Why do people want a 4.3 heatermeter?


 
J

John Bostwick

TVWBB Wizard
Im trying to understand why someone would want someone else to build a 4.3 HM. They will cost more then a 4.2, from having button board and bigger cases. They have exacly the same options. The buttons are more problemantic(from my experience, some are hard to register presses). You can still get Rpi B's.

Is there anything else I'm missing?

Im still going to make 4.2 version for a good while for people, as I have a ton of buttons to use and I still can get the B version, for a decent price.
 
Thinking like an outsider, it makes sense to buy the most recent version of anything v4.3 vs v4.2. It's hard to fault that logic. From your point of view of being asked to build someone a v4.3 instead of a v4.2 and you have all the parts to build a complete v4.2 units and the older RasPi B, it makes sense for you to convince the buyer to go with a v4.2, since there's no technical benefit to going with a v4.3.

Point folks who want you to build the v4.3 units here.

For me, the v4.3 is appealing since it looks like Bryan is making good headway with the integrated wifi on the Pi 3 and I quite like the idea of using just the v4.3 base board for a weatherproof / winterproof headless unit.
 
AS far as I can tell the HMv4.3 is just about physically connecting with newer rPi's, since the original model B is getting hard to find. And there's the hard to find 4-way button on the 4.2.4 too..
Other than that, the HMv4.2.4 has all the same features and compatibilities as the new v4.3 as far as I understand, so if you've got (or can find) a rPi model B (and the four way switch) then the 4.2.4 is fine to build. Time tested, great working board, the 4.2.4...
The only other thing that is different is the new HM ends up smaller but thicker... IDK which I would prefer, I'm pretty happy with my 4.2.4 and I do kinda prefer the one 4-way switch over the 4 individual switches
 
Yeah still have close to 40 4-way switches to use, lol. Adafruit still has B's in stock for $39. I don't care for the separate button board. More then likely I will do SMD versions and keep the HM as one board, that will be cheaper to make until I run out of buttons.
 
The Pi 3 and the gen1 B are the same price at adafruit. Bryan has already shown that he's got the onboard wifi on the Pi3 working, so I think it will be a hard sell for the old RasPi B board unless you can get them for under $20. If you're selling turn key heatermeters, then it doesn't really matter. Your clients just want something that works out of the box and don't care if it's got an old or new RasPi or v4.2 or v4.3 board.
 
Yeah the only reason for v4.3's existence is to deal with obsolete parts. Namely: the 4-way switch, and the original raspberry pi form factor. If you still have switches and Pis, then v4.2 is your go to. v4.3 will end up being overall cheaper once the firmware is though, because the wifi comes for free with the $35 cost of the Pi so the price will be about $8 cheaper. I also wanted to do an SMD version with the layout the same, but unfortunately the UP button is directly over the Pi interface so both these parts would have to be SMD then, and the Pi's 26 pin connector would never be straight given that I'd be hand-placing it so that's right out. At some point I might consider rotating it 180 degrees but the updated software is my current priority.
 
The 4-way switch has been my primary complaint on the 4.2, though it is still a small complaint. I find it is finicky. As a user, I would prefer the 4 switches, assuming they were good quality.
 
Paul Kierstead said:
The 4-way switch has been my primary complaint on the 4.2, though it is still a small complaint. I find it is finicky. As a user, I would prefer the 4 switches, assuming they were good quality.
Click to expand...

Thats the thing, I hate the four switches as they tend to be failure prone, and you have 4 of them. The long stem switches are the worse, as you have to hit them straight on to get them register a press. Not all of them are bad, and there are some advantages of having a pretty common foot print that makes finding better buttons easier then on the 4.2.
 
I dunno how failure prone they are, considering they're used in pretty much every consumer device that has buttons. They're also the same height as the 4-way switch without its cap, so it isn't like they're 1/2" long or anything. I always found the 4-way to be difficult to navigate with, pressing to the side quickly to go through the menus I would often end up hitting up or down by mistake along the way. No chance of that now. I prefer individual switches by far after having used them for the past 6 months or so. It is just personal preference though, at least until the button disappears (looks like OnlineComponents is now saying 2016-Aug-31 for EOL, but they have more coming in 2016-Nov-16?). I'll probably buy some more because I bought the same number of HeaterMeter 4.2 PCBs as I did 4.3 when I did my last order and I probably only have 100 switches left.
 
i think thats where I got my switches also.

I do prefer the switch design, I just have not found switches that I like and thats what I like though about the 4 switches there are plenty of them out there that can be substituted instead of just having one type of button that the 4.2 uses. I have been looking for other 4 way switch that are small and have had really no luck, not counting the smd version of the switch.
 
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