Raspberry Pi 3 A+

Great bit of kit. I use my Pi to track aircraft on FR24, along with a receiver. Such a small bit of kit can do a whole manner of tasks. I printed a 3D case to put this in, to keep it a little safer. One negative is that a power lead is not provided. You get what is in the picture and no more.

As good as any Raspberry Pi, the 3 A+ is similarly powerful to the Zero 2, except it has full size HDMI and USB ports as well as DSI display connector, leaving the GPIO pins completely available. The same low power consumption as the Zero 2, being 5V 2.5A. Comparable performance. But the 3A+ is obviously a bit bigger. Not as big as the full size Pi 3B or Pi 4 and beyond, but nicely in the middle. They really are quite similar and I would suggest that if you don't mind using all the adapters required for the Zero 2, you might as well go for that one. In my case, the Zero 2 was sold out in many places and more than £30 elsewhere. So I went got the 3A+ because it was only £27. Still quite pricey, but that's the world we live in now. If you've never held a Raspberry Pi in your hands, you'll be blown away by how compact these things are for what they can do. I'm using it for a sort of desktop cyberdeck, with a touchscreen and keyboard, housed in a DIY enclosure, running a few lightweight Python scripts. I didn't bother with a CPU cooler, but drilled a few holes for passive cooling and it all seems fine. For running desktop UIs, it's a bit sluggish, but as long as you're only running the types of simple programs it can handle, it's great. Otherwise, you'd probably be better off grabbing a Pi 3B, or even the 4 or 5, but they do take up a good deal more space in two dimensions. They're wider and thicker because of the additional ports, not to mention the 5 really requires active cooling and is a lot more power hungry, which starts to defeat the purpose of a palm size hobbyist computer and looks more like a mini PC. The 3A+ for me was the perfect middle ground in all of that. I'm chuffed and would recommend it. Mine was supplied by Rapid Electronics and delivered by DHL. Very good packaging and delivery was quicker than expected. Can't complain.

Product has arrived in perfect condition. This was the best value I could find on the internet - would definitely use this seller again.

I have an old printer that only understands the no longer existent AppleTalk. Wanting to resurrect the printer to use with AirPlay on Apple iPads and iPhones, I needed a cheap print server. The Raspberry Pi 3A+, although minimalist, has everything needed. Network connection via wifi and a usb port. The latest Raspberry Pi operating system contains the CUPS system and driver libraries. A little bit of configuration later and I have a working print server. Best of all, it uses so little electricity, it doesn’t even register on a power meter. And, of course, it runs headless.

I purchased this as the basis for a smart mirror I am building...It's size made it perfect for what I wanted.. I do find these a little pricier than some other places but the quick delivery was what persuaded me.. You do need to know what you are doing with these little computers but it's not difficult to learn. It's a cracking little unit, would have got 5*s if the price had been that little bit lower...

I've used first gen pi's for projects since they first arrived. I wanted a media centre for the lounge and built one with an old model b+ but Kodi was a bit jerky. I then saw the 3 a pi at £22 and £3.19 for the case. I now have an excellent media centre.

Working beautifully with octopi (octoprint), I added a cheap case I also got from Amazon and fitted a small fan to the top, I also added a USB hub to give me the extra port I needed for a WebCam, I used a MP1584 to drop the 12v from the printers power supply to 5v that the PI needs,. Check out the photo I added of the resource manager while printing to see The resources used and how much headroom you have.

Versatile piece of kit for anyone exploring electronics and coding. Lots of starter kits available. I have used my latest purchase as a kids jukebox to play music when an rfid card is scanned using an rfid module I bought separately. Be aware that it doesn’t have the same amount of RAM and ports as the B+, so check your requirements carefully. I use a usb hub when not using headless. Wouldn’t recommend as an everyday computer. Browsing is a little slow but great for fun projects.