Component supply issues and stock availability
Over the past 18 months, we have been finding increasing problems purchasing the chips and passive components used for many of our Raspberry Pi development boards.
Globally there have been component shortages since early 2020 due to Covid 19 and other factors which have caused production problems for everyone.
We have been unable to purchase the MCP23017 IO expander produced by Microchip for several months and our suppliers are showing their next stock being available in April 2023.
This chip is used in the IO Pi Zero, IO Pi Plus and Expander Pi development boards.
The SN65HVD72 RS485 interface from TI, used on the RS485 Pi is also unavailable and our suppliers are showing their next stock being available in May 2023.
We have been trying to find alternatives for the above chips to be able to continue to supply the boards with the same specification, but we have not yet found any suitable parts which have stock available.
The prices for both passive and semiconductor components have also risen sharply in the past two years with many parts costing over double their previous prices.
We will continue to search daily for available stock so we are able to restart production of the IO Pi Plus, IO Pi Zero, Expander Pi and RS485 Pi boards and we will post on our blog and on our Twitter account when the situation changes.
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