Gertboard availability?

Hi David,

We have updated our Gerboard FAQ recently. Unfortunately, Gertboard is no longer available, please see full message on: http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-48974/l/gertboard-faq

Thanks,

Farnell element14 Raspberry Pi Customer Support

Customer Support wrote:

 

Hi David,

 

We have updated our Gerboard FAQ recently. Unfortunately, Gertboard is no longer available, please see full message on: http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-48974/l/gertboard-faq

 

 

Thanks,

Farnell element14 Raspberry Pi Customer Support

So, what your saying is youve shafted this Gert bloke, right? Got him to sigh his rights away, then stopped selling his board?

Bill

@ Billy Thornton,

If your local store runs out of eggs do you imediately assume that they murdered all the hens ?

I agree that the E14 message re. the Gertboard is unclear and E14/Farnell do themselves no good by that lack of clarity - but let's wait until we do know what is happening before we accuse them of anything.

Michael Kellett

@Michael Kellett, 

If the only store that is allowed to sell eggs suddenly says there are no more egss for sale and we aren't going to be offering them again, I think it's a reasonable assumption to make that the hot roast chicken they are now selling used to be laying eggs. and won't be laying anymore......

It seems that I am one of the lucky ones - ordered Gert 17th Oct, Shipped 23rd Oct (after receiving an email saying December ship), arrived 25th Oct.  This is from Farnell in the UK, shipped to a UK address.  Looked online just after I ordered and it was already out of stock.

Having built it now, I would say that for most of the people the board is aimed at - kids, educators, etc - a pre-assembled board would be a better bet.  My 13 year old daughter (who has her ham ticket and is quite good at soldering) had lost the will to live by the time it came to solder in all the headers.  The same thing was being discussed at the Bristol Raspberry Jam earlier this month.

It is a brilliant board - LEDS, switches, motor controller, relay drive, ADC/DAC, SPI, I2C. It will get my kids started but I reckon it won't be long before we either break the Pi (the ribbon cable is way too short) or we'll end up building specific interfaces on veroboard.

Rather than Farnell murdering all the hens, it seems more like the hens are being re-engineered to lay pre-cooked eggs - not everybody's cup of tea, but removing a lot of frustration for those that aren't really interested in soldering and keeping the overall cost down.

I hope that Gert has retained his rights to the PCB design and is able to release unpopulated boards for the masochists amongst us in the Pi community, but bear in mind that if you type the Bill of Materials into the Farnell website, you'll be spending more than £90 on the components for one board, once you take into account the minimum order quantities.

Lee (Radiocode)

(I hope this post reads alright - all the text is there, but it doesn't display properly on my Pi...)

@Radiocode

Succinctly put, and echos my feelings entirely, I just hope that they do come out withh a sensibly priced pre-cooked one, they could even leave it to the likes of tandyonline to offer the kit, I reckon picking it for packaging must have been a costly nightmare for them. Make mine easy over please

Heck, I hope mine just eventually shows up. I ordered August 19th, and I have an estimated shipping date of November 29th.

Starnge things are a happening.

Ordered my GertBoard Aug 12. (Est Ship Sept 12) Status (Back ordered to Oct 17). Status (Back ordered to Nov 5).

Credit Card charged Est Ship Oct 24.

Received package on Oct 31. Surprise, I got a Raspberry Pi Rev2 512 MB board.

Checked order history: Aug 12 order status completed. New order (I did not do anything, Charge amount $0.00) dated Oct 31 for GertBoard: Status: Back Ordered (Est Ship Nov 29).

Called Customer service.

They generated to new order for the GertBoard.

They told me to keep the Raspberry Pi. WOW.

Is this great customer service or what?

Although I am disappointed to have to keep waiting, I am not complaining I got an updated Raspberry Pi.

Has this happened to anyone else?

To Stuart and those others that received a Raspberry Pi instead of a Gertboard.   As an update to when I reported this problem last Thursday, they had also told me to keep the Raspberry Pi that was shipped to me and that they would investigate.  I was to hear back within a few days of resolution.  Nothing .. I called them today after seeing Stuart's post as a reminder to check and they have admitted the problem and are now in process of getting me a Gertboard.  No ETA yet. 

Stuart, are you also in Canada?

I see that quite a few people that are receiving a Raspberry Pi instead of a GertBoard are in Canada.

I got an updated Raspberry Pi instead of a GertBoard.

I am in Oregon, United States.

Stuart Cullen wrote:

 

Starnge things are a happening.

Halloween is definitely a strange time.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

Stuart Cullen wrote:

 

Starnge things are a happening.

 

Halloween is definitely a strange time.

Yup. I have seen several Pumpkin Pi's in last few days. Also some spooky solder.

Ray

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

Stuart Cullen wrote:

 

Starnge things are a happening.

 

Halloween is definitely a strange time.

Yup. I have seen several Pumpkin Pi's in last few days. Also some spooky solder.

Ray

Ray Hughes wrote:

 

Yup. I have seen several Pumpkin Pi's in last few days. Also some spooky solder.

Haha.  Well speaking of spooky solder, have you ever examined solder joints under a microscope, with a magnification of at least 20X?  It makes you marvel at the fact that soldered electronics work at all, it's so dirty, messy and irregular, and I'm referring even to the best quality professionally made boards.

Being quite well versed in the foundations of nanotechnology (there is no practice, yet), the state of solder joints really brings home to me in what barbaric times we still live in electronics, ie. our poor control over bulk materials.  It's digital, sure, but only by the skin of its teeth.  Solder joints look more like the product of drunken spiders than a precisely engineered product.

Cool.

My Gertboard arrived today.

I also received a letter telling me to keep the Pi they sent.

I'm very happy to get the Gertboard, so the Pi is icing on the cake.

Thanks element14! and thanks to everyone in Customer Service.

My Gertboard also arrived via Purolator Courier here in Ottawa, Canada yesterday.  I wasn't home to receive it, but did pick it up at lunchtime today.

Also got the letter about being able to keep the Pi they sent in error.  Thanks Newark/Element 14 for coming through with great customer service.

Time to fire up the soldering iron.

Greg Goodwin wrote:

 

Time to fire up the soldering iron.

I like to use the film noir word "heater" to refer a soldering iron, as in "Why d’ya let these cheap gunsels hang around the lobby with their heaters bulging in their pockets?” from The Maltese Falcon.

Recieved my Gert board and letter telling me to keep the pi,  thank you Newark for pi and for my gert board, can't wait to start putting it all together....

Arlie

Arlie,

Glad to hear it, thank you for your business! Let us know how everything turns out

Dave,

I am in the same boat as the others who received a Pi instead of a Gertboard, but I have not received a replacement nor do I have any idea if I will. Customer service seems to be more in the dark than I am. Would you look into it?

Thanks,

Geordie

So Dave, my date keeps getting pushed back on shipping my Gerboard. Now it's at December 5th. I'm just wondering if it'll even ship at all.

Bryan,

I definitely understand your frustration, we are planning on fulfilling  the backorders of the Gertboard as quickly as we can, unfortunately lead times keep getting pushed back, but we will ship one to you they are available to ship. If there are any updates the Raspberri Pi Group page will be the best place to find them.

Hi Dave,

Sorry if I came across as frustrated. I just wanted to make sure the orders will still be fulfilled. For what it's worth, I am very impressed with the 512MB RaspPi delivery times! Also, it'll give me more time to indulge into Python

Regards,

Bryan