Raspberry Pi talks CE compliance

I know many geeks out there were excited over the thought of having the cheap and tiny Raspberry Pi device to play with. The first batch of those little boards sold out quickly and then a production delay prevented other deliveries to people wanting to get hands on one. The company has announced that its first 2000 boards arrived in the UK this past Monday. However, the company was hit with a bit of a setback last week after two suppliers decided not to distribute the board.

Both RS Components and element 14/Premiere both opted not to distribute the Raspberry Pi board until it held the CE mark. The company behind the board maintains that it's not a finished product and didn't need the CE mark. Raspberry Pi feels its board should be sold under the same terms as the Beagleboard and other similar products that lack the CE mark. However, since the two main suppliers wouldn't sell it without that mark, Raspberry Pi took action.

The company says it's working to get the first 2000 boards that are now in the UK tattooed with the CE mark as soon as possible. At the same time, the company is working on bringing the rest of the initial batch of boards into the country. Raspberry Pi says that at this point they expect emissions from the board to meet category A requirements without any modification and could meet more stringent category B requirements sans case. The company is also trying to find out if it can ship the Raspberry Pi board in the UK under the same terms as the Beagleboard. We will keep an eye out for more news.