Raspberry Pi 4 cheaper and got rid of problems with USB-C

In the summer of 2019, the developers of the Raspberry Pi Foundation officially unveiled the fourth generation of Raspberry Pi single-board computers. In frequency, then the updated “raspberries” acquired HDMI ports, support for USB-C and 4k. Let me remind you that at the start of sales and until recently, the Raspberry Pi 4 with 1 GB of RAM on board cost $ 35, and variations from 2 and 4 GB cost $ 45 or 55.

At the end of last week, the developers reported good news: in honor of the Raspberry’s eighth birthday, the Raspberry Pi 4 model with 2GB of RAM on board fell $ 10 and now costs $ 35 (only board). Moreover, the discount is not temporary at all, the price was reduced forever.

In addition, almost a year after the release, engineers at the Raspberry Pi Foundation finally figured out problems with the USB Type-C connector. The fact is that initially Raspberry Pi 4, in fact, was equipped with a USB-C port, which did not work with many cables (and, for example, chargers).

Since Raspberry is an open source product, the researchers examined published schemes that are freely available on the network and came to the conclusion that the USB-C port was simply not properly designed during development. So, two CC contacts must have their own 5.1 kΩ resistor, but Raspberry engineers created their own implementation, which used only one resistor. As a result, compatibility with some powerful chargers was impaired. Then the developers promised to fix the problem with the USB Type-C in the new version of the board “in the coming months.”

As The Register recently reported, USB Type-C problems were finally resolved, even if it happened a little later than expected. Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton said that currently the new revision boards should have already gone on sale and reached end users.