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If I could change anything, it would be board layout. I'm happy with everything else. BPi is relatively cheap, powerful enough for my needs (all-purpose server, currently work in progress) and so far it seems stable and reliable, which is what matters most.
But that layout, connectors all over the place, ouch. How nice would it be to have them on one side. I understand why original Raspberry did it this way, they just needed to squeeze things on small board to make it cheap. And for the kids to play with, which was their primary goal, who cares where the connectors are. I also understand that it might have seemed as good idea to makers of Banana, to make it look similar and ride a little on the wave of Raspi's popularity (well, maybe more than just a little). Not such good idea if you ask me, because even though it looks similar, it's different enough to break compatibility with quite a lot of Raspi's accessories anyway (all cases, larger extension boards). I wouldn't say anything against just making the extension connector compatible (there's no standard, so using something existing seems reasonable, rather then creating yet another original solution) and situating it on board in a way to make everything fit, i.e. with no connectors in the way.
Other than that, I'd leave out IR receiver. I don't need it now, but when/if I do (I have some ideas), I can see already that I won't be happy with its placement at all.
And last, official battery support would be nice, both RTC and main one. I understand that everything needed is there already, but when you have to solder on your new board to use it, it's not good. |
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