RISCOSbits at the London Show 2021 (and before!)
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RISCOSBits (3000)
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RISCOSbits are pleased to be attending the first in-person RISC OS Show in nearly two years, and has several treats in store for those who make it to the show (which will also be available after the show to those who can’t attend!) FOURtress Computers: Possibly the cheapest, super-value RISC OS Pi 4 machine, the FOURtress Lite will be on sale for less than a hundred quid! For a fully working RISC OS system! For £99, the FOURtress Lite has the following specs: - 2GB RAM The machine can be used as a superb standalone machine, or can be used as the foundation to a system with a fully integrated SSD, by means of a simple upgrade at a later stage. In fact, the FOURtress Lite is prepared as EDOS-ready, so you can easily add a full Linux installation at a later date. You could even consider it a “buy half now, buy the rest later” machine, in the same vein as the RiscPC. If you fancy something with a bit more oomph, at £139, the FOURtress Lite Plus is built on the same foundation as the FOURtress Lite, except that it comes with an almost inexhaustible 4GB RAM and a whopping 128GB SD card with 2Gb of curated software. Just to make it even better, those buying at the show will also get a FREE PSU with the Lite Plus. All for £139! £139! The final FOURtress offer is the FOURtress EDOS 4240. This special machine runs RISC OS by default, but with the click of an exclusive custom application, will reboot into Raspberry Pi OS Linux. After shutdown from Linux, it will return to RISC OS at next boot. No extra hardware is required, it’s an integrated two-in-one system straight out of the box. The specs for the FOURtress EDOS 4240 include: - 4GB RAM The M.2 drive also includes a special shared partition, visible to both RISC OS and Raspberry Pi OS, to make it easy to pass files between the two OSes or just store your RISC OS applications and files. It even accelerates the speed of disc intensive applications, such as the beta Iris browser. At £199, this represents a saving of around 15% on the usual price, and again, for show attendees, includes a FREE PSU. EDOS: Self-Build Kits and Cases: If stylish metal is not your forte, there will be a number of matte black and translucent white PiAno self-build kits for sale, including an optional but recommended HDMI adaptor kit, with a custom PCB to bring all the ports out to the front, and adding an internal USB port (for all USB drives, including those connected by a USB-SATA adaptor!). The optional kit also includes a powerful illuminated cooling fan, and heatsink set. This serves to give the PiAno a soft purple glow on the desktop. The PiAno has ample space inside for a regular HAT or RTC, but to get the self-build kit working, just add a Pi 4 and SD card of your choice! The PiAno is held together with decorative fixings, so there are no panels that can fall away unexpectedly. There will be a special, very limited, run of Delta XL oak and glass-effect self-build, including a Pi 4 compatible HDMI/power/USB adaptor PCB, with enough room for a Pi 4 and an internally mounted hard drive. These stylish looking cases are normally only available with a PiHard system, but we’re making a small number available for those who already have a Pi 4 and a hard drive. By just adding a Pi 4, you can have the most pleasant looking RISC OS system in your living room without it looking out of place (depening on your living room, obviously!). A bit of wax, stain or varnish on the wooden end panels for extra style! The Delta XL has room inside for HATs, RTCs and a number of other peripherals. Finally, the Delta Compact case will be available in limited numbers. This is a newly revised, smaller version of the Delta XL, made with black acrylic end panels and glass effect layers. This case can host any Pi, from the B+ and above, and comes with an optional custom HDMI adaptor to bring all the ports to the front. This stylish case makes your Pi look more like a work of art than a computer, whilst retaining a small footprint. Just add your own Pi! There will also be a number of pocket-money Thorin cases available, consisting of two oak, acrylic or glass-effect slices to sandwich the Pi. Available with three sets of cooling cut-outs (Cog, Nut or Berry), and in two versions for Pi 4 or for B+/2B/3B/3B+ and, at only £5, these are easy to fit and attractive beyond their price-tag! EDOS400: The EDOS400 is a Raspberry Pi 400 bundle, running both RISC OS and Linux at the click of an app! Our bundle comes with the following items: All you need to do is add the screen! At an introductory price of £149, we think this represents a bargain! Upgrades are available, including wireless mouse, higher capacity drives, and WIFI/RTC HATs. The WIFI/RTC HAT utilises our special Carrier Board which plugs into the GPIO ports, and is available separately for only £15 (clearly not including the HAT!). It may also fit other HATs, but none have been tested. These are all available to pre-order now, for despatch after the show – see here to get them while you can! FUtilities FUtilities will be available to download soon – we’re just trying to get the last few authors to agree to allow us to include their wares in our little collection. New Developments: The first is an exploratory LapDock device capable of doing justice to the Raspberry Pi 4. This laptop dock features a 13.3 inch, 1920 × 1080 pixel IPS display (with several other modes available over EDID, without changing eigen values), and a 360-degree hinge that lets you fold the screen back for use in tablet mode. It has an integrated touchscreen, although this isn’t functional under RISC OS. However, the touchscreen serves to access the firmware settings, such as colour adjustment, battery control and specific user settings. Measuring 12.1in x 8.2in x 0.5in and weighing significantly less than three pounds, the LapDock is about the size of a thin and light notebook, and, with an aluminium alloy body, has a premium look and feel – think PineBook Pro meets MacBook. It includes a backlit keyboard with 84 keys, a touchpad, stereo speakers, mini HDMI in, 3.5mm audio, and two USB-C ports, plus a microSD card reader and a battery capable of powering the LapDock and a Pi 4 for about five hours. With it’s 5v USB-C output, the LapDock can also power various other RISC OS boards, such as a Pandaboard or Beagleboard, and can also make use of Windows boards and Compute Sticks, such as the LattePanda. Not only that, when not being used to run RISC OS or other computer boards, it can be used to charge your mobile phone! And lastly, but definitely not the least, is our collaboration project which has been ongoing for several months and is finally coming to fruition. Although currently without a name, our Mini ITX board should be of interest to RISC OS and Linux users. We’re hoping that complex logistics allow for the FINAL prototype to make it back from the manufacturers in time for the show, but failing that, we may have an earlier iteration available to look at. Based on the Compute Module 4 Lite, from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the board fits into a standard Mini ITX case or bigger, and has the following features: - CPU Speeds from 1500MHz to 2147 MHz The board will run a standard off-the-shelf Pi ROM, downloadable from the RISC OS open website, and should be capable of running both stable versions and nightly builds. Some work is ongoing in order to control some of the more enhanced features of the board, such as temperature controlled fans, but the board itself should work and run RISC OS immediately. It will also run Raspberry Pi OS without issue, and this may be made available via RISCOSbits EDOS software, or by simply swapping the SD card. We expect to be able to make the board available for sale in the very near future, and are anticipating a price tag somewhere in the region of a cheap laptop. Full computer systems based on the Mini ITX board may follow. We look forward to chatting to visitors about many of our projects at the show, so please come and have a look at what we offer. |
