Raspberry Pi 3 B Plus

A Pi 3 even more powerful, is this possible?

The Pi 3 was a revolution. A bunch of power in a board of few cm².
Was it possible to make it even better with the same FormFactor (same shape)?  The response is YES, they made it!
Small improvement that, once put togheter, make the difference.

The technological jump between the "Pi 3" and "Pi 3 B Plus" is not as big than between the Pi 2 and Pi 3! However, the new features of the "Pi 3 B Plus" would interest the multimedia addict and Bluetooth/IoT user.

Still having the 1 Giga of RAM, our "Pi 3 B Plus" is now binging a dual WiFi interface at 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz with a resonance cavity and the support for Bluetooth 4.2. The 5 Ghz WiFi network would offer a better flowrate as this frequency band is not very used and, so, does not have lot of pertubation.

The SoC is always a BCM2837 (BCM2837B0 with metalic cap) 4 core which are now running at  1.4GHz (a gain of 16.6% compared to the Pi 3). So we are still wuth an ARMv8 and 64 bits.

The Ethernet flow has been improved and can now transmit data at 300 Mb/s. A nice updgrade made available with the brand new HUB LAN7515 : HUB USB + Ethernet.

The "Pi 3 B Plus" also offer an interface with PoE interface (Power Over Ethernet). This interface is used with the PoE Hat (will coem soon) that can power up the Pi 3 from the internet connexion.

And the best is that the Pi 3 B PLUS still keep the same Form Factor. This means that all your HAT, cases, wiring will stays identical to the previous Pi model. 99% of the cases and accessories stays compatible betwwen the Pi-3 Plus, Pi-3, Pi-2 et Pi-B-Plus :-)

Power management and 2.4A power supply

The Pi 3 B Plus also have a new power supply regulator and still requires a PSU 5V 2.5A.
With this new electronic, the regulator is able de detect power weakness and display a message to the user. Power management on the board is the same than older Pi 3, so you can power bulky USB device.

The Raspberry-Pi foundation recommand the usage of a 5V 2.5 Amp.

The increase of the frequency also increase the power dissipation of the SoC ( proportionnal to the square of the frequence increase). This dissipated power must be sourced by the PSU. So it is important to have a good and bulky PSU.

Please, note that the "Pi 3 B Plus" also have more copper on the board. Copper is an excellent thermal conductor. Thank to this copper, the board car also dissipate some of the processor heat.

WiFi 5Ghz, 2.4Ghz and Bluetooth 4.2

One of the important thing is the resonance cavity wifi antenna and the electromagnetic case protection with a nice Raspberry-Pi logo engraved on it.

This nes type of antenna, created by the ProAnt AB, was seen before on the Pi Zero Wireless and is more efficient than ceramic antenna. The resonance cavity, shaped as a triangle, is made with several layer of copper connected togheter with via. This shape act like a echo chamber.

The WiFi module now support the IEEE 802.11/ac standard and its associated frequency 5 Ghz (and still support the 2.4 Ghz strandard frequency). This new standard can reach quite higher throughput (1.3 Gb/s theorical). This bandwidth is also cleaner, there is not a lot of peripheral trying to speak at the same time (like it is the case for the 2.4 Ghz bandwidth). The WiFi connection is more stable and faster (because there is less traffic as there is less devices ready for 5Ghz). Please note that the 5 Ghz signal does attenuate more rapidely when they have to cross obstacle (like wall).

The Bluetooth support is now in version 4.2 (Bluetooth Low Energy). BLE is very energy efficient but mostly it is less restrictive than standard Bluetooth. 

The µFL place is still present on the board. Yes!!!

A new USB HUB

The older LAN9514 USB + Ethernet-over-USB is now replaced with a LAN7515. With the LAN7515, the Pi 3 B Plus have a Gigabit Ethernet Interface with a maximal througput of 300 Mb/s. This also means that data transfert between the processor and the HUB is better (or more reliable). As a result, all the USB peripheral will take advantage of this new improvement (including the USB Hard-Drive and the Pi Desktop).

The Pi still offer 4 USB port even if the LAN7515 is designed for 6 USB ports... unfortunately, the FormFactor have to stay the same! (Personal Note: I hope than the foundation did make a breakout of the lines for the 2 remaining USB port).

The brand new USB HUB LAN7515 implies a new hardware support in Raspbian. So, you will have to upgrade your OS before replacing your Pi 3 board by a Pi 3 B+.

A small summary of tech specs

• Broadcom processor ARMv8 BCM2837BO, Cortex-A53 - 4 Core - 64 bits
• Clock frequency of 1.4GhMHz (+16.6% regarding the Pi 3)
• 1GB RAM (LPDDR2 SDRAM)
• WiFi 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz onboard.
  IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac
• Bluetooth 4.2 - Low Energy
• LAN7515 : Ethernet booster to 300 Mb/s
• 4x USB
• GPIO 40 pins
  You can use it with the Cobbler-PLUS or TCobbler plus.
• PoE Interface to plug the PoE Hat
• HDMI Output: H.264, MPEG-4 decode (1080p30); H.264 encode (1080p30); OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0
• Video Composite Output (NTSC/PAL).
  3.5mm jack with 4-poles (voir câble correspondant).
• DSI Port for the official Raspberry-Pi screen
• CSI Port for the official Pi Camera
• A 2.5 Amps power supply is heavily recommanded for this Pi

Contenu

For each order, you will receive a Raspberry Pi 3 B plus board. The board will hold a BCM2837BO processor (4 cores, 64 bits), 1 Go (1024Mb) of RAM and WiFi+Bluetooth.