New Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless Gets a Much Welcomed Upgrade

2017-02-28 | By Maker.io Staff

Raspberry Pi SBC

On the mark of Raspberry Pi’s fifth birthday and running with the theme of always announcing something new on its birthday, we now have a much welcomed upgrade to the Raspberry Pi Zero board (but not the one I was hoping for).

The official code name “Raspberry Pi Zero W” is the latest addition to the range, which is based upon the original Raspberry Pi Zero with added wireless connectivity. The original Raspberry Pi Zero launched way back in November 2015 for only $5 due to its significant reduction in size and hardware power.

Since the Raspberry Pi Zero had launched, it soon found its way into a number of miniature arcade cabinets and even fit inside an original Gameboy. Many of the application types required some kind of network connectivity to either program over SSH or to send and receive data from cloud services. Even connecting a keyboard and mouse was such as task, as it required additional USB adaptors. With the Pi Zero costing a mere $5 you might be spending further costs buying adaptors and USB hubs for well over $20, what should have been a $5 computer has now become a $25-30 computer.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W fixes this issue, despite a slight cost increase to $10 it can be fully justified. The Raspberry Pi foundation has done a great job a squashing in an already compact board wireless functionality. The wireless chip is based on the same as the Raspberry Pi 3, which is a Cypress CYW43438 wireless chip that provides 802.11n wireless LAN and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

Raspberry Pi Zero W

Features:

• 1GHz Single-core CPU
• 512MB RAM
• Mini-HDMI port
• Micro-USB
• Micro-USB power
• HAT compatible 40-pin GPIO header (Header not soldered)
• Composite video and reset headers
• CSi camera connector
• 802.11n Wireless LAN
• Bluetooth 4.0

To accompany the Raspberry Pi Zero W, the Raspberry Pi foundation have also released an official injection-moulded case, much similar to the Raspberry Pi 3 case. The design features three interchangeable lids for different scenarios of use. There is a plain blank lid, one which lets you access the GPIO pins and one with hole for mounting the Raspberry Pi camera board.

Raspberry Pi Zero Case

The Raspberry Pi Zero W will be great addition and in some cases an upgrade to some interesting portable projects. I’m a little disappointed not to see a hardware upgrade for better performance but this may not have been possible with the Zero being a very low cost board and physically compact design. I really can’t wait to get my hands on one and I have already some projects in mind.

NEW PRODUCT! RASPBERRY PI ZERO W JOINS THE FAMILY by the Raspberry Pi Foundation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

制造商零件编号 SC0020

SBC 1.0GHZ 1 CORE 512MB RAM

Raspberry Pi

¥124.04

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