smaller size and reduced input/output (I/O) and general-purpose input/output (GPIO) capabilities was released in November 2015 for US$5.

On 28 October 2021, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W was launched, a version of the Zero W with a system in a package (SiP) designed by Raspberry Pi and based on the Raspberry Pi 3.

Raspberry Pi Pico was released in January 2021 with a retail price of $4.microcontroller chip; the RP2040, which was designed by Raspberry Pi in the UK.flash memory. It is programmable in C, C++, Assembly, MicroPython, CircuitPython and Rust. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has partnered with Adafruit, Pimoroni, Arduino and SparkFun to build accessories for Raspberry Pi Pico and variety of other boards using RP2040 Silicon Platform.physical computing, similar in concept to an Arduino.

On 30 June 2022, the Raspberry Pi Pico W was launched, a version of the Pico with 802.11n Wi-Fi capability, for US$6. The CYW43439 wireless chip in the Pico W also supports Bluetooth, but the capability was not enabled at launch.

As of 4 May 2021, the Foundation is committed to manufacture most Pi models until at least January 2026. Even the 1 GB Pi 4B can still be specially-ordered.

The Raspberry Pi hardware has evolved through several versions that feature variations in the type of the central processing unit, amount of memory capacity, networking support, and peripheral-device support.

This block diagram describes models B, B+, A and A+. The Pi Zero models are similar, but lack the Ethernet and USB hub components. The Ethernet adapter is internally connected to an additional USB port. In Model A, A+, and the Pi Zero, the USB port is connected directly to the system on a chip (SoC). On the Pi 1 Model B+ and later models the USB/Ethernet chip contains a five-port USB hub, of which four ports are available, while the Pi 1 Model B only provides two. On the Pi Zero, the USB port is also connected directly to the SoC, but it uses a micro USB (OTG) port. Unlike all other Pi models, the 40 pin GPIO connector is omitted on the Pi Zero, with solderable through-holes only in the pin locations. The Pi Zero WH remedies this.

Processor speed ranges from 700 MHz to 1.4 GHz for the Pi 3 Model B+ or 1.5 GHz for the Pi 4; on-board memory ranges from 256 MB to 8 GB random-access memory (RAM), with only the Raspberry Pi 4 having more than 1 GB. Secure Digital (SD) cards in MicroSDHC form factor (SDHC on early models) are used to store the operating system and program memory, however some models also come with onboard eMMC storageSSD storage for its operating system.USB ports. For video output, HDMI and composite video are supported, with a standard 3.5 mm tip-ring-sleeve jack carrying mono audio together with composite video. Lower-level output is provided by a number of GPIO pins, which support common protocols like I²C. The B-models have an 8P8C Ethernet port and the Pi 3, Pi 4 and Pi Zero W have on-board Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth.

The Broadcom BCM2835 SoC used in the first generation Raspberry PiMHz 32-bit ARM1176JZF-S processor, VideoCore IV graphics processing unit (GPU),cache of 16 KB and a level 2 (L2) cache of 128 KB. The level 2 cache is used primarily by the GPU. The SoC is stacked underneath the RAM chip, so only its edge is visible. The ARM1176JZ(F)-S is the same CPU used in the original iPhone,clock rate, and mated with a much faster GPU.

The earlier V1.1 model of the Raspberry Pi 2 used a Broadcom BCM2836 SoC with a 900 MHz 32-bit, quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor, with 256 KB shared L2 cache.64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor,underclocked (by default) to the same 900 MHz CPU clock speed as the V1.1. The BCM2836 SoC is no longer in production as of late 2016.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B uses a Broadcom BCM2837 SoC with a 1.2 GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, with 512 KB shared L2 cache. The Model A+ and B+ are 1.4 GHz

The Raspberry Pi 4 uses a Broadcom BCM2711 SoC with a 1.5 GHz (later models: 1.8 GHz) 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A72 processor, with 1 MB shared L2 cache.interrupt controller poorly suited for virtualisation, the interrupt controller on this SoC is compatible with the ARM Generic Interrupt Controller (GIC) architecture 2.0, providing hardware support for interrupt distribution when using ARM virtualisation capabilities.

The Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W use the same Broadcom BCM2835 SoC as the first generation Raspberry Pi, although now running at 1 GHz CPU clock speed.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W 2 uses the RP3A0-AU CPU, a 1 GHz 64 bit ARM Cortex A53, on 512MB of SDRAM. Documentation states this "system-on-package" is a Broadcom BCM2710A1 package, using a BCM2837 Broadcom chip as core, which is an ARM v8 quad-core. The Raspberry Pi 3 also uses the BCM2837, but clocked at 1.2 GHz.

While operating at 700 MHz by default, the first generation Raspberry Pi provided a real-world performance roughly equivalent to 0.041 GFLOPS.Pentium II of 1997–99. The GPU provides 1 Gpixel/s or 1.5 Gtexel/s of graphics processing or 24 GFLOPS of general purpose computing performance. The graphical capabilities of the Raspberry Pi are roughly equivalent to the performance of the Xbox of 2001.

Raspberry Pi 2 V1.1 included a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU running at 900 MHz and 1 GB RAM. It was described as 4–6 times more powerful than its predecessor. The GPU was identical to the original.

Most Raspberry Pi systems-on-chip could be overclocked to 800 MHz, and some to 1000 MHz. There are reports the Raspberry Pi 2 can be similarly overclocked, in extreme cases, even to 1500 MHz (discarding all safety features and over-voltage limitations). In Raspberry Pi OS the overclocking options on boot can be made by a software command running "sudo raspi-config" without voiding the warranty.temperature reaches 85 °C (185 °F), but it is possible to override automatic over-voltage and overclocking settings (voiding the warranty); an appropriately sized heat sink is needed to protect the chip from serious overheating.

The CPU of the first and second generation Raspberry Pi board did not require cooling with a heat sink or fan, even when overclocked, but the Raspberry Pi 3 may generate more heat when overclocked.

The early designs of the Raspberry Pi Model A and B boards included only 256 MB of random access memory (RAM). Of this, the early beta Model B boards allocated 128 MB to the GPU by default, leaving only 128 MB for the CPU.framebuffer, and was likely to fail for any video or 3D. 128 MB was for heavy 3D processing, possibly also with video decoding.Nokia 701 uses 128 MB for the Broadcom VideoCore IV.

The later Model B with 512 MB RAM, was released on 15 October 2012 and was initially released with new standard memory split files (arm256_start.elf, arm384_start.elf, arm496_start.elf) with 256 MB, 384 MB, and 496 MB CPU RAM, and with 256 MB, 128 MB, and 16 MB video RAM, respectively. But about one week later, the foundation released a new version of start.elf that could read a new entry in config.txt (gpu_mem=xx) and could dynamically assign an amount of RAM (from 16 to 256 MB in 8 MB steps) to the GPU, obsoleting the older method of splitting memory, and a single start.elf worked the same for 256 MB and 512 MB Raspberry Pis.

The Model A, A+ and Pi Zero have no Ethernet circuitry and are commonly connected to a network using an external user-supplied USB Ethernet or Wi-Fi adapter. On the Model B and B+ the Ethernet port is provided by a built-in USB Ethernet adapter using the SMSC LAN9514 chip.802.11n (150 Mbit/s) and Bluetooth 4.1 (24 Mbit/s) based on the Broadcom BCM43438 FullMAC chip with no official support for monitor mode (though it was implemented through unofficial firmware patchingIEEE 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and Gigabit Ethernet (limited to approximately 300 Mbit/s by the USB 2.0 bus between it and the SoC). The Raspberry Pi 4 has full gigabit Ethernet (throughput is not limited as it is not funnelled via the USB chip.)

Raspberry Pi models with a newer chipset can boot from USB mass storage, such as from a flash drive. Booting from USB mass storage is not available in the original Raspberry Pi models, the Raspberry Pi Zero, the Raspberry Pi Pico, the Raspberry Pi 2 A models, and the Raspberry Pi 2 B models with versions lower than 1.2.

Although often pre-configured to operate as a headless computer, the Raspberry Pi may also optionally be operated with any generic USB computer keyboard and mouse.

Although the Raspberry Pi 3 does not have H.265 decoding hardware, the CPU is more powerful than its predecessors, potentially fast enough to allow the decoding of H.265-encoded videos in software.

