We have PCBs!

liz
Raspberry Pi

December 1, 2011

Unpopulated PCBs, but solid, tested, silkscreened and beautiful PCBs nonetheless. Here are some pics from Pete, which he appears to have taken through the bottom of a milk bottle strapped to a mobile phone (although he did take the time to edit out his credit card number from the one where he uses his card for scale). He’s promised me some sharper and larger ones later on, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t thank me for sitting on these and not showing you.

Bare beta PCB with pound coin and keyboard for scale

The back of the board

A demonstration that the Raspberry Pi really is the same size as a credit card

We’ve made 100 of these betas, which will now be populated with components (I don’t have an ETA from Pete on the completed boards, but I promise you I’m as keen to find out as you are). Raspberry Pis from this very first, small batch, will be going on sale when they’ve been tested, most likely via an auction so that we can raise some money from those collectors who are very keen to get their hands on devices with a very low serial number. I can’t make any promises here, as it all depends on how they perform in testing, but we anticipate that happening before the end of the year. As soon as they’re finished, we’ll be starting production in earnest.

Given that today’s the 30th anniversary of the BBC Micro, writing this post is giving me a very pleasant warm glow.