# Raspberry Pi alternatives? (Made in India)



## mobilogist (Jun 28, 2016)

Dear All,

I recently come to know about raspberry pi 3 and really impressed by its size and configuration. One of my friend told me about arduino & beagle board etc. but i researched and found that raspberry pi has balance between features and price. Now, i am thinking to buy one, but i want to gain some more knowledge.

Now, my question is, is there any made in INDIA alternatives to raspberry pi 3 which have same config etc.? I will surely buy it.

Bcoz, i found arduino based boards on google which are designed and produced in india, but there is no raspberry pi 3 based indian product. 

Do any of you know some of them?

Please give links if you know.

Thanks.

vks


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## Desmond (Jun 28, 2016)

There are no made in India equivalents of Raspberry Pi.

Also, however Arduino boards have made in China clones that many of the Indian made ones are rebranded off.


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## icebags (Jun 28, 2016)

Banana pi
Orange pi
beaglebone
C.H.I.P.

but none made in india. 

we indians may have knowledge, but lack enthusiasm to take initiative and creativity. in other words, we take knowledge too seriously, and afraid of playing with it.

if u know any electronics chip/ board design professional working somewhere, u may ask to start a similar kickstarter project by placing order to a pcb manufacturing company, with the project design. there should not be lack of backers, if its done officially i think and if price is reasonable.

board manufacturing companies will do it, if they get an order of 1k or more, i guess.



Spoiler



and it's almost done, after u cross the next hurdle to find a supportive group to compile an os for the new hardware !


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## RishiHegde83653 (Oct 20, 2016)

*If you don't require a full fledged O.S for your project but need a powerful set of GPIO pins and onboard features of Rpi-3 (bluetooth,wifi,radio) then i would think this can be an alternative*

*The Winkel Board* Winkel Board : One Stop Arduino Compatible Board with ATmega128 at its cor

We were building an IoT product and wanted to experiment with different communication protocols, like radio, wifi, bluetooth and found ourselves in a mess while doing so.Well ofcourse we had an Arduino Board to get started with but had to buy and experiment with different shields everytime and that costed us a lot of time and money. Being from India, such sheilds were really costly to source from outside + it really affected the speed of prototyping.We talked to a lot of makers and electronic hobbyists and found that this was a common problem within the maker community and not just in India but all over the world. *Some suggested RPi 3 can be an answer for many projetcs but not every project needs an O.S. And not every project can be housed with an Arduino with all its sheilds, and some projects just require to use many communication protocols at once and need to perform a lot of calculations and I/O operations. To do all these powerful things with just one small board and to keep it simple and arduino IDE compatible was the idea behind me teaming up with a buddy of mine to build the Winkel Board.*

The Winkel boards have everything onboard for a maker to get started with building different prototypes and products of tomorrow.

A powerful core in the form of ATmega128
On-board Bluetooth Module in the form of HC-05
On-board WiFi module in the form of ESP8266 ESP12E
On-board Real Time Clock in the form of DS3231
On-board Radio Transceiver in the form of NRF24l01
OTA programming of Atmega128 and ESP12E  (This one is a biggie  )
Smart-Opt feature enabling you to use only specific on-board components when needed.
*And all this in a form factor of 5cm x 5cm*

*We are about to launch a crowdfunding campaign The Winkel Board | Crowd Suppl
You can sign up and eventually back us to get early access. *Even if you do not wish to support our campaign, we will be uploading all the blueprints, sketches and designs on github so you can build your own 

*cdn.instructables.com/FSO/24QW/IU6XPOYI/FSO24QWIU6XPOYI.MEDIUM.jpg


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## Desmond (Oct 20, 2016)

Nice ninja promotion [MENTION=304414]RishiHegde83653[/MENTION]

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## RishiHegde83653 (Oct 20, 2016)

Desmond David said:


> Nice ninja promotion [MENTION=304414]RishiHegde83653[/MENTION]
> 
> Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk



Serving both purpose (the board can be an alternative to Rpi and it is made in India)


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## madhu (Oct 20, 2016)

What would be price? Seems good


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## RishiHegde83653 (Oct 20, 2016)

We are looking to manufacture 2 versions, one will a basic board with just the controller on it (no other onboard components or features except OTA programming) targeting at around $13-$15(Rs.800 - Rs1000)  and 2nd full featured version around target around $28 to $36.