The Raspberry Pis can also generate 576i and 480i composite video signals, as used on old-style (CRT) TV screens and less-expensive monitors through standard connectors – either RCA or 3.5 mm phono connector depending on model. The television signal standards supported are PAL-B/G/H/I/D, PAL-M, PAL-N, NTSC and NTSC-J.

Raspberry Pi 1 Models A+ and B+, Pi 2 Model B, Pi 3 Models A+, B and B+, Pi 4, and Pi Zero, Zero W, Zero WH and Zero W 2 have the same 40-pin pinout called J8 header.

Models A and B provide GPIO access to the ACT status LED using GPIO 16. Models A+ and B+ provide GPIO access to the ACT status LED using GPIO 47, and the power status LED using GPIO 35.

Various operating systems for the Raspberry Pi can be installed on a MicroSD or SD card, depending on the board and available adapters; seen here is the MicroSD slot located on the bottom of a Raspberry Pi 2 board.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation provides Raspberry Pi OS (formerly called Raspbian), a Debian-based Linux distribution for download, as well as third-party Ubuntu, Windows 10 IoT Core, RISC OS, LibreELEC (specialised media centre distribution)Kodi media centre and classroom management.Python and Scratch as the main programming languages, with support for many other languages.firmware is closed source, while unofficial open source is available.seL4 is also supported.

Broadcom VCOS – Proprietary operating system which includes an abstraction layer designed to integrate with existing kernels, such as ThreadX (which is used on the VideoCore4 processor), providing drivers and middleware for application development. In the case of the Raspberry Pi, this includes an application to start the ARM processor(s) and provide the publicly documented API over a mailbox interface, serving as its firmware. An incomplete source of a Linux port of VCOS is available as part of the reference graphics driver published by Broadcom.

Ultibo Core – OS-less unikerel Run Time Library based on Free Pascal. Lazarus IDE (Windows with 3rd party ports to Linux and MacOS). Most Pi models supported.

Alpine Linux – a Linux distribution based on musl and BusyBox, "designed for power users who appreciate security, simplicity and resource efficiency".

Slackware ARM – version 13.37 and later runs on the Raspberry Pi without modification.graphical user interface, Slackware"s default user environment is the textual shell / command line interface.Fluxbox window manager running under the X Window System requires an additional 48 MB of RAM.

Raspberry Pi can use a VideoCore IV GPU via a binary blob, which is loaded into the GPU at boot time from the SD-card, and additional software, that initially was closed source.OpenMax, OpenGL ES or OpenVG), which in turn call an open source driver inside the Linux kernel, which then calls the closed source VideoCore IV GPU driver code. The API of the kernel driver is specific for these closed libraries. Video applications use OpenMAX, OpenGL ES and OpenVG, which both in turn use EGL. OpenMAX and EGL use the open source kernel driver in turn.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation first announced it was working on a Vulkan driver in February 2020.Quake 3 at 100 frames per second on a 3B+ was revealed by a graphics engineer who had been working on it as a hobby project on 20 June.

The official firmware is a freely redistributablebinary blob, that is proprietary software.Linux kernel, with patches to remove the dependency on the mailbox interface being responsive. It is known to work on Raspberry Pi 1, 2 and 3, as well as some variants of Raspberry Pi Zero.

C/C++ Interpreter Ch – Released 3 January 2017, C/C++ interpreter Ch and Embedded Ch are released free for non-commercial use for Raspberry Pi, ChIDE is also included for the beginners to learn C/C++.

Julia – an interactive and cross-platform programming language/environment, that runs on the Pi 1 and later.Visual Studio Code, are available. See also Pi-specific GitHub repository JuliaBerry.

LiveCode – an educational RAD IDE descended from HyperCard using English-like language to write event-handlers for WYSIWYG widgets runnable on desktop, mobile and Raspberry Pi platforms.

Scratch – a cross-platform teaching IDE using visual blocks that stack like Lego, originally developed by MIT"s Life Long Kindergarten group. The Pi version is very heavily optimised

TensorFlow – an artificial intelligence framework developed by Google. The Raspberry Pi Foundation worked with Google to simplify the installation process through pre-built binaries.

Gertboard – A Raspberry Pi Foundation sanctioned device, designed for educational purposes, that expands the Raspberry Pi"s GPIO pins to allow interface with and control of LEDs, switches, analogue signals, sensors and other devices. It also includes an optional Arduino compatible controller to interface with the Pi.

