back to article Raspberry Pi unveils Hailo-powered AI Kit to make the model 5 smarter

Raspberry Pi has created a machine-learning addition for its single board computer that features the Hailo-8L AI accelerator. This AI Kit is an M.2 Hat board with a preinstalled M.2 stick that carries the Hailo-8L accelerator, marking the first time Raspberry Pi has ever sold a first-party accessory for AI. The Hailo-8L is a …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Losing the plot

      > goes and over-complicates it.

      How do you mean? The article is about an *optional* daughter board.

      1. that one in the corner Silver badge

        Re: Losing the plot

        Even the M.2 board is optional, let alone whatever has been popped into the slot!

    2. gotes

      Re: Losing the plot

      You can still buy the relatively cheap and simple device. Many of the older RPi boards are still being manufactured.

      And as the other commentard pointed out, the board featured in the article is optional.

    3. Sartori

      Re: Losing the plot

      I wouldn't say they were over complicating things. It just adds some more versatility to the Pi5. This AI kit is of no particular interest to me, so I won't be buying it, but it's great to have more optional functionality. I love that you can customise things to suit whatever project you want to get involved in.

      1. The Indomitable Gall

        Re: Losing the plot

        More that that, I was actually kind of word that the Pi Foundation were missing the very real possibility that homebrew AI was going to be a new part of the "makerspace" that Raspberry Pi shoots for. The first Pi was leading the curve for makers by putting a computer at a pricepoint where it was competitive with microcontrollers like Arduino on small scale, but not on large scale. The Pi was a useful steeping stone for embedded, because it was easy to use standard tools and just throw extra processing at it to avoid the need to optimise firmware early on.

        Now that things are becoming clearer, I can see that AI is still going to need a PC... for training. I think the Foundation are really onto something here, because no-one uses the Pi as their only computer. This means we're going to get geeks using their NVidia megabeast video card for model training, and instead of only being able to use the models on that PC, they'll able to run it on a much smaller thing.

        1. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

          Re: Losing the plot

          I think the Foundation are really onto something here

          Nothing to do with the charitable Foundation as such. It's Raspberry Pi Limited, soon to be Raspberry Pi Holdings PLC.

          I am less inclined to believe this is about facilitating makers than it is about Raspberry Pi's desire to sell even more product into the industrial and commercial markets to boost their profits and maximise dividends for shareholders.

        2. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Losing the plot

          It's mad that after years now, people are still talking about them as "The Foundation".

          1. The Indomitable Gall

            Re: Losing the plot

            Ah, sorry. My excuse is amensia following major head trauma.

            Stick to computer games, folks -- being in the real world is dangerous!

    4. James Hughes 1

      Re: Losing the plot

      You may say why does this always have to happen, but I'd say, why do people never read the article and understand it before commenting.

      As above, the Pi 0,1,2,3 and 4 are still available at mostly original prices. All still useful, all still simple and all very under-complicated.

  2. Dave 126 Silver badge

    One (non lethal) killer app:

    An upgrade of the motion-detecting cat deterrent RPi system to one that can discriminate between different cats.

    https://www.instructables.com/Cat-a-way-Computer-Vision-Cat-Sprinkler/

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: One (non lethal) killer app:

      That seems like an unnecessary refinement.

  3. 0laf Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Love a piece of Pi

    I've got a Pi4 running as a defacto speed camera using OpenCV object detection to calculate approx speeds of vehicles to generate data to try to garner some attention from local council.

    I'm always impressed what can be done with these little bits of kit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Love a piece of Pi

      Hmm, perhaps you are being downvoted by people who couldn't get their R'Pis to do anything and chucked them in the drawer?

      Or are just really, really mean about the incorrect use of de facto?

      Either way, thumbs up here :-)

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Love a piece of Pi

        I have enough old Pi's in my drawer already that if I wanted to deter speeding drivers around here, the most economical pi-based solution would be to throw them at them as they drive past.

        1. timrowledge

          Re: Love a piece of Pi

          If you have unused Pi, donate them to a suitable club, maker space, school or whatever.

          1. werdsmith Silver badge

            Re: Love a piece of Pi

            I have a pile of Pis to get rid of, tried clubs and schools. No interest.

            Tried online, no takers.

  4. 45RPM Silver badge

    I’ve been following (and buying) Pi since the very first model - and, if I’m honest, I probably have too many of them now. But they’re so small that there’s always room for one more. Now though, I’m seriously beginning to wonder whether I could daily a Pi - not just file server tasks, and the odd bit of retro gaming, but actually use one as my main computer? I think that the Pi 5 is now beefy enough, and with this doodad (and software written to take advantage of it) I’d have though it’s more than enough for most tasks.