But eventually the price will hugely depend on the response and backers because quantity is what it comes down to when one wants to lower manufacturing costs. You can signup to get updates about it, so you don't miss out on the early bird rewards.


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## Desmond (Oct 20, 2016)

RishiHegde83653 said:


> Serving both purpose (the board can be an alternative to Rpi and it is made in India)



Have you read the rules?



> * No scamming / spamming / advertising.
> 
> This forum is not a marketing / money making tool! No Pyramid schemes, chain letters, spam, affliate links or advertising of Web sites/products will be entertained here. This applies to forum posts and the inbox of our members. Please use the report post method to remove such pests. Promotional offers outside the Bazaar zone will be evaluated on an individual basis, and it is the Administrator's discretion to remove such posts. Links to websites other than personal home pages, blogs and content sites in the signature will also be considered advertising. ThinkDigit has a very strict policy against spam. New users found spamming will be permanently banned or deleted INSTANTLY. No warnings and questions asked whatsoever.



Perhaps you should move your promotion to the Bazaar section.


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## RishiHegde83653 (Oct 20, 2016)

I have no intentions of marketing or making a sale. If you see the post previous to mine by icebags who mentions 



> we indians may have knowledge, but lack enthusiasm to take initiative and creativity. in other words, we take knowledge too seriously, and afraid of playing with it. if u know any electronics chip/ board design professional working somewhere, u may ask to start a similar *kickstarter project...*



Which made me relate my crowdfunding campaign to this topic. And when i said "Serving both purpose" those both purpose i have mentioned in the bracket itself 
a. Alternative to Rpi
b. Made in India

Nowhere in my post have i tried to sell something.I have only suggested through my posts that if interested you can keep an eye on the campaign so *you can build your own Made in India board* if not support us. I also related the post to Rpi3 which was mentioned in the initial post of this thread.

If you'd still like to mark it as spam or advertising you may take necessary actions as i have no power to stop you


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## icebags (Oct 21, 2016)

RishiHegde83653 said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...



well, i would love to see the kickstarter projects from india, but i hope the makers to be a little market conscious about what they are making.

there are few points that i would like to mention :

# winkel board is not quite an alternative to RPi, its rather a development platform in the arduino category. so, its better to publicize it that way, otherwise RPi users may get frustrated.

# you have not mentioned a link detailing place of manufacture, names & details of developers, manufacturing price breakups, some example application concepts etc. for a kickstarter unprofitable startup, these are useful details, that make supporters feel the genuineness of the project & make them interested in the same.
you mentioned prices in $s, are you getting it manufactured in china & then getting it shipped to india? we are confused. by meaning "mae in india", we expect the meaning developed by an indian designer, manufactured at a factory located on indian soils.

# the price point is really an issue. we can get an arduino uno + 1 breadboad shield from china @ Rs.250/-, even if we look at ebay.in, it will stay < 500/-. whereas the barebone winkel costs nearly 800/- itself.

# requirement study is important, is much as i understand, nobody works with somany wireless modules at the same time. i guess you are providing the user the flexibility to connect wireless modules as per requirement. so, you need to mention the purpose clearly, so, that people feel interested at a single glance.

# the picture you show, at arduino site, shows "mintbox technologies" marked on the board. if its bade by that corporate body, then it is not a kickstarter project, rather, its a commercial product (targeted for hobbyists). its better to advertise it that way.

# lastly i would like to say, for hobbyists, simplicity matters. if you want to present an option to connect multiple wireless modules to arduino, then you can just design the pcb the simplest way, i.e. put a suitable female berg header females on board, that can be used to connect the modules, then route the pins in a suitable way, to another set of parallel female bergs, that can be used to house an arduino pro mini (many people already has this, cheap & very popular stuff). you can make the routes go through a few male berg pins, that can be shorted by those shorting connectors (what was the name again..?).

total list of materials :-the board, a few berg connectors - male & female. 
cost :- minimal. should be < 50/- even after including 100% profit after manufacture. 

just take a look at the components tester, they sell these days. so simple to use, with so minimal no of stuff, one single connector can be used to test all components & cheap too. 



