With the limited availability of the Raspberry Pi’s around the world, and preferring not to spend outrageous prices for a Pi3 or Pi4, here are some thoughts on finding what we all need.
One person developed a web page that updates and lists pi availability where ever you may be. Go to https://rpilocator.com/ and you can select vendors, world regions, and devices you are interested in. Pi’s show up in the list and depending on the device, can quickly sell out. Piaware runs on most all Pi’s and the Pi3+ model with 512Mb offers good capability at a $25 (US) price. At Adafruit in the US, these sell out in 15 minutes or so. I put a Pi3+, power supply and other items into a wishlist and from the wishlist into my cart. Adafruit seems to put the Pi’s in stock around 10am CST. It can take an hour or so for them to show up though not every day. I have seen Pi4’s show up, but those are less available and sell out quickly.
Prices are Raspberry standard and not the inflated Amazon prices. Good luck, have fun with this hobby. May your antenna be gainful and up high, may your coax be low loss, and your dongle better than most.
I have found that rpilocator page to be virtually worthless. There’s like 450 entities typically listed with 3 or 4 actually in stock (and those are usually not in the US). Why bother using that page?
I Think we will just have to wait out the “shortage”. Who knows, maybe a viable alternative will come along.
To clean up the rpilocator interface, Use the Region and Device options near the page top to select your preferred country and device type. I did my search for US only and Pi4/Pi3. Cuts down the noise and you can get a better idea of how often these are available. Pi3A+ should do nicely for Flightaware and with lower power consumption.
Have fun out there.
Gene
Yeah, that Inovato Quadra looks pretty good – $35 including case and power supply can’t be beat price wise. The number of USB ports (2) is a little limiting, but could be worked around.
The Inovato Quadra looks interesting but it needs to have 5 GHz Wi-Fi and at least 3 USB ports for keyboard, mouse and Bluetooth to match a RPi 3b+ or 4b.
I’d buy a RPi Zero 2 W instead of the Quadra. Alas, I need 5 GHz Wi-Fi.
Well sure, but you’re not going to find a Pi Zero 2W, that’s the issue. They’re even less available than the Pi 4s or 3s, which can be found with a little bit of sleuthing.
I also don’t know what setup you have going on, but for ADS-B purposes I doubt too many people have a keyboard and mouse hooked up.
