Inevitable, some weeks after the limited appearance of the Zero, cases are appearing on the market, First in the UK, where some had prerelease information and could grab the first profitable sales.

But now China has kicked in:

DX.com Euro 3.32 including postage.

Now some weeks to wait 😉

And it looks good! Even cheaper versions on AliExpress with the same quality. Recommended!

Update April 3, 2020

I reinstalled the TinyLCD screen on the latest Raspbian. And sofar it works well, fast screen updates, compared to the Kedei or Itead screens)
The mouse thingy was removed, did not like it so much. Touch screen is enough.

Here is what I did:

1. Fresh image Buster (full) to 16 GB SD card
2. Usual actions with raspi-config, boot to CLI, etc
3. Kill piwiz (sudo apt-get remove piwiz)
4. sudo nano /boot/config.txt
  add line dtoverlay=tinylcd35,touch,rotate=270,rtc-pcf
5. To display console text on TinyLCD35 screen
sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt single line:
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait fbcon=map:10
6. Select a smaller font for the console with: 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup'.
Select "UTF-8" encoding "Guess optimal character set",  "Terminus" font,  font size: "6x12" 
7. Reboot

X11 desktop

sudo nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbturbo.conf

and enter: 

Section "Device"        
    Identifier "tinylcd35"   
    Driver "fbdev"  
    Option "fbdev" "/dev/fb1"  
EndSection  

9. startx will show desktop now. Touch works now corrrect for rotate 270 degrees.

Desktop X Windows, 
'sudo nano /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc' 

and add the following line before ". /etc/X11/Xsession":

DISPLAY=:0 xinput --set-prop 'ADS7846 Touchscreen' 

10. Calibrate X (not working instructions yet for rotation, other than 270, see also the post on Adafruits PiTFT) 

sudo apt-get install xinput-calibrator

Optionally, check if you need to swap axes. if you need to swap just run:

xinit set-int-prop "ADS7846 Touchscreen" "Evdev Axes Swap" 8 1 or 'Evdev Axis Inversion' 1 0 ?

Run calibrator to get correct x,y positions.

xinput_calibrator --output-type auto

Name:   tinylcd35
Info:   3.5" Color TFT Display by www.tinylcd.com
        Options: Touch, RTC, keypad
Load:   dtoverlay=tinylcd35,=
Params: speed                   Display SPI bus speed

        rotate                  Display rotation {0,90,180,270}

        fps                     Delay between frame updates

        debug                   Debug output level {0-7}

        touch                   Enable touch panel

        touchgpio               Touch controller IRQ GPIO

        xohms                   Touchpanel: Resistance of X-plate in ohms

        rtc-pcf                 PCF8563 Real Time Clock

        rtc-ds                  DS1307 Real Time Clock

        keypad                  Enable keypad

        Examples:
            Display with touchpanel, PCF8563 RTC and keypad:
                dtoverlay=tinylcd35,touch,rtc-pcf,keypad
            Old touch display:
                dtoverlay=tinylcd35,touch,touchgpio=

Old text from 2015

I bought a tiny 3.5 ”  lcd touchscreen from NeoSec Solutions Pvt, Ltd, based in Mumbai, India. Not as a desktop replacement but for projects where a small touchscreen will be handy.
Not recommended. I learned there is a newer version with a working RTC, so this is now a not-supported old version.
No forum support, no information on IC’s used, limited documentation.
Just too high a price for this. Better look at an Adafruit solution in the same price range, but with excellent support and better community support also.
Read More →

How to setup a WLAN manually, if the desktop is not available (its a small widget on the left top otherwise)

Find out the available WLAN networks (there can be more WLAN adapters connected, wlan0 is the first)

sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

Read More →

A new Raspberry Pi, appeared end of November 2015. Called Zero, a break with the naming convention of A, B, A+, B+, Model 2 B. Reminds me a bit of the Arduino Zero 🙂

The specifications are close to the A+ with the following changes:

• (over)clocked at  1 GHz (called Turbo in raspi-config).
• 512 MB instead of 256 MB
• Micro USB connector instead of USB 2.0
• Mini HDMI instead of HDMI
• No Audio connector
• Composite video available on solder pads
• No CSI and DSI camera and display connectors
• GPIO connector not soldered on

This makes the Zero the smallest and cheapest Raspberry Pi but also the less equipped. But is essence it is just a first generation Raspberry. The price is set at $5 officially.The Zero behaves (with the right cables) as all the other Rasperry Pi’s. The OS is the same, the latest is Jessie november 2015, and runs fine. The only visible Zero addition is a new overclock option in raspi-config, called Turbo (1000 MHz). I tried also an older but uptodate  Wheezy and that also runs fine.

I ordered two at the PiHut at launch day and was pleasantly surprised to get those, delivered very fast and at a price of £4. I also ordered the PiHut Zero Essential kit, which contains, in a nice can, micro to USB 2 adapter, a Mini HDMI to HDMI adapter and a large choice of GPIO connectors to be soldered in.

What makes the Zero special for me is:

1. Price. Even if the local dealers in Europe will charge at least 3x the $5 price by including two cables and VAT and profit, it still is a bargain.
2. Size. This flat design makes it fit in even smaller designs.
3. Freedom in GPIO connections. See below for some examples how this can be done, the PiHUT understands this very well by including choices in the Zero Essential kit.

Micro connectors

As a Raspberry Pi user from the beginning, I have plenty of cable solutions in stock. You can see what I prefer here.  Now the Zero has a micro USB connector! Not a real problem since tablets, phones and even my latest notebook, the Asus T300-CHI, also only have these small connectors. Drawers full of micro cables and hubs therefore.  So here some preferred USB devices I use now with the Zero.

Ebay: Micro USB 2.0 Host Male to USB Female OTG Adapter. Converts a USB 2.0 to a Micro USB by inserting this little thing.

This USB hub combined with Ethernet adapter is also available with micro USB connector

This low weight 3 port USB hub is seen here connected to a Zero with a Ethernet adapter, a WiFi adapter and a wireless Logitech keyboard/mouse adapter. The Mini HDMI conveter is coupled to a HDMI to DVI connector. The USB power has an on/off switch, highly recommended on the workbench.