Ol’ Sopwith was fortunate enough to order a couple of Pi 2’s before they quickly sold out. I received them on February 4th and immediately started to hack.

I did not expect this news about my new Pi’s. They are very camera shy. There is a published report on the Register UK web site that the Pi 2 does not like its picture taken. It seems that Pi 2’s will crash when you take a photo of them using a Xenon flash. How crazy is this?

I did what any good hacker would do – recreate the problem. I whipped out my trusty old Canon PowerShot A650 and took a picture of my Pi 2 when it was running a temperature sensor test suite.

Sure enough, the instant the flash went off my little Pi went to sleep. Dead sleep. Some YouTube videos show their Pi’s rebooting, mine shutdown completely. The crash did not affect my Pi; it immediately booted fine when I cycled power.

I guess all you can do about this issue is have a good laugh. I am curious though, to know exactly what causes this. I suspect the super high energy the flash transmits scrambles signals somewhere in one of the Pi’s chips. We will have to wait for a complete explanation from the Pi team.

I do have to ask though. What is wrong with the Pi 2 not wanting its picture taken? I do not like my picture taken either. Anywhere. It is refreshing to know my new Pi’s are so humble. They do not have the urgent need to try and convince the world they are important. No media blitzes. No ‘look at me’ nonsense. No photo shoots.

They are like most of us. Just trying to live a quiet and private life, do our work, and try to make the world a better place.

We all need a little “Humble Pi.”

Sopwith