Questions tagged [hardware]

Questions relating to the physical components that the Raspberry Pi consists of.

An overview of the Raspberry Pi board

enter image description here

Component List

Model A

+-------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------+
| System-on-a-chip (SoC): | Broadcom BCM2835 (CPU + GPU + SDRAM)           |
| CPU:                    | 700 MHz ARM11 ARM1176JZF-S core                |
| GPU:                    | Broadcom VideoCore IV,OpenGL ES 2.0,OpenVG     |
|                         | 1080p30 H.264 high-profile encode/decode       |
| Memory (SDRAM)iB        | 256 MiB                                        |
| USB 2.0 ports           | 1                                              |
| Video outputs           | Composite video,Composite RCA, HDMI            |
| Audio outputs           | TRS connector 3.5 mm jack, HDMI                |
| Audio inputs            | None                                           |
| Onboard Storage         | SD / MMC / SDIO card slot                      |
| Onboard Network         | None                                           |
| Low-level peripherals   | General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins,      |
|                         | Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI), I²C,    |
|                         | I²S[2], Universal asynchronous                 |
|                         | receiver/transmitter (UART)                    |
| Real-time clock         | None                                           |
| Power ratings           | 500mA, (2.5 Watt)                              |
| Power source            | 5V via Micro USB or GPIO header                |
| Size                    | 85.60mm x 53.98mm (3.370 × 2.125 inch)         |
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------+

Model B

Same as above with the following additions:

+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
| USB 2.0 ports           | 2                                              |
| Power ratings           | 700mA, (3.5 Watt)                              |
| Onboard Network         | 10/100 wired Ethernet RJ45                     |
+-------------------------+------------------------------------------------+
1111 questions
77
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7 answers

How do I control the system LEDs using my software?

There are 5 LEDs on the RPi: OK, PWR, FDX, LNK, 10M. I'd like to know if it's possible to control any of these from software i.e. turn them on, or change intensity (or even change colour gasp). And if so, where can I read up about it? The LEDs could…
Maria Zverina
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6 answers

What is the maximum / minimum operational temperature?

As per the title, what are the maximum and minimum operational temperature ratings of the Pi before it stops reliably working? Could this also depend on the SD card in use?
berry120
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5 answers

How do I hard reset a Raspberry Pi?

How do I hard reset a Raspberry Pi? Obviously you can power cycle, but is there a more subtle way, like a reset pin? It would be very useful to connect a watchdog in case the Raspberry Pi crashes (mine crashed last night). EDIT: The rev 2.0 board…
John La Rooy
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4 answers

How do I attach a GPS receiver?

I would like to hookup a GPS receiver to my Pi so that I can: Get my geographical position Synchronise clock when not connected to network What are my options? Will any hardware supported by gpsd work with the Pi?
Maria Zverina
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Why is the CPU sometimes referred to as BCM2708, sometimes BCM2835?

I've seen the System on Chip of Raspberry Pi referred to usually as "BCM2835" (e.g. on Wikipedia), but sometimes as "BCM2708" (e.g. sources for Linux SPI driver are in bcm2708.c, or in comments to my other question). Which is right, or are both -…
akavel
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3 answers

Is the Raspberry Pi vulnerable to the Spectre or Meltdown exploit?

There are two new serious security flaws discovered, Spectre and Meltdown. Is the Raspberry Pi vulnerable for Spectre and/or Meltdown?
Janghou
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6 answers

Does the Raspberry Pi have Hardware Floating Point support?

There are a few articles around that say it is best to use soft float algorithms on ARM devices, because very few ARM chips have hard float coprocessors. So, does the RPi have hard float support? If so, is it quicker that soft float? (It should be,…
Alex Chamberlain
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Can the Pi be potted in epoxy?

In order to completely waterproof some basic electronic circuits, I've often used potting epoxy to stop anything getting to the internals. However, this has mainly been with stuff using PDIP, which is must more robust than the smaller packages the…
berry120
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40
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2 answers

Is it legal to use Raspberry Pi to develop a product and sell it?

I have a project in mind that uses Raspberry Pi to develop a software. The final product will be modification of the Raspberry Pi circuit (get rid of any components that the project doesn't use) and add in some other circuits of mine. For the…
40
votes
1 answer

Virtual keyboard activation

I bought a raspberry pi2 and 7 inch waveshare touchscreen. The SD card came along with the system already flashed. It turns on and everything works, but how do I activate the virtual keyboard. Do I need a USB keyboard initially to do so?
user473180
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2 answers

Raspberry Pi Zero W is ARMv6 or ARMv7?

I would like update Node.js to the latest version and I need to choose between ARMv6 and ARMv7. From the package manager point of view this is an ARMv6 processor and dmesg tells it is CPU: ARMv6-compatible processor [410fb767] revision 7 (ARMv7)…
jeanmi
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4 answers

What size screws does the Raspberry Pi board use?

On the model B+ there are four screws that can be used to attach your device either to a base or firmly inside of a case or other enclosure. What is the size of these screws? That is, if you are walking down the isle of a hardware store, what…
IQAndreas
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What is the highest performing hardware configuration?

I know that exact benchmark numbers will vary between manufacturers, but in general if you only consider higher end flash drives, SD cards, and USB HDDs and your Raspberry Pi is connected to a network via an ethernet switch what is the fastest…
Dan B
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What SPI frequencies does Raspberry Pi support?

What SPI frequencies does Raspberry Pi support? Additionally: Are they all supported by the bootc.net SPI driver? Are there any additinal things I should be cautious about when trying to communicate with some other chip via SPI?
akavel
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What's the difference between the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B and B+?

I have a Model B Raspberry Pi, but what are the differences between this and the new Model B+? Also apart from the physical differences, what could I do with a B+ that I can't do with my Model B?
dmeehan
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