Therearea fewaspectsoftheArgon
1 thatstillneedimprovement,however.
Theplasticundersideis designedtobe
transparenttoinfrared,andthesmart
powerboardhasunpopulatedpads
foraninfraredreceiver;populating
theseareasasstandardwouldhave
beena goodtouchforthemoney.
Also,whiletheArgon1 Pi4 cools
impressively,tidiesyourcables
andlooksgooddoingit, ourreview
unitdiedaroundfivedaysafter
arriving,seeminglythevictimofa
blownandnon-user-replaceablefuse.
Thankfully,thefusediditsjobandprotected
thePiinside,butthisoccurrencesuggests
theremaybeanissuetobeinvestigatedinthe
powerboard’sdesign.
It’simpossibletofaultArgon40’sresponse
though.Merehoursaftercontactingthe
company’scustomerservicesdepartment
viaemail,a fullrefund,includingshipping,
wasonitsway.Thechiefoperatingofficer
thenreachedouttoarrangegratisshipment
ofanotherpowerboardinexchangefor
returningthefaultyoneforanalysis– with
returnpostagepaid,impressivelyenough.
It couldbethatthereviewunit’sfailure
wasa one-off,orit couldbethatthere’sa
biggerissuewiththedesignchangesfrom
thefirstArgonOne.Ineithercase,though,
thereappearstobelittleriskinrollingthe
diceandgivingit a try.Intheworstcase,
you’llgetyourmoneybackshouldyour
unitsufferthesamefate.TheArgon1 Pi 4
isavailablenowfromargon40.com, priced
at$25US(around£19.50exVAT).temperatureatwhichthefantriggersandhow
fastit shouldspin.
Thecoolingabilityis littleshortofremarkable.
Thebenefitofusingtheentiretyoftheupper
caseasa giantheatsinkis obvious;duringa
ten-minute,CPU-heavytestrun,theRaspberry
Pi4’sSoC,whichrunsnotoriouslyhotwithout
third-partycooling,notonlystayedbelowthe
80°Cpointatwhichit beginsthrottling,butalso
belowthedefault55°Cthresholdatwhichthe
Argon1’sfanbeginsspinningat 10 percentofits
maximumspeed.
It’shardtosayhowtheothercomponents
fare.WiththebulkoftheSoC’sheatoutput
goingintothelidratherthanthePCB,thePMIC
shouldberunningcooler.However,withouta
connectionofitsowntothelid,there’sa chance
thatit couldstillreachunhealthytemperatures
withoutrunningthefan.Thankfully,that’seasy
tofix,asthefancanbesettorunpermanently,
torunatlowertemperaturesortonotrunatall.
Whilerunning,it’sreasonablyquiet,although
it’saudibleand,unliketheoriginaldesign,it also
appearstocoolwell.
Arduinolaunches
professionalIDETheArduinoIDEisdead,longlivethe
ArduinoProIDE– witha long-awaited
darkmode.AnnouncedduringMaker
FaireRome2019,theArduinoProIDE
isa newintegrateddevelopment
environmentthatditchesthelegacyIDE
infavourofa muchmoreaccessible
design,althoughthere’salsoa Classic
Modeforpurists.BasedonEclipse
Theia,andthusElectron,theIDEisas
cross-platformastheoriginal.The
ArduinoProIDEisn’tquitereadyfor
primetimeyet.Analphabuildis
availablefromgithub.com/arduino,
withnowordonwhenit willreplacethe
originalArduinoIDE.N EWSI NBRI EF
Coupling the SoC to the large aluminium chassis really helps to keep down temperatures
The redesigned power and fan board no longer
triggers voltage warningsA daughterboard pulls the audio and two HDMI
ports to the rear of the case
Routing all the cables out of the same place makes
the setup much neater