April 30, 2018

Cogent just bought a few Raspberry Pi Zero + Blinkt kits from Adafruit, for use as build lights, and to run status screens.

I took one home on the weekend to get it assembled and ready for use on a client site today.

A very brief review:

• One of the ways in which the cost is kept so low is by not soldering the GPIO headers in place. I did this myself, and I was surprised by how fiddly it was. Soldering a header like that is like soldering a row of tiny little heatsinks.

• The case is beautiful. Well machined out of attractive plastic with nice colours. Assembly is quick and intuitive.

• The plastic used in the case is fragile. I cracked one of the arms accidentally, with only a little flex.

• The Blinkt LEDs fit neatly over the top of the case, attached to the protruding GPIO header. Completed, the assembly is small, rigid, and cute.

Looking forwards to hooking it up today. I’ve had a few … disagreements … with the facilities manager so far, so hopefully my blue-tacking a computer to the wall won’t upset him further :)