Camera – On 14 May 2013, the foundation and the distributors RS Components & Premier Farnell/Element 14 launched the Raspberry Pi camera board alongside a firmware update to accommodate it.flexible flat cable that plugs into the CSI connector which is located between the Ethernet and HDMI ports. In Raspbian, the user must enable the use of the camera board by running Raspi-config and selecting the camera option. The camera module costs €20 in Europe (9 September 2013).OmniVision OV5647 image sensor and can produce 1080p, 720p and 640x480p video. The dimensions are 25 mm × 20 mm × 9 mm.

Infrared Camera – In October 2013, the foundation announced that they would begin producing a camera module without an infrared filter, called the Pi NoIR.

Official Display – On 8 September 2015, The foundation and the distributors RS Components & Premier Farnell/Element 14 launched the Raspberry Pi Touch Display

HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) expansion boards – Together with the Model B+, inspired by the Arduino shield boards, the interface for HAT boards was devised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Each HAT board carries a small EEPROM (typically a CAT24C32WI-GT3)

In February 2015, a switched-mode power supply chip, designated U16, of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B version 1.1 (the initially released version) was found to be vulnerable to flashes of light,xenon camera flashes and greenlaser pointers. The U16 chip has WL-CSP packaging, which exposes the bare silicon die. The Raspberry Pi Foundation blog recommended covering U16 with opaque material (such as Sugru or Blu-Tak) or putting the Raspberry Pi 2 in a case.

Technology writer Glyn Moody described the project in May 2011 as a "potential ITPRO.Ian Livingstone suggested that the BBC could be involved in building support for the device, possibly branding it as the BBC Nano.The Centre for Computing History strongly supports the Raspberry Pi project, feeling that it could "usher in a new era".ARM"s CEO Warren East at an event in Cambridge outlining Google"s ideas to improve UK science and technology education.

In October 2012, the Raspberry Pi won T3"s Innovation of the Year award,Mark Pesce cited a (borrowed) Raspberry Pi as the inspiration for his ambient device project MooresCloud.British Computer Society reacted to the announcement of enhanced specifications by stating, "it"s definitely something we"ll want to sink our teeth into."

The Raspberry Pi community was described by Jamie Ayre of FOSS software company AdaCore as one of the most exciting parts of the project.fanzine around the platform called Raspberry Jam events have been held across the UK and around the world.

In 2014, the Raspberry Pi Foundation hired a number of its community members including ex-teachers and software developers to launch a set of free learning resources for its website.

In 2018, NASA launched the JPL Open Source Rover Project, which is a scaled down version of Curiosity rover and uses a Raspberry Pi as the control module, to encourage students and hobbyists to get involved in mechanical, software, electronics, and robotics engineering.

There are a number of developers and applications that are using the Raspberry Pi for home automation. These programmers are making an effort to modify the Raspberry Pi into a cost-affordable solution in energy monitoring and power consumption. Because of the relatively low cost of the Raspberry Pi, this has become a popular and economical alternative to the more expensive commercial solutions.

In June 2014, Polish industrial automation manufacturer TECHBASE released ModBerry, an industrial computer based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. The device has a number of interfaces, most notably RS-485/232 serial ports, digital and analogue inputs/outputs, CAN and economical 1-Wire buses, all of which are widely used in the automation industry. The design allows the use of the Compute Module in harsh industrial environments, leading to the conclusion that the Raspberry Pi is no longer limited to home and science projects, but can be widely used as an Industrial IoT solution and achieve goals of Industry 4.0.

In March 2018, SUSE announced commercial support for SUSE Linux Enterprise on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B to support a number of undisclosed customers implementing industrial monitoring with the Raspberry Pi.

In January 2021, TECHBASE announced a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 cluster for AI accelerator, routing and file server use. The device contains one or more standard Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4s in an industrial DIN rail housing, with some versions containing one or more Coral Edge tensor processing units.

The Organelle is a portable synthesizer, a sampler, a sequencer, and an effects processor designed and assembled by Critter & Guitari. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi computer module running Linux.

OTTO is a digital camera created by Next Thing Co. It incorporates a Raspberry Pi Compute Module. It was successfully crowd-funded in a May 2014 Kickstarter campaign.

