Replacement Pi boards.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Paul (PMB) -  Question for you.

I have a friends B2 (an old one with a side SD Card Slot) (2016) I think

His SD Card partly shattered while inserted and he had to use tweezers to get the bits out.

I have flashed him a fresh SD Card but the unit is not booting and I suspect the SD Card slot has been damaged.

The easiest way forward would be to replace the Pi Board in the Unit (which I could do myself) but I do not have any Pi's of that vintage to hand.

Do Brennan have any in stock that I could purchase or could you advise me how to proceed.

Thanks

Fred

[PMB]

Hiya Fred,

Good question - I'll have to ask AudioTech as they keep the stock of spare parts.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Fred,

An alternative is to go onto eBay and look for the Ras-Pi board there.  I did this about a year ago so I now have a spare board for both my early and late model B2s.

For the early model B2s the Ras -Pi board must be marked   R-Pi 1 Model B v1.2 (c)2011 (this has the full size SD card).

The later model B2 uses the R-Pi 1 Model B+ v1.2 (c)2014  and is not compatible with the early B2 model (this has the microSD card).

Regards,

Peter.

[PMB]

Hi Fred,

Jon at AudioTech replied to say they don't have any early Pi boards and to look on eBay.

Perhaps the SD Card connector could be changed - Farnell, CPC, Mouser, etc appear to stock various versions.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Ta for the info.

Fred

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Fred,

I omitted to say that the R-Pi 1 Model B has a 26 pin header connector, which is what you want.  The Model B+ has a 40 pin header which you don't want.  If you are looking on eBay (as I did) you can count the pins if the photos are of decent quality.  The memory should be 512MB.

Regards,

Peter. 

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi All

Just an update

I managed to source a (actually several to ensure that I have spares in stock for the future!) second hand  R-Pi 1 Model B v1.2 (c)2011 (which has the full size SD card) from eBay.

I have fitted this and the B2 is now back up and working. 

I have also looked on YouTube and I think I may get a new SD Card socket and try and fit it to the old board using this tutorial. Can anyone tell me if you need a specialised soldering iron (say with temp control) to do this or will a normal "little" soldering iron (which I have) be OK?

Thanks for all you help and suggestions.

Fred

[Mike W]

Hi Fred, if you are planning to do soldering on a circuit board then I would definitely advise on using a temperature controlled iron.

I've seen too many attempts with soldering irons that get too hot and damage/lift the copper circuits straight off the board.

Get a solder suction pump as well.

Mike

[Dave White]

Will it be possible at some future point to swap in a newer and more capable Pi model?  Seems like the current boards are getting a bit scarce . . .

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Dave,

I thought that but was persuaded that it was not possible .... There is a Thread on the discussion somewhere in the Forum!

What I would suggest is that you stock up on a compatible spare Pi as detailed by Peter above. Before they become too scarce eBay was easy!I

By the way changing the board was easy.

Fred

[Daniel Taylor]

Hi Dave,

As I understand it, the new boards have enough differences in locations of the I/O points (and probably other concerns) that it would take a significant reworking of the software to get it to run on the latest version.  However, at some point the board currently being used in the B2 will be discontinued and stock on hand will dwindle to the point where the change will be unavoidable.  

[Chris Jones]

I have just picked up a RiPi B+ board from RS (for a project I am working on) it was £24.00 inc vat they have 239 left in stock.

[Mike W]

I guess a question is, where are Brennan sourcing the boards to continue manufacturing?

Maybe if we had an assurance that these would be available to purchase then I would feel more comfortable.

Mike

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mike,

The Ras-Pi 1 Model B+ V1.2 is the current B2 processor board (from early 2017 onwards) and this is still being manufactured and is stated to be in production until 'at least January 2026', so there shouldn't be any problem with B2 production.

The Ras-Pi 1 Model B V1.2 was used in the early model B2s (until late 2016) and I think that the production of this board ceased in 2015.  Like Fred, I purchased a spare board from eBay some time ago as they are becoming harder to find.

As to the query about using later Ras Pi boards there are two main problems.  The first is that the later Pi boards use a different processor so the B2 software won't run on these. 

The second problem is that the physical layout of the boards (especially the rear panel layout) are different so that would make a swap over more difficult.

Regards,

Peter.

[Mike W]

Thanks Peter, so I don't need to panic buy the boards to sit with my mountain of loo rolls......

Mike