Version of RPi with VGA output

MarkW,

   My understanding is that the chipset on the RPi doesn't support VGA. Adding ports or components that aren't supported natively by the chipset would normally mean a redesign and would increase the costs.

   I think a composite to VGA adapter would be a cheaper option.

I realize that adding such support would increase the costs hence my comment in the original post "I would be willing to pay more".  I believe I read that adding such support would double the cost of the Pi, but that would be considerably cheaper than buying an adaptor or new monitor. 

Personally, I think the huge numbers of Raspberry Pis being sold could very well drive the price of HDMI to VGA adapters down to a reasonable price.  There are some fairly cheap (i.e., less than the price of a RasPi Model A) ones available now, but it's unclear how well they work.  We're hoping people keep the RasPi Screens wiki up to date.  There's been lots of discussion on this at raspberrypi.org.  Go to the front page and enter "VGA adapter" in the Google search box.

I ran into this exact problem when I bought a BeagleBoard back in 2008, except that the cheapest HDMI to VGA adapters were then more like US$100.  So I bought a very nice 1440 x 900 NEC LCD monitor with both DVI-D and VGA inputs for the price of the BeagleBoard and it's been great.  (I have a Model B4 BeagleBoard which does not have the Model C LCD expansion headers.)

The common desire to use a single board layout common to multiple versions of a product really only makes sense when volumes are low.  When volumes are high, the reduced costs that can be obtained by tailoring PCBs to the exact functionality required become the more important factor since it makes the product more profitable.

In the case of Pi, the overall numbers are already pretty big even when selling merely to enthusiasts, and truly astronomic if the plans to get Pi into education come to fruition worldwide.  That means that making special versions of the boards becomes very worthwhile to consider.

I have no doubt at all that there are sufficient numbers of people who would be interested in a non-HDMI board to warrant creating non-HDMI board releases.  For a start, composite video is really quite incongruous in 2012 as a computer display for the developed world, so drop the on-board composite circruitry and connector and make a pure HDMI release.  However, composite video is considered highly important even today in the underdeveloped world, so making a version featuring composite but no HDMI would make sense and would allow prices to drop even further.

The same applies to the proposal here that VGA should be provided.  I expect that there are still so many VGA displays in the world that this would be a very popular option.  Drop composite and HDMI for a VGA model.

And finally, and most important of all, a very significant proportion of Pi users have server applications in mind and do not need display electronics at all.  Just serial console and ssh is quite enough for this segment of Pi users.  There definitely should be a low-cost version of Pi released with Ethernet but without graphics output hardware.

The latter version should of course be called Model N, standard nomenclature in the industry.

The cost saving in each of these categories could be substantial.  High volume really changes the game.

Morgaine.

Following the above suggested theme:

• Model A - Legacy name, aka. Model CH
• Model B - Legacy name, aka. Model CHN

----

• Model C - Composite video only
• Model H - HDMI output only
• Model N - Networking only, no graphics output
• Model V - VGA  output only

Morgaine.

I don't know what you consider astronomically expensive, but HDMI->VGA converters are sold as low as $16.  I do not know personally if this specific model works on the R-Pi

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BK-HDMI-Male-to-VGA-RGB-Female-HDMI-to-VGA-Video-Converter-adapter-1080P-for-PC-/130699741793?pt=US_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item1e6e4fca61

but according to the Wiki, it does work

http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#HDMI-.3EVGA_converter_boxes

@Morgaine: FWIW I will probably only need a monitor (and keyboard/mouse) for setting up the Pi. 

@jbeale: I think just a cable is unlikely to work.  I have seen loads of negative reviews of similar products.

@John: I had already done a search for "VGA adaptor" but all I get is VGA -> HDMI (which is the wrong way around).

The wiki looks useful but it seems like all the products are from American companies.  Is UK HDMI the same?  I know nothing about HDMI.

Mark W wrote:

 

@John: I had already done a search for "VGA adaptor" but all I get is VGA -> HDMI (which is the wrong way around).

Be sure to do the Google search from the Google search box on the front page at raspberrypi.org, where it says "search this site".  That limits the search to content within raspberrypi.org, and lists a number of forum threads about HDMI -> VGA conversion.  I don't know if the Google search will try to be clever and adapt its results to your search history, so you may get different results from me.  I'd ignore any products shown at the top of the search results as they're probably not the right kind of adapter (at least that was my experience).

@John: I did this but it looked like it did a "global" google search because none of the results were from raspberrypi.org

Mark,

  You can add

     site:raspberrypi.org

to any google search, to make it site specific.