R-Comp / RCI London Show products

Although Steph and myself will be unable to attend the London Show personally due to on-going COVID shielding (we are both considered at-risk), R-Comp and RCI will have a stand and be present in the kind forms of the Alan Wrigley and Andrew Pullen. The stand will be overseen by Richard Brown of Orpheus, who will have a large box of products. Please be patient as things may not be quite as smooth-running as usual – we’re just super-grateful for everyone for making this possible. :)

I hope to be able to give a theatre presentation via Zoom link, all being well.

Additionally, to avoid time restrictions, I’ll be doing a live stream via Zoom and Youtube tomorrow (Thursday). More details in another post.

The Plus One ( +1 ) upgrade for Pi400 / Pi4

Designed to compliment the Pi 400, but also compatible with the Pi4 board (and probably earlier Pis too), the Plus One ( +1 ) upgrade is designed as a cartridge that neatly plugs into the expansion connector on the back of the Pi400, or the expansion pins on the Pi board. The Pi 400 was designed to be reminiscent of old Acorn machines like the Electron, so we chose a name that reminds us of the old Electron upgrades.

A picture can be found at http://www.rcomp.co.uk/PlusOne.jpg

But what is the mystical +1 ? It refers to other OSs such as Linux or Windows (ARM version) which can run on Pi. The cartridge provides a physical hardware switch allowing you to select which OS you wish to boot into, without needing to re-write (potentially dangerously) critical files on your SD card. Instructions and files are provided to help you install this, or you can buy a ready-to-go OS bundle (physical drives) directly from R-Comp Interactive.

But that‘s not all! The Plus One also includes a real time clock, with battery backup, so that your Pi4 or Pi will preserve the time between sessions. This is compatible with both RISC OS and Linux.

Your PlusOne upgrade costs £25 (bare board) or £30 cased, inc VAT. OS bundles from £65 & packs with Pi400 at £120+
Carriage charged as appropriate.

PiTools 1.13

PiTools launched during lockdown, and provides a suite of software designed to expand, enhance and unlock the best experience when running RISC OS on a Raspberry Pi computer, especially Pi4 and 400.

The software includes dozens of features designed to make life better, ranging from improving the keyboard/mouse experience (eg. for Pi400 users, or people using touchpads, or those used to PC/Mac etc), unlocking 4k screen modes, playing old video games designed for low resolution screens, remote access, automatic networking, headless operation, security / screen-locking, and much more. There are special monitor definitions for Pi4 (4K) and older Pi (2K) monitors, (super)widescreen support, graphics improvements, fault-recovery and so on.

PiTools is designed to enhance anything from Pi zero to Pi4/400,
and whilst a couple of features are Pi4-specific, the majority of functionality will benefit everyone.

Of particular note is the automated networking, which is plug‘n‘play in the RISC OS desktop. This speeds up boot significantly, and allows networking to autoconfigure the moment you plug in a cable (just like a PC/Mac), or even a whole USB interface!

This can be combined with the built-in remote access facilities (password protected, and not enabled by default – you‘re in control). Just tick a box and set the password, and you‘ll be able to connect into your Pi from other computers on your network – especially useful for Zoom presentations.

All this goes even further with the ”headless• button, which lets you run a 1080p virtual desktop even when no monitor is connected. This is usually a problem for a RISC OS Pi, but with PiTools, you just click one button and the next bootup will be fine with/without a monitor.

You can then secure your setup with the facilities of our LockScreen program, which are built into PiTools for ease. These facilities just scratch the surface of what PiTools can do for you.

PiTools costs £35 including tech support/updates and VAT.

Fireworkz Pro 2.31 and Messenger Pro 8.05

An update for Fireworkz Pro 2.30, launched during lockdown, 2.31 makes a number of improvements related to MS Excel import / export. The export feature now supports much larger spreadsheets and resolves issues that could cause files to fail validation in recent Excel versions. On the import front, blank padding rows/columns are now preserved for improved compatibility. Various matrix and spreadsheet functions have also been improved.

The headline feature in 2.30 was the ability to dynamically link/embed Fireworkz sheets and graphs into other programs such as Impression, Ovation or Easi/Techwriter. By preserving the data, the tables or graphs could be edited on the fly, and updated as changes are needed. Your charts and tables become data-driven, retaining formulae and data as you use them in other documents.

