This Raspberry Pi Model B Has Been Running Non-Stop for Over a Decade
An uninterruptible power supply and relatively lightweight workload helped Steven D.'s original-model Raspberry Pi reach a decade of uptime.
Raspberry Pi user Steven D. has shown just how reliable even the first commercial version could be — showing off an original-model Raspberry Pi Model B that has been running for more than a decade without a single crash or reboot.
"Even though the [Raspberry] Pi's not exactly been stretched during that time, it's a credit to the old hardware and software that it is capable of such robust operation," Steven writes of the device's decade in operation. (Sadly, I can't say quite the same about the bit of software I wrote!). And it's in a box in the garage, so not the most benign of environments."
Released in early 2012 to unexpected demand that saw major retailers' websites buckle under the strain, the Raspberry Pi Model B — a naming convention, now abandoned, borrowed from Acorn Computers' BBC Micro family in which the Model B was a more fully-featured version to the cut-down Model A — was a relatively modest device by modern standards.
Its Broadcom system-on-chip was originally designed for TV set-top boxes, featuring a 700MHz single-core 32-bit ARM11 general-purpose processor alongside an overpowered VideoCore IV graphics processor, and was sandwiched with 256MB of RAM - later doubled to 512MB. The board included a single HDMI port, an Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, composite video output, MIPI Display and Camera Serial Interface (DSI/CSI) ports, and a 26-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header.
The latest model in the family, the Raspberry Pi 5, is considerably more powerful in all regards — but that doesn't mean everyone threw out their original models when newer versions became available. Steven's Raspberry Pi Model B has been running non-stop in his garage for a decade without ever crashing or rebooting — and, impressively, without needing its full-sized SD Card storage to be replaced either.
"It effectively has a small UPS [Uninterruptible Power Supply] on it," Steven explains, "[a] Meanwell DRC-40, which is a mains PSU to which you can connect a small lead acid battery. It keeps the battery charged and uses it to power the output during a power cut. Then a reasonable spec 24V to 5V DC-DC converter. I've changed the batteries at least once during that period — you can easily do that without powering down.
"As far as I can remember, [it's been doing] just two things (not touched the code for years!): a) receiving and validating data from a remote control receiver before passing it on; b) running a simple web site which provides similar remote control functionality to the remote controls."
More information is available in Steven's thread on the Raspberry Pi forum.