Raspberry Pi 2 B+ Expanded RAM

Bill Hoffer is "very" correct but a little to the point, without explaining to much..

But nevertheless very exact indeed, the RAM upon the development board is a fixed item which cannot be upgraded in its current form.

I do wonder though if someone was very handy indeed with a soldering iron and a RAM chip avaliable that someone could come along, unsolder the current RAM chip itself and use the same branded but larger variety in its place.

I would be happy to test this theory out and would even endeavour to the point of expressing a notion of a project where by someone creates some kind of way to connect a normal say, PC stick of RAM addition to add to the raspberry board either in replacement or by some other means even to the point of it being used like a RAMdisk device..

Anyway, could be pie in the sky and way out of my depth but I have seen people remove embedded RAM chips and replacing them with larger versions in the past but not on the raspberry board itself..

Mainly cell/mobile phones and that sort of thing..

Afterall, what's the price to purchase an older or used raspberry board, try it out for you self and just see what happens.. The only loss is time, patience and maybe a few quid.. But think of what could come of a simple idea like this, if a little tricky and labour intensive

It's just lovely to see people push the boundaries a little with ideas and giving them a go at.. Sorry if this reply alarms anyone.. Just a thought eh..

yes I did keep it simple and direct for a reason. I have desoldered surface mount parts, and I used the solder reflow oven i built based on the one Ben and his guest created in a early episode, to resolder items. You need a specialized tip on your iron and hands incredibly steady so not to flow solder across pads which will cause shorts when the new chip would be soldered back on.

Next you will more than likely have to salvage the ram from a source, making sure that its is the right shape and size so it will fit the location of the board, since its hard to find sites that sell surface mounted ram.

Now you have to make sure the version of the Pi you have can hold the amount of ram you want to use in its BIOS. Older laptops and desktop computers that don't use the UEFI bios, which all Windows 8 and Windows 10 system uses, could not use  more than  24 gigs ram. After you hit the max amount of ram, any reaming amount of ram does not show and can not be used. There is a probally a reason they don't use more ram versus the orange pi and apple pis who do use 2 gigs.

Finally you need to carefully solder the new ram on to the board making sure not to overheat the ram with your solder iron or reflow oven, which will fry the ram, and not flowing solder across pads causing shorts or breaking any solder likes leaving or entering the ram.

Finally Clem has given the easiest method to do what you want to do.

yes I did keep it simple and direct for a reason. I have desoldered surface mount parts, and I used the solder reflow oven i built based on the one Ben and his guest created in a early episode, to resolder items. You need a specialized tip on your iron and hands incredibly steady so not to flow solder across pads which will cause shorts when the new chip would be soldered back on.

Next you will more than likely have to salvage the ram from a source, making sure that its is the right shape and size so it will fit the location of the board, since its hard to find sites that sell surface mounted ram.

Now you have to make sure the version of the Pi you have can hold the amount of ram you want to use in its BIOS. Older laptops and desktop computers that don't use the UEFI bios, which all Windows 8 and Windows 10 system uses, could not use  more than  24 gigs ram. After you hit the max amount of ram, any reaming amount of ram does not show and can not be used. There is a probally a reason they don't use more ram versus the orange pi and apple pis who do use 2 gigs.

Finally you need to carefully solder the new ram on to the board making sure not to overheat the ram with your solder iron or reflow oven, which will fry the ram, and not flowing solder across pads causing shorts or breaking any solder likes leaving or entering the ram.

Finally Clem has given the easiest method to do what you want to do.