Additionally, we are pleased to include the restored, registered version of Paul Vigay‘s WebWorkz tool at no extra cost. WebWorkz converts Fireworkz files into HTML/CSS. Thanks to Andrew Conroy for facilitating this, and also Stuart Swales who assisted with his expert knowledge of Fireworkz and its file formats.

Messenger Pro 8.05 features a range of zero page fixes with many thanks to Dave Higton for his assistance in finding/fixing these. Whilst we doubt these would have caused any ”real life• issues, they did flag up in the debug logs on recent OS builds, so it is nice to see them resolved. Performance for SD card users (eg. Pi) should be significantly improved, and redraw performance has been optimised.

New CDs are available for both Fireworkz Pro 2.31 and Messenger Pro 8.05, which include (amongst other goodies) the latest Windows versions of the respective programs (and Mac in the case of Messenger Pro).

4té and TiX/Duet

Our two new computers, at opposite ends of the pricing spectrum.
New turbo / overclock models now available, alongside regular editions.

The 4té provides a low cost, feature-packed computer based on the ubiquitous, super-fast Raspberry Pi 4. The computer enhances the base Pi board with a unique, stylish case, on/off switch, front USB ports, and custom dual-drive storage system that acts as both an acceleration system and backup, for your protection. The system comes complete with power supply for your region and printed manual etc.

The 4té‘s software is as remarkable as its hardware, with many full version applications on top of the latest RISC OS 5 base. The software alone is worth approximately £250, with full versions of popular applications such as: Messenger Pro email, capable web browsing, Fireworkz, SafeStore, Impression, DataPower and more. Of special note is !4téTools which includes all the features of PiTools described above.

The TiX / Duet (it has two names, because it has two hearts), is a dual-system computer which has two motherboards – an ARM-based RISC OS board, and an Intel/AMD one for Windows or other OSs. The two systems live in one box – a special power supply and connections make the magic of two-in-one possible. The computer blends the best of both RISC OS and Windows (etc) into one enthusiast powerhouse.

The machine is more expensive (think RiscPC prices – £1500 – £2500), but each is hand-built and spends about a week on our configuration and test beds to ensure the best possible experience. The price includes our help with setup and remote assistance whilst you get familiar with your new system and ”plumb it in•. A high-spec delight for the RISC OS connoisseur.

Coming Soon from R-Comp / RCI

ITX Compute motherboard with native SATA etc

The Pi 4 represents amazing value for money, with high performance CPU, RAM and networking. However, its achilles heel is its IO performance (disc/storage) and awkward form factor.

Our custom-designed ITX (standard form factor for cases) motherboard is designed to rectify this by creating a high-end design that adds lots of connectivity over the Pi‘s high-speed PCI-Express bus. Whereas other options hamstring their designs by running over USB2 internally (why even bother? – it’s no faster/better than a regular Pi4, which at least offers USB3 on Linux), our design uses high speed interconnectivity to offer full SATA, PCI-E and USB3 performance.

The design utilises the Pi 4 “Compute” module which houses the CPU, and then mounts it onto a motherboard which provides a broad range of high speed connectivity options. The idea is to offer a “no-compromises” high spec board to unleash the CPU as a complete desktop computer. Once complete, it will be available as a bare board, or complete system.

The board layout has been confirmed since Summer 2021, but ongoing electronic component shortages have delayed production.

Pinebook Pro running RISC OS natively / RK3399 port

A couple of years ago, we brought you a native-ARM RISC OS laptop based on the original Pinebook platform. This was/is an excellent laptop, but the component shortages and price rises during the COVID crisis caused it to be prematurely discontinued.

The replacement product is the Pinebook Pro, a much more sophisticated laptop. Out goes the Allwinner A64 chip, and in its place is the Rockchip RK3399, an advanced ARM®-based CPU with relatively high clock speeds and many attractive features. The new laptop replaces the white plastic body of the original with a black aluminium shell, a larger 14" IPS screen and a selection of keyboards including UK/ISO.

RISC OS now runs on the RK3399 CPU and shows a useable desktop on the laptop screen, but some sub-systems remain immature. For example, right now only one USB port is fully functional (the others stem from the USB3 controller, so need to be handled accordingly) and power management is limited. Clearly there is work to be done, but the laptop appears to be a viable target for RISC OS.

There are, in fact, a number of RK3399-based products on the market, so the hope is that this port will unlock other powerful solutions and open them to RISC OS.