4x increase in Raspberry Pi 4 cost!

Part of our challenge in experimenting with low-cost hydrophones is matching the preamp of the hydrophone with a convenient power source. At Orcasound our current open hardware/software solution for streaming live audio data to our web app has relied on the Raspberry Pi single-board computer.

Not only does the Raspberry Pi 4 offer ~5V in a variety of ways, but the Pisound HAT ADC we like best so far can provide 6V bias power via it's input jack. Add a resistor and the Pisound can provide a little less, like the <5.4V required by the CRT SQ26-08 hydrophone we've been testing in recent years.

So, it's been surprising and a little stressful to watch the price of the Raspberry Pi 4 skyrocket in recent months! A perfect storm of holiday season demand, the COVID pandemic, and supply chain dynamics for semiconductors has resulted in the price rising from $35 back in the day to $45 a year ago to about 4x what we're used to now (~$130 in late Feb, 2023). Here are some screenshots illustrating:

 

complete lack of stock at my favorite distrubutors;

 

the best prices I could find on Amazon (similar scalping on eBay) -- not the normal Raspberry Pi distributors);

 

and lead times of many months for backorders!

 A Dec 15, 2022, analysis by Xuyun Zeng suggests that we aren't likely to start seeing relief until 2023 Q2 at the earliest, and more likely late 2023.

Thus, our strategy going forward -- at least for the next quarter or two -- is to use this as an opportunity to explore other ways of powering our low-cost experiments!