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Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#121

Arduino Uno for $2, NodeMCU for $3, RPi for $5... please let this trend continue. A year or two, and we'll basically have computronium - simple dev boards powerful and cheap enough to just tile your house with them. I've recently figured out that there's no point in designing your own PCB for placing sensors at home, when you can get an Arduino and an ESP8266 for $5; add power (and some ~$0 of voltage regulation) and…

Even more awesome: Skip the extra Arduino and use the ESP8266 as your Arduino. https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino

I realise how silly this question may seem but here we go:

If I get an ESP8266, I can have something that run code, sit on my home network wirelessly and use it to do things like report on sensor inputs? Am I missing some larger expense that would be required as this seems very cheap compared to other options I've seen.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#122
post #120
post #117

Hi, maybe not entirely relevant for this topic - but maybe you guys have any idea how to build and cheap system which will gather temperature wireleslly to one place. Ideally I'd like to have 2 sensors (one inside and other outside, with own batteries) which will send data to some central device. I have home server on MacMini - so WiFi could be option. Any ideas? I've always wanted to build something like this which…

How about running a http server on the mac exposing restful api, and using something like ESP8266 + temperature sensor, sending basic http requests to the server every minute or so? Should be much cheaper than arduino.

but I have to connect ESP8266 to something (Arduino?) or is it standalone device?

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#123
post #51

I know I'm complaining about an almost free computer, but ARM11 (ARMv6) isn't compatible with most Linux OSes which long ago moved to ARMv7. If only this was compatible with ARMv7 it would run a lot more stuff.

Not sure I understand. I runs Debian derivatives like Raspian, Ubuntu, and Kali. If you're a masochist it'll run Windows 10 IoT core.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/

https://www.offensive-security.com/kali-linux/raspberry-pi-l...

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#124
post #122
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about running a http server on the mac exposing restful api, and using something like ESP8266 + temperature sensor, sending basic http requests to the server every minute or so? Should be much cheaper than arduino.

but I have to connect ESP8266 to something (Arduino?) or is it standalone device?

standalone :) some inspirations for you http://hackaday.com/2015/09/05/esp8266-web-server-farm/ http://www.instructables.com/id/ESP8266-Wifi-Temperature-Log...

If you end up working on it, feel free drop me an email, I'm really curious about the result :)

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#125
post #124
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but I have to connect ESP8266 to something (Arduino?) or is it standalone device?

standalone :) some inspirations for you http://hackaday.com/2015/09/05/esp8266-web-server-farm/ http://www.instructables.com/id/ESP8266-Wifi-Temperature-Log... If you end up working on it, feel free drop me an email, I'm really curious about the result :)

ok, thanks :)

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#126

The biggest problem I had with my Raspberry PI was that it is seriously slow compared to a desktop machine. It takes time to setup. Time is money, right? I suppose if you have some mass deployment to do, then great. But for the individual maker hacker.. there must be a better way to setup and experiment than waiting for this computer to reboot with the new config, recompile, etc.

I found the Pi1's to be unusable as a desktop but thought the Pi2 was pretty good. Which Pi are you talking about?

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#127
post #5

Ah well. I recently (a week ago) started a new project with the Arduino and then they release this beast. It's basically cheaper than an Arduino (except that there's no storage in the Pi) AND faster than the Arduino. Sure, it won't have the same IO capabilities as there's much more layers but it will be pretty close and I don't really need great performance anyways. I guess, I'll have to switch to the Pi, it's not ev…

Well, I would like to note that people on a budget have been buying Arduino Nano with USB for $2 from eBay for a long time.

Or a clone of SparkFun's ProMicro, which is absolutely awesome. It's basically Arduino Leonardo (Mega32U4) in the 'micro' form factor and able to work either on 3.3V or 5V. You can get it at around $3

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#128
post #110

This seems like an important moment for humans and computers. The cable to connect the computer now costs more than a 1GHZ computer. It feels a lot like a tipping point for something. http://makezine.com/2015/11/25/raspberry-pi-announces-5-comp...

The cable to connect the computer now has more markup than a 1 GHz computer. Micro-USB OTG and mini HDMI adapters go for £1 each shipped on eBay, and I think most of that price is shipping. (Likewise, they've omitted the 40-pin GPIO header unless you buy the £10 bundle with the "Essentials kit", compared to £4 for the Pi itself.) Old, old business model - cut the headline price to the bone, make it back on cables.

I can't really see that — neither the circuit board header nor the cables are proprietary.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#129
post #117

Hi, maybe not entirely relevant for this topic - but maybe you guys have any idea how to build and cheap system which will gather temperature wireleslly to one place. Ideally I'd like to have 2 sensors (one inside and other outside, with own batteries) which will send data to some central device. I have home server on MacMini - so WiFi could be option. Any ideas? I've always wanted to build something like this which…

Check out http://www.nodo-domotica.nl .

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#130
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even more awesome: Skip the extra Arduino and use the ESP8266 as your Arduino. https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino

I realise how silly this question may seem but here we go: If I get an ESP8266, I can have something that run code, sit on my home network wirelessly and use it to do things like report on sensor inputs? Am I missing some larger expense that would be required as this seems very cheap compared to other options I've seen.

Simply put ESP8266 & Co. are awesomeness incorporated.

http://www.instructables.com/howto/esp8266/

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