Raspberry Pi enthusiasts unable to wait for the shelves to fill up with Pi-500 stock are starting to get creative.

The Raspberry Pi 400 is getting a little long in the tooth these days. Initially launched in 2020, 12 months after the Raspberry Pi 4 made its debut, the computer-in-a-keyboard was a throwback to those halcyon days of plugging a BBC Micro or Commodore 64 into the family TV and getting down to typing without worrying about plugging in a keyboard.

It has been almost a year since the Raspberry Pi 5 was introduced, with a jump in performance, memory, and price. However, the launch date for the Pi-500 remains as yet unconfirmed.

Pi supremo Eben Upton was playing his cards close to his chest on the matter, simply acknowledging to The Register: "We know people are waiting for it."

The Raspberry Pi is nothing if not a device for tinkerers and hobbyists to do their worst - or best - with. As we wait for the official Pi-500, here are a couple of stand-out builds to keep you and your 3D printer amused over the summer.

Coming in at the end of 2023 was
Christopher Barnatt's excellent Pi 500. Barnatt's initial build came soon after the release of the Pi 5 and so lacked some of the fripperies (such as the M.2 HAT that turned up in 2024) but was notably chunkier than the Pi 400 since it is a brave person that runs a Pi 5 without some sort of cooling solution - ideally active.

There's a certain retro-chic to Barnatt's design. While the color was apparently chosen to mimic that of the original Amiga 500, the whole thing puts us much more in mind of an Acorn Electron, just chiclet keys instead of Acorn's beefier device. If it weren't for fear of destroying a classic bit of hardware, there might be scope for using a real Electron case and keyboard. After all,
it's been done before.

Barnatt used extenders for a full-sized HDMI port, Ethernet, and USB sockets. However, he also used USB to connect an NVMe SSD.

Unlike Arnov Sharma, who was able to make use of the official M.2 HAT for his 128GB SSD. Sharma has also dubbed his unit: the Pi 1000.

This device takes an ordinary membrane keyboard and replaces the backing plate with a custom enclosure for a 4GB Pi 5 and associated hardware. However, unlike Barnatt's design, the Pi 5 is clearly visible, with ports accessible through a gap in the custom case rather than via extenders.

Then again, the use of the M.2 HAT makes for some impressive performance from the diminutive machine. The addition of a chunky volume control also has a certain appeal.

For version 2, Sharma intends to aim for a thinner form by making the keyboard from scratch.

While we wait for the official Pi-500 to appear, Barnatt's and Sharma's takes on a modern all-in-one are ideal fodder for summer tinkering and will give the Raspberry Pi team food for thought about what the actual hardware should look like. ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/08/14/still_waiting_for_a_pi/