    1. The Indomitable Gall

      Well, with even MS Office now available as a web app, the days of the dedicated PC are numbered. The Hailo kit pushes this further, because if local beef needs to go AI, then users don't really need much at all.

      However, the Pi will never be good for training AIs, so developers are going to need PCs still....

      1. that one in the corner Silver badge

        > the Pi will never be good for training AIs

        Correction: the Pi will never be good at training LLMs.

        There are many, many other forms and uses of Neural Nets and other variants of Machine Learning, in all shapes and sizes - from a few matchboxes upwards. Much useful and practical work has been done using ML, especially in Machine Vision, using (what you would probably consider ludicrously bad quality) low resolution analogue cameras in the 70s and 80s - when the mini computers the devs could get their hands on were dwarfed by the processing power in a R'Pi Zero.

        Look around and you should be able to find all sorts of data feeds that be used to train a model using just an R'Pi, let alone one with this accelerator connected.

        1. The Indomitable Gall

          Fair point, but then again, there's still a matter of training vs running. Training an AI is a lot more work than running one, and anything you could train on a Pi is not going to need the full power of the Pi, and that's whether or not you have this card in your Pi.

          We're back to the days where the devs need a far more powerful computer than the users. To get a model that uses the Hailo to its fullest, you'll need a more powerful machine to train the model, probably with a NVidia 40 series card in it.

          1. rerdavies

            Or you could use cloud computers to train models (probably much cheaper, and much faster than anything a home user can reasonably afford).. And shared models don't even need that.

  5. TimMaher Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Please fix the fan.

    My 5 has the standard case in black and it whinges every few seconds, even when doing nothing.

    I sometimes give it a shake or press down on the lid, which works from time to time.

    Anyone recommend a different case?

    Otherwise I shall have to leave Radio 2 on all the time.

    1. 080

      Re: Please fix the fan.

      Just take it out of the case I have 5 Pi's running and only one is in a case. The others seem to like sitting on a glass shelf in free air.

    2. Tim99 Silver badge

      Re: Please fix the fan.

      I put a 4GB Pi5 in a standard black case in our retirement village library for basic internet and office work. It tended to run warm and was a bit noisy. Removing the standard fan and replacing it with the Active Cooler improved things considerably - The fan comes on less often, and when it does I can't hear it. If it is still too hot drill a couple of holes in the lid. Two somewhat more expensive solutions that I have for personal use are an Argon NEO 5 black case with built-in fan on a headless Pi for testing and development; and a similar Argon NEO 5 M.2 NVME PCIE case with an internal 2TB Kingston SSD on another headless Pi that I use as a file server and recorder for live TV.

    3. rerdavies

      Re: Please fix the fan.

      Probably the fan bearings going. Order replacement fans online. May as well order three or four. My Pi 4 is on it's fourth fan.

    4. rerdavies

      Re: Please fix the fan.

      You can also try oiling the fan bearing. Lift the label off the center of the fan, carefully. Add a tiny drop of machine oil to the fan bearing. Use a sewing pin or needle. And (if you can) stick the label back down. This seems to extend the life of the fan bearings somewhat, but eventually, you'll need to replace it with a new fan.

      This works with the fans on my Pi 4. I'm not sure if it will work with Pi5 fans.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "It is always our pleasure to host soldiers from the IDF at our offices"

    I wonder if calls to boycott Hailo, an Israeli company founded by ex-members of the IDF's elite technology unit, will now extend to Raspberry Pi?

    That could piss on their fireworks when it comes to their imminent IPO.

    Let's hope they handle things better than their "we hired a cop, fuck yeah" fiasco.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "It is always our pleasure to host soldiers from the IDF at our offices"

      There are more than enough sane people to buy their products !

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "It is always our pleasure to host soldiers from the IDF at our offices"

      Ex-cop, who hadn't worked for the police for some time.

  7. Reiki Shangle
    Boffin

    Hat spacer nightmare…

    Unfortunately (some of) the supplied M.2 hat spacers are defective and after hours of assuming I’m too stupid to turn some screws into the spacers, it’s clear that some of the spacers are defective.

    Currently using the 2 that accept screws…

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hat spacer nightmare…

      If it took you hours to realise the spacers are defective then yeah, maybe your first assumption was also correct.

      1. Reiki Shangle
        Facepalm

        Re: Hat spacer nightmare…

        You’re right, of course, I am.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Hat spacer nightmare…

          The anodised coating on the black metal screws needs reducing a bit to make them fit. If you can get them into any thread, wind them in and out a few times and smooth down the coating.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Hat spacer nightmare…

      Defective spacer problem has now been fixed. Please contact supplier for replacements if you need them.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like