Raspberry Pi is making Pi-powered industrial devices easier to design and build

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has launched a new section on its website for its ever-growing percentage of industrial customers.

Conceptualized as an affordable computing device to lower the barrier of entry for computer education, the puny little computer has caught the fancy of the maker community as well industrial users who use it to power all kinds of devices.

“We’ve seen a large proportion of sales go into the industrial market – businesses using Raspberry Pi, rather than educational settings or individual consumers,” observed Roger Thornton, Raspberry Pi's principal hardware engineer, while announcing the new resource to support this group of customers.

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STats of Raspberry Pi's Industrial Customers — (Image credit: Raspberry Pi)

Growing industrial base

Thornton shared that a staggering 44% of the Raspberry Pis are bought every year by industrial customers, who he reasons are attracted because of the Pis “low cost, high performance, and ease of use”.

Using the new section on the website, these customers will be able to access all the relevant information regarding the industrial applications of the Raspberry Pi.

Thornton shares the section provides access to the information and support this group needs to use the entire portfolio of Raspberry Pi boards in an industrial setting, including links to datasheets, compliance documents, and other information.

Raspberry Pi consutants on hire — (Image credit: Raspberry Pi)

Consultants on-hire

Furthermore, Raspberry Pi has also launched an initiative to help customers who need technical assistance to integrate the Raspberry Pi into their products.

The Raspberry Pi Approved Design Partners, will connect Raspberry Pi-approved design consultants with customers who need support to build products based on any of the Raspberry Pi’s systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) boards.

Thornton also shared that while consumers expectedly go after the latest model on offer, industrial customers are more likely to be interested in older Raspberry Pi models too.

“As part of our commitment to industrial customers, we guarantee product lifetimes until at least 2026 on all products,” writes Thornton. He backs up this commitment by pointing to the fact that anyone can still buy the original Raspberry Pi Model B+ that was launched back in 2014.