When will I finally get the Raspberry Pi?

Well it's funny. Because as a final costumer I don't care about testings or etc. The device was (so called) launched alot of time ago. And yet no one got their pis.

I mean there are lots of people behind this project. Why no one thought about testings and etc. Why no one bothered to build the device in the first place. They launched a device which is not produced and tested. As we see the weeks passed they produced the device and testing it now.

A man is judged by his words. If you're launching, you have to sell the actual device. You can't just do launching for a device which doesn't exist. I you don't have the device, launch the thing when it's finished. No one will try to hurt you because of that.

But this situation is not pleasant. And I do not think no one thinks about CE procedures and testings...

I also ordered on the 'big day' and got an expected shipment date w/c: 23/Apr

The Raspberry Pi foundation did say they wanted to bring back the era of the BBC micro and i think they've succeeded.

This is just like waiting for my Sinclair ZX80.

Actually, I don't mind too much... I'm older, wiser and less desperate such things as a Zilog Z80, 1Kbytes RAM and a 'thump sensitive' keyboard.

Please try to remember that the Raspberry Pi Foundation is a non-profit run by a handfull of people, mostly a couple -- regular people. They are not Dell. And as far as I know this is their first device/project of this sort. I'm sure they honestly thought, and were given assurances from their partners, that things would go smoothly and everyone would have their orders by now. They're doing their best, and better than I could do, so I'm not going to criticize.

Its not them im critisising, if anything its farnell for saying they have to have an CE mark in place.

And I agree with Enes, I don't care about testing. Half the electronics stuff I have is probberbly not CE marked from where the're china exports.

The main thing im still wondering is that have farnell taken on the CE Marks yet? Farnell have still not posted anything about the Pi passing CE mark tests where as the RPI blog has.

Are farnell just waiting for nothing?

From what I have heard - both farnell and RS have to agree / sign off or somthing like that befoer shipping can start.

The fact that some individuals may not care whether their units are certified is completely irrelevant.  You're buying from a respected professional company that complies with legal requirements in the countries where it does business, and the requirement for certification has been explained very clearly and authoritiatively.

Here is the BIS requiirement, as explained by the Foundation (this is taken from Element 14's FAQ):

• HOT OFF THE PRESS UPDATE FROM EBEN UPTON OF RASPBERRY PI EARLIER TODAY:
• “We have spoken with BIS this morning, and have been told that, given the volumes involved and the demographic mix of likely users, the development board exemption is not applicable to us; as a result, even the first uncased developer units of Raspberry Pi will require a CE mark prior to distribution in the EU...... ....we are working with RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell to bring Raspberry Pi into a compliant state as soon as is humanly possible.”

It's not up for discussion.  Perhaps once the Foundation releases manufacturing documents then other companies will manufacture uncertified units outside of the US or the EU, and you'll be able to buy clones from cowboy outfits.  It's a very stupid thing to want though.

Morgaine.

Completely agree - at this price, why not wait and get the real thing, rather than a (probably) marginally cheaper device with who knows what provinence?

Going OT (slightly) the small difference between the real CE mark and the China Export Label had a few people concerned in my office yesterday - at first glace it looked like a lot of people had fake iPhones :-)

It was only when I got my (cheap) charger for something and compared the distance between the letters it became obvious...naughty people !

I have no thoughts on not getting the real thing, depending I have an powerful computer theres no point in me buying one from china at a slightly cheeper price.

They have just posted on the RPI website that farnell could start shipping at the beginning of next week (Depending I'm sure im not at the top of the list it is looking like I won't get the RPI to show off at school :C )

My main purpose was not to use it as an computer, im going to hook it up to stuff like the arduino to controll projects that need a bit of a brain on them which themselfs would probberbly void the whole purpose of having it CE Marked.

morgaine

Sorry but you didn't get the point. Let me make it clear;

We ofcourse want to buy a certificated device. But we quite do not understand why a device which is not tested or produced at the firstplace is launced and preordered? I mean I don't want to know about the whole process. It doesn't feel right when they feed news through their website...

Anyway, sooner or later the devices will be shipped ofcourse, but this whle process smells very amateurish.

@Enes: Aye, you're right about the certification side of it.  The Foundation got it completely wrong:  their plan was inconsistent.

On the one hand they (allegedly) thought that the first batch didn't need certification because it was a bare unboxed board which would be going to technically competent people, and on the other hand they advertised it far and wide as a very capable media computer, able to run XBMC and OpenELEC and running totally normal Linux distributions including a regular desktop, which obviously meant that every man and their dog would want one at this very low price.  Those two positions are inconsistent:  the first assumes competence in being able to deal with EMC problems, whiile the second places the units in domestic consumer situations where technical competence with EMC would be a rare thing.

What I found odd is that they didn't look at Arduino for guidance, since it's a European company selling bare boards in similarly huge quantities, and those boards are all certified to RoHS, CE, and FCC standards despite being less consumer-oriented than the Raspberry Pi.  Whatever the thinking was at the Foundation, it must have been pretty bizarre, but fortunately Farnell and RS had their heads screwed on and said "Dear Foundation, this doesn't compute."

It's worth highlighting the phrase "given the volumes involved and the demographic mix of likely users", as a result of which the BIS declared that the exemption for development boards was not available for Rpi.  I doubt that this was a surprise to anybody, not even the Foundation, once it was explained that clearly to them.

I suspect that the Foundation got it so wrong for a rather simple reason: they are so emotionally invested in the project that they can't see the wood for the trees, so they didn't realize that their very extensive and consumer-oriented promotion would result in the need for certification.  The big picture and commonsense were both pushed aside by wishful thinking.  It happens, to err is human.

It doesn't matter anyway.  The whole saga of launch will be forgotten as soon as boards are in  stock at RS and Farnell.

Morgaine.