Raspberry Pi 3 to sport Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE – first photos emerge

WiFi?

Unless I'm going totally blind, where the heck is the aerial for the wifi? I can't see an IPEX connector (or similar) or a printed track for it on either side of those photos.

If it's part of the PCB then it stands a chance of having pretty poor reception IMO.

Have used these before

Chip antennas are the reason smart phones can now be so small.

Some of the latest ones have three, for dual band WiFi/BLE and GPS/GLONASS.

That same antenna array can also be used for triangulation, though at 5.2 GHz they are not

quite as efficient its possible to get a considerably more accurate signal by combining data

from multiple sources of known location.

For anyone who wants to play with these, many cheap Bluetooth dongles and headsets use them.

Pretty sure that the Samsung earpieces included with the S2, S4, S6 etc have these.

Not being SATA or a second ethernet, or anything much else but the addition of BTLE and WIFI is perfect for me. If they can do the same with a Zero 2 it'll be utterly perfect.

If it's just BLE/WiFi it's of no interest to me.

I see the ACT and PWR LEDs have moved. That'll mean the (rather nice) official case will need a redesign, which is a shame as otherwise it looks like it should fit just fine.

Good luck trying to get one!

If it's anything like the Pi Zero then you'll not be able to get hold of one for at least six months after it's released.. Don't believe me? Have a look, bet you can't find a single zero for sale from an authorised partner. Since the original Raspberry Pi the foundation have repeatedly failed to predict the level of demand for their product and then to adjust manufacturing output accordingly. I predict they'll make exactly the same blunder here.

I'm not criticising the extremely noble aims of the foundation but they really do need to get someone on board who understands business. I'm not sure why they are so hung up about getting the boards produced in the UK when the key thing to ensure is that demand can be met and customers (including schools) can actually purchase your product! This isn't just good business sense, it's good common sense...

So here's my prediction: They release the product, it sells out very quickly and they claim they were "surprised" by the level of demand. Then rather than increasing production capability they insist on producing the product at the same single plant in the UK who clearly can't keep up. Six months later it'll still be impossible to get hold of one without paying twice the official price from an ebay scalper. Any fair criticism posted on their forums will be deleted.

Haters going to hate, but let's see what happens....

RE. Re. Good luck trying to get one!

Unit 1: £36.50 (scalped)

Unit 2: £8.25, sold as "Broken".. all it needed was a pin fixing.

Both units work fine now, in fact the only reason I haven't done much with them is the

problem of no video output due to having to solder wires on (boooo!)

and the lack of a data sheet for either of my monochrome LCDs.

I used to use old camcorders for this but they are quite hard to find as of late, the actual

display is IIRC a monochrome 320*240 5mm2 unit from Kopin.

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G19051C

I did notice that a few random ones are showing up used now, as people presumably

pre-order the 3 and need the extra cash.

At the risk of 'banging on' again and again...

The Raspberry Pi is intended/designed as a £30 development platform / embedded platform. It is NOT a desktop PC replacement. The key feature is the price - the foundation have stated this over and over again. This low price inevitably constrains the other features so asking for dual Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, SATA and 16GB of RAM is just ridiculous at this time. These functionalities would require a significant number of external chips/components that would place it nearer the £100 mark. If you need extra functionality to, say, create a router or a NAS, then buy one of the many other SBCs with these features; and pay the much higher price.

On the RPi3, I don't see Wi-Fi as a big deal as it's very easy to install a micro USB Wi-Fi 'n' adapter on the RPi/RPi2. I suppose the same applies for Bluetooth but having them integrated may be more power efficient and convenient. We shall see...

Feature Creep

Most of the comments above are relevant and thoughtful BUT seem to be missing the point.

We have here a reasonably sophisticated, very inexpensive little computer. Those of you old enough to remember will recall that a Sinclair Spectrum was a sizable investment in its time. The Pi is practically a pocket money device. The foundation emphasises low price. If you're worrying about SATA ports and USB speeds and really do need them then you can doubtless afford something more upmarket than a PI.

The Pi is cheap enough to embed in a number of tinkerer's projects such as a super doorbell or a baby monitor. You can also turn the kids loose on it. If they destroy it it won't break the bank to pop out and get another one.

16 bit stereo sound too please!

And (maybe) just a tad more ram. I've been using a pi2 as 'my main computer' as an experiment and it only requires a modicum of patience and its OK. I'd advise against using a zero as a file server in an office situation though its OK for home use and seems to work as a print server as well - we do very little printing here but the kids need to do stuff for school and it seems to be OK for that.

Its a great device for tinkering/education but this next brings it into 'PC' level and with decent sound output the Pi foundation can look to increasing production and order of magnitude (or two) and bring costs down even further.

do bluetooth and wireless use the same chipset? will they interfere with each other?

Bluetooth YAAAAY [golf clap]

While nice to see Bluetooth in the mix, and already scheming a few possible fun projects, it's a shame the Linux Bluetooth stack (or at least certainly the audio parts thereof) is in such a parlous state at the moment.

BlueZ 5 dropped support for HSP/HFP and these have been farmed out to some Intel-curated hairball of stuff called ofono which nobody seems to know how to use (it's an entire telephony stack most of which is deadweight if all you want is to use a BT headset with existing apps). A2DP (stereo output) was always under-loved by ALSA and now is supported only through PulseAudio (the horror, the horror). As for AVRCP (remote control): good luck, I never got anywhere with that.

NB. It's been a few months since I looked at any of this, and my nurse says I'll probably be allowed real cutlery again soon, so maybe I'll take another look when the inevitable Pi3 purchase happens, but my hopes are not high.

Sorry if this a repost but my original one seems to have gone AWOL. The March edition of CPC/Farnell Computer World catalogue has a page on Pi 3 with pictures and specs. Last time I looked the catalogue was not available online yet, and the product codes given (sc1401241, sc1401441, sc1402741) could not be found in the online shop. If anyone is interested I can scan and post the page somewhere.

Well, it may be a mistake, but if anyone receives the CPC.co.uk catalogues today there is a full spec. and photo of the Pi 3 in there... Mine was just delivered and I was quite shocked to see it on the front cover.