Raspberry Pi Back on Track After Passing CE Mark Tests

The Raspberry Pi has passed the EU conformance tests that caused a hiatus in its distribution two weeks ago, its creators have announced.

The Raspberry Pi spent a week at Panasonic's South Wales lab undergoing the electromagnetic emissions testing necessary to be given the all-important EC (Conformité Européenne) mark whose absence caused its distributors to halt sales.

"There is still a mountain of paperwork for us to sign, and that then has to be looked over by RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell; but that's a piece of cake compared to what we've been doing all week," the project team announced after the Pi passed with flying colours.

Just to be on the safe side, the team also subjected the board to testing necessary to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, Australia's CTick and Canada's CAN.

As a demonstration of the confusion that surrounds the CE mark, the Raspberry Pi's founders note the similarity between the European CE and the 'China Export' mark. This could be by design.

The two marks are easily confused with one another, and surprisingly few electrical products sold in the EU seem to display the correct EU EC mark at all.

For many manufacturers, the Chinese CE mark seems to be an adequate equivalent, despite this position being controversial. At least one EU politician, Czech MEP, Zuzana Roithov, has campaigned for the two marks to be clearly distinguished from one another.

Demand for the Raspberry Pi has outstripped supply since the uncovered board went on sale on 29 February. The Foundation hopes that with CE compliance in place the remaining bulk of the first batch of several thousand units can now successfully be shipped by distributors.