          [MENTION=5007]Desmond David[/MENTION] i think these kind of mentions for tech products should be allowed in tech forums, under a specific section only. just cause, these are not large scale products, and infos are not exactly so easily available. just a full spec mention, no bragging or further advertising.

this should also be compliant to the "make in india" initiative, as per our shri shri pm modiji's *l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/63.gif wish.


 now, calling for a banana dance party 


       [MENTION=145504]quagmire[/MENTION]        [MENTION=239685]Mr.Kickass[/MENTION]        [MENTION=96386]CyberKID[/MENTION]  [MENTION=110244]Nerevarine[/MENTION]  [MENTION=129731]Shah[/MENTION] [MENTION=24845]desai_amogh[/MENTION]


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## Shah (Oct 21, 2016)

icebags said:


> [MENTION=5007]Desmond David[/MENTION] i think these kind of mentions for tech products should be allowed in tech forums, under a specific section only. just cause, these are not large scale products, and infos are not exactly so easily available. just a full spec mention, no bragging or further advertising.



I second this. It would be great to have a separate subforum dedicated to open source hardware and single board computers.


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## quagmire (Oct 21, 2016)

icebags said:


> [MENTION=5007]Desmond David[/MENTION] i think these kind of mentions for tech products should be allowed in tech forums, under a specific section only. just cause, these are not large scale products, and infos are not exactly so easily available. just a full spec mention, no bragging or further advertising.
> 
> this should also be compliant to the "make in india" initiative, as per our shri shri pm modiji's *l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/emoticons7/63.gif wish.



+1 to that.

Recently I came across this:

evive: the best electronic prototyping platform! | Indiegog

How these IIT Kanpur students raised over Rs 22 lakh, in a quest to make electronic prototyping glitch-fre




*evive.cc/img/campaign/GIF/replacingComponents.gif



*evive.cc/img/campaign/GIF/education.gif



*evive.cc/img/campaign/GIF/menu.gif



We should definitely encourage these intitatives on tech forum like Digit.


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## Desmond (Oct 21, 2016)

Man! That evive is amazing.


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## icebags (Oct 22, 2016)

evive looks nice and sophisticated, but again a bit pricey ! 

on indiegogo, just found another campaign for a $5(advertised price) headless linux development computer *iomega2*.

but its as basic as it gets : 

*c1.iggcdn.com/indiegogo-media-prod-cld/image/upload/c_limit,w_620/v1471922696/compare_gor5gd.png


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## Camryn64 (Oct 22, 2016)

why not made in india ??


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## Camryn64 (Nov 4, 2016)

so it was just advertising here?


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## icebags (Nov 4, 2016)

Camryn64 said:


> so it was just advertising here?



may be they will consider. if u make in india a raspberry pi alternative, and want to advertise.


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## desai_amogh (Nov 22, 2016)

mobilogist said:


> there any made in INDIA alternatives to raspberry pi 3 which have same config etc.? I will surely buy it.



There are a few, but targeting industry, not hobbyists. I doubt they'll be much use to you.



> Bcoz, i found arduino based boards on google which are designed and produced in india, but there is no raspberry pi 3 based indian product.



Arduino is cheap stuff, you can just buy an IC Atmega328p and some components, make a small PCB and make an Arduino board yourself at home.  I have done this. its pretty cheap, you can make an Arduino board on a breadboard for about 200 bucks.  That's not the case with RPI type of boards, they use an ARM processor, RAM, HDMI, USB, etc controllers and loads of other electronics on 4+ layer boards with BGA and SMT soldering.  profitability is only based on volumes sold, as the boards itself are very very cheap.  In India hardly anyone has attempted it considering a very very small hobby/maker market.

so close your eyes and buy rpi or similar, you wont get even a close matched alternative made in India. 

(btw I use a Pine64 and pretty happy with it)


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## Desmond (Nov 22, 2016)

If someone supplies Raspberry Pi Zero clones, that itself will be enough.

However I doubt that the hobbyist market is huge in India. Many people don't even know what it is.

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