Newbie Sales Question

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Hacklab sent us over to you :) This is a [possibly silly] newbie question - looking at the Pi2, what is the difference between the Coupé and the hardtop. I can see that the Coupé isn’t a fully covered case but am unclear on the advantages/disadvantages of each type. The Coupé circuit components look different.

This will be used at several levels - my son who’s fresh out of hacklab and needs a pi of his own to go beyond learning on my laptop but is still very new to the tech. And husband - also new to the tech but is already developer so will pick up very quickly and is planning more complex projects of his own involving mind control. Son very reluctant to share! we may need two!

Thanks

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Ahoy! Thanks for stopping by… Hacklab sent you the right way ;)

I presume you’re looking at the Raspberry Pi 2 with Pibow Case? - http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-2-with-pibow

Basically, the Pi 2 is the way to go. While the case differs in form-factor, the Pi that you get inside is exactly the same.

Well done for spotting the difference in circuit components, by the way, those photos were taken over a period of time that includes the B+ and Pi 2, but the Pi you get is the newer, Pi 2. ( The case, however, is compatible with both )

I heartily recommend the Pi 2 in a Coupe case. It’s designed to be the case for people who will be tinkering with their Pi, so it keeps everything on the bottom protected but gives easy access to the GPIO pins on top- for using HATs, ribbon cables, etc.

The larger case ( which we just call Pibow ) is great for fully protecting a Pi that you plan to use as a desktop computer replacement, or just for programming. It doesn’t give such easy access to the GPIO but you can buy a replacement top which turns it into a Coupe: http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pibow-modification-layers

Whatever you choose, you can’t go wrong with the Pi 2 & Pibow. But beware you’ll also need a power supply: http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-universal-power-supply

( You can use any Micro USB power supply you might have knocking about at home, but we find this often causes problems later with add-ons that need extra power )

And, unless they already have SD cards from elsewhere, the NOOBS SD card: http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/noobs-8gb-sd-card

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Hi gadgetoid :)

I’ll order a coupe, probably the only time I’ll ever say that! With a Pi 2, power cable and probably a breadboard and a button. L tells me that these are a few of the bits he’s used, I wasn’t certain that breadboard was a real Pi thing but it came up in your search straight away. Is there a glossary on your site at all, to help newbies navigate unfamiliar word waters!

Thank you very much, our order will be in soon :)