Raspberry Pi Faces Another Hurdle: CE Mark Requirement

[btarunr]

It looks like troubles have queued up for Raspberry Pi, the $25 credit card-sized wonder hobby-computer, which officially started shipping in late-February. After shipping delays and a manufacturing setback caused due to erroneous selection of RJ-45 Ethernet jacks, the hobby-kit faces a new problem. As a high-tech consumer-electronics product, it requires the CE (Conformité Européenne) mark, which denotes compliance with European standards. It is similar in function to the FCC mark that's mandatory for consumer electronics merchandise sold in the United States. The Raspberry Pi team was under the impression that it didn't need the CE mark to ship samples (read: small quantities) of its product, until its big product launch slated for later this year.



Source: The Telegraph

[erixx]

Huh? Showing samples behind closed doors or selling small -or whatever- quantities?*
Trying to sell without compliying is pure ignorance, again. And just in case, the "CE" is not for "high-tech" but for (nearly) anything sold here.

*Maybe importing this, even for testing purposes, requires the conformity, because testing samples often end up on the market?

[BazookaJoe]

Damn Clint Eastwood meddling in all the worlds technology...

[jocksteeluk]

The PIP breast implants also had the Certified Europe mark on them and look how that turned out, it's basically all about paying some bullshit tax to the EU, that CE mark is worth Sh1t after that PIP scandal not to name many other instances.

[Aquinus]

I ordered mine last month, I should be getting it some time this month. :3

[erixx]

Originally Posted by jocksteeluk

The PIP breast implants also had the Certified Europe mark on them and look how that turned out, it's basically all about paying some bullshit tax to the EU, that CE mark is worth Sh1t after that PIP scandal not to name many other instances.

Does your weirdo latex suit fulfill the CE certification? :P

[dank1983man420]

Originally Posted by Aquinus

I ordered mine last month, I should be getting it some time this month. :3

I ordered mine March 2nd and they moved me back to mid August. Below is what they sent to me on the 29th via email explaining why my delivery date got pushed waaayyy back.

Spoiler

Dear Valued Customer,

In recent days there has been a lot of communication about Raspberry Pi, the need for compliance testing and the impact of testing on deliveries.

We recognize the impact on our customers of the constantly changing delivery dates and apologize for the frustration and disappointment this is causing. We commit to advise everyone of accurate delivery dates just as soon as we can but right now, as the Boards undergo compliance testing we are unable to give specific dates.

It is clear that many of the customers who have placed orders with us will be using the Raspberry Pi as a finished product and not just an engineering development board. As such, we see it as the most responsible approach to ensure that all Pi's meet the required standards for finished products in all territories. We are therefore going through a very accelerated compliance process, working closely with the Raspberry Pi foundation and RS Components. We take our commitment and responsibility in this area very seriously and believe the short-term delays, whilst frustrating will be worthwhile to ensure our customers receive a fully compliant product.

The current situation is:

2000 Raspberry Pi's are now in the UK, pictures of them leaving the factory in China posted here http://www.raspberrypi.org for anyone who doubts their existence!

The compliance teams of element14, RS and Raspberry Pi are working round the clock with the testing houses to assess the product now. Any issues that are identified (hardware or software) will then need to be rectified and we will ensure this happens as quickly as is humanly possible. There are different compliance standards around the globe and we are focused on meeting all of those as quickly as possible, some may take longer than others.

As soon as these initial 2000 Boards are compliant to at least one set of required standards we will receive our share of this first batch from Raspberry Pi and ship these to customers in the locations where the compliance standards have demonstrably been met on a strictly first come, first served basis ....so those who ordered first in those countries will receive the product first.

Regrettably we cannot give any firm delivery commitments on Raspberry Pi's until this testing is complete. Please be assured we will provide this information as soon as we can.

Once the product is fully compliant our manufacturing partners have the necessary stocks of components to ramp up production very quickly, so despite these frustrating, initial delays we are confident the picture will improve and lead times for new orders will reduce.

Our commitment to our customers is to email each customer individually to confirm their personal delivery date as soon as we are able. We will continue to share generic information, but recognize that it is the detailed specific information related to individual orders that people want.

We will continue to post news and updates on our element14 community, and next week, on April 4th, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton will give a 40 minute webinar on programming the Raspberry Pi as part of our element14 Design Flow series. Click here to join the 2000+ Pi fans who have already registered to attend and learn more

Orders placed on Newark element14

We'd like to apologize to all customers who placed orders with Newark element14 and have seen their acknowledged delivery date suddenly change on our website's order backlog to August 2012.

At present, as already communicated by Raspberry Pi, all deliveries are on hold awaiting the outcome of the compliance testing currently taking place. To avoid misleading people while the compliance testing takes place, our system auto-generated the August date, which has clearly caused confusion.

We're sorry!