AutoPi TMU device is a telematics unit which is built on top of a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 and incorporates the philosophy of which Raspberry Pi was built upon.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand increased primarily due to the increase in remote work, but also because of the use of many Raspberry Pi Zeros in ventilators for COVID-19 patients in countries such as Colombia,

A project was launched in December 2014 at an event held by the UK Space Agency. The Astro Pi was an augmented Raspberry Pi that included a sensor hat with a visible light or infrared camera. The Astro Pi competition, called Principia, was officially opened in January and was opened to all primary and secondary school aged children who were residents of the United Kingdom. During his mission, British ESA astronaut Tim Peake deployed the computers on board the International Space Station.

According to Upton, the name "Raspberry Pi" was chosen with "Raspberry" as an ode to a tradition of naming early computer companies after fruit, and "Pi" as a reference to the Python programming language.

In 2006, early concepts of the Raspberry Pi were based on the Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller. Its schematics and PCB layout are publicly available.trustee Eben Upton assembled a group of teachers, academics and computer enthusiasts to devise a computer to inspire children.

19 February 2012 – The first proof of concept SD card image that could be loaded onto an SD card to produce a preliminary operating system is released. The image was based on Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), with the LXDE desktop and the Midori browser, plus various programming tools. The image also runs on QEMU allowing the Raspberry Pi to be emulated on various other platforms.

29 February 2012 – Initial sales commence 29 February 2012web-shops of the two licensed manufacturers selling Raspberry Pi"s within the United Kingdom, Premier Farnell and RS Components, had their websites stalled by heavy web traffic immediately after the launch (RS Components briefly going down completely).

24 August 2012 – Hardware accelerated video (H.264) encoding becomes available after it became known that the existing licence also covered encoding. Formerly it was thought that encoding would be added with the release of the announced camera module.MPEG-2 and Microsoft"s VC-1. Also it was announced that the Pi will implement CEC, enabling it to be controlled with the television"s remote control.

6 September 2012 – Announcement that in future the bulk of Raspberry Pi units would be manufactured in the UK, at Sony"s manufacturing facility in Pencoed, Wales. The Foundation estimated that the plant would produce 30,000 units per month, and would create about 30 new jobs.

17 December 2012 – The Foundation, in collaboration with IndieCity and Velocix, opens the Pi Store, as a "one-stop shop for all your Raspberry Pi (software) needs". Using an application included in Raspbian, users can browse through several categories and download what they want. Software can also be uploaded for moderation and release.

3 June 2013 – "New Out of Box Software" or NOOBS is introduced. This makes the Raspberry Pi easier to use by simplifying the installation of an operating system. Instead of using specific software to prepare an SD card, a file is unzipped and the contents copied over to a FAT formatted (4 GB or bigger) SD card. That card can then be booted on the Raspberry Pi and a choice of six operating systems is presented for installation on the card. The system also contains a recovery partition that allows for the quick restoration of the installed OS, tools to modify the config.txt and an online help button and web browser which directs to the Raspberry Pi Forums.

28 February 2014 – On the day of the second anniversary of the Raspberry Pi, Broadcom, together with the Raspberry Pi foundation, announced the release of full documentation for the VideoCore IV graphics core,

7 April 2014 – The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi Compute Module, a device in a 200-pin DDR2 SO-DIMM-configured memory module (though not in any way compatible with such RAM), intended for consumer electronics designers to use as the core of their own products.

14 July 2014 – The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi Model B+, "the final evolution of the original Raspberry Pi. For the same price as the original Raspberry Pi model B, but incorporating numerous small improvements people have been asking for".

2 February 2015 – The official Raspberry Pi blog announced the Raspberry Pi 2. Looking like a Model B+, it has a 900 MHz quad-core ARMv7 Cortex-A7 CPU, twice the memory (for a total of 1 GB) and complete compatibility with the original generation of Raspberry Pis.

14 May 2015 – The price of Model B+ was decreased from US$35 to $25, purportedly as a "side effect of the production optimizations" from the Pi 2 development.CHIP, a lower-priced competitor discontinued in April 2017.

26 November 2015 – The Raspberry Pi Foundation launched the Raspberry Pi Zer