We can absolutely commit that our orders will be shipped in the order they were originally received and that no-one has lost their place in line as a result of this latest change. Once the compliance testing is complete we will then have a clearer idea about our future deliveries and we will confirm accurate delivery dates to our many thousands of customers.

Once again we apologize to all of our customers for this delay in providing the Raspberry Pi's they so desperately want. Hopefully these initial troubles will improve the overall experience in the long run.

HOT OFF THE PRESS UPDATE FROM EBEN UPTON OF RASPBERRY PI EARLIER TODAY:

"We have spoken with BIS this morning, and have been told that, given the volumes involved and the demographic mix of likely users, the development board exemption is not applicable to us; as a result, even the first uncased developer units of Raspberry Pi will require a CE mark prior to distribution in the EU...... ....we are working with RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell to bring Raspberry Pi into a compliant state as soon as is humanly possible."

Sincerely,

Your team at Newark element14

Looks like my mini computer for the car is on hold

[Aquinus]

Originally Posted by dank1983man420

I ordered mine March 2nd and they moved me back to mid August. Below is what they sent to me on the 29th via email explaining why my delivery date got pushed waaayyy back.

Spoiler

Dear Valued Customer,

In recent days there has been a lot of communication about Raspberry Pi, the need for compliance testing and the impact of testing on deliveries.

We recognize the impact on our customers of the constantly changing delivery dates and apologize for the frustration and disappointment this is causing. We commit to advise everyone of accurate delivery dates just as soon as we can but right now, as the Boards undergo compliance testing we are unable to give specific dates.

It is clear that many of the customers who have placed orders with us will be using the Raspberry Pi as a finished product and not just an engineering development board. As such, we see it as the most responsible approach to ensure that all Pi's meet the required standards for finished products in all territories. We are therefore going through a very accelerated compliance process, working closely with the Raspberry Pi foundation and RS Components. We take our commitment and responsibility in this area very seriously and believe the short-term delays, whilst frustrating will be worthwhile to ensure our customers receive a fully compliant product.

The current situation is:

2000 Raspberry Pi's are now in the UK, pictures of them leaving the factory in China posted here http://www.raspberrypi.org for anyone who doubts their existence!

The compliance teams of element14, RS and Raspberry Pi are working round the clock with the testing houses to assess the product now. Any issues that are identified (hardware or software) will then need to be rectified and we will ensure this happens as quickly as is humanly possible. There are different compliance standards around the globe and we are focused on meeting all of those as quickly as possible, some may take longer than others.

As soon as these initial 2000 Boards are compliant to at least one set of required standards we will receive our share of this first batch from Raspberry Pi and ship these to customers in the locations where the compliance standards have demonstrably been met on a strictly first come, first served basis ....so those who ordered first in those countries will receive the product first.

Regrettably we cannot give any firm delivery commitments on Raspberry Pi's until this testing is complete. Please be assured we will provide this information as soon as we can.

Once the product is fully compliant our manufacturing partners have the necessary stocks of components to ramp up production very quickly, so despite these frustrating, initial delays we are confident the picture will improve and lead times for new orders will reduce.

Our commitment to our customers is to email each customer individually to confirm their personal delivery date as soon as we are able. We will continue to share generic information, but recognize that it is the detailed specific information related to individual orders that people want.

We will continue to post news and updates on our element14 community, and next week, on April 4th, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton will give a 40 minute webinar on programming the Raspberry Pi as part of our element14 Design Flow series. Click here to join the 2000+ Pi fans who have already registered to attend and learn more

Orders placed on Newark element14

We'd like to apologize to all customers who placed orders with Newark element14 and have seen their acknowledged delivery date suddenly change on our website's order backlog to August 2012.

At present, as already communicated by Raspberry Pi, all deliveries are on hold awaiting the outcome of the compliance testing currently taking place. To avoid misleading people while the compliance testing takes place, our system auto-generated the August date, which has clearly caused confusion.

We're sorry!

We can absolutely commit that our orders will be shipped in the order they were originally received and that no-one has lost their place in line as a result of this latest change. Once the compliance testing is complete we will then have a clearer idea about our future deliveries and we will confirm accurate delivery dates to our many thousands of customers.

Once again we apologize to all of our customers for this delay in providing the Raspberry Pi's they so desperately want. Hopefully these initial troubles will improve the overall experience in the long run.

HOT OFF THE PRESS UPDATE FROM EBEN UPTON OF RASPBERRY PI EARLIER TODAY:

"We have spoken with BIS this morning, and have been told that, given the volumes involved and the demographic mix of likely users, the development board exemption is not applicable to us; as a result, even the first uncased developer units of Raspberry Pi will require a CE mark prior to distribution in the EU...... ....we are working with RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell to bring Raspberry Pi into a compliant state as soon as is humanly possible."

Sincerely,

Your team at Newark element14

Looks like my mini computer for the car is on hold

You should have got a reply email (which I never got,) saying that the push back date was generated by the server and that the original date is still correct.