Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#251

Post by david-given » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:41 PM UTC

markokrajnc wrote: post #231

davexunit wrote: post #220

Does it still require proprietary blobs to function at all? A $5 ARM computer sounds great, but not if it needs blobs.

You can try without a blob: https://github.com/hermanhermitage/videocoreiv (booting directly from Broadcom VideoCore IV)

Even if you write your own VC4 boot code, like a lot of these processors (including the Allwinner!) there's an onboard boot ROM which is the first thing which executes.

On the Pi the boot ROM, which runs on the VC4, has enough intelligence to mount the SD card and load a VC4 executable from there into the internal SRAM. My understanding is that this initialises the SDRAM, and then loads another VC4 executable, which contains the RTOS which runs alongside Linux. Once that's up and running it initialises the ARM processor, loads the ARM kernel, and starts that going.

But you'll never get away from proprietary blobs.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#252

Post by Natanael_L » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:41 PM UTC

pkaye wrote: post #217

Natanael_L wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could even act as a custom chromecast-ish device. Still cheaper too! (Although it lacks WiFi AC that the new chromecast has, and probably way weaker graphics, but a cheap WiFi adapter or ethernet and having most stuff streamed should be workable.)

Other than hack value, I don't see it as a replacement for a $35 Chromecast. Even then probably better to root a Chromecast due to all the hardware benefits mentioned above.

How rootable are they, and will that break updates?

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#253

Post by Raed667 » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #244

Raed667 wrote: post #241

I'm still bothered by Raspberry Pi's choice not to include WIFI by default in all/some of its products. Almost every Raspberry Pi project I have encountered needs some sort of connectivity and doing this with 3rd party dongles (some don't even work on most recent versions of Raspbian) is just ridiculous in my opinion.

That raises the CE certification costs considerably.

but if they make like a B2 model + WIFI and just add 10$ to the unit price. That would cover it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#254

Post by castell » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:43 PM UTC

  The Zero, which like its predecessors is being manufactured in Wales

I have an original RPI made in China. That was right before the made them in UK, as far as I remember.

The Zero would need an Ethernet-port addon-board.

And for further RPI 2 iterations they should move the power-connector to a different position (e.g. like the original RPI) - would be better for headless embedded projects with limited space. Having the Ethernet and power cable on the same (or opposite) side would be a great benefit.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#255

Post by atmosx » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:45 PM UTC

girishso wrote: post #178

cconcepts wrote: post #158

Amazing. If only I'd get my act together and do all the amazing stuff I planned when I bought my first pi - then I could justify buying this

Two years after buying mine, I put the pi to a good use only last week! Now I am using it as ad-blocker thanks to http://pi-hole.net/ , works like a charm. I ported the web interface for pi-hole to Go single executable ( https://github.com/girishso/pi-hole-web ) Now looking for something interesting to do on my second pi! Edit: Added pi-hole-web link.

How much RAM does it take? I mean if it runs with less than 250 MB of free RAM I can deploy this right away, without using a dedicated RPi (I have 2 RPis on my network, the one is doing some heavy lifting, the other one has many cycles to spare).

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#256

Post by teh_klev » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:45 PM UTC

cconcepts wrote: post #158

Amazing. If only I'd get my act together and do all the amazing stuff I planned when I bought my first pi - then I could justify buying this

Lol...I'm the same. I have four of the sodding things (Pi#1-B, revised Pi#1-B and two of the model 2 B's) complete with PSU's...all sitting in a box. So many plans, so little time.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#257

Post by Patronus_Charm » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:46 PM UTC

This is great, truly impressive.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#258

Post by girishso » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:47 PM UTC

k__ wrote: post #185

cconcepts wrote: post #158

Amazing. If only I'd get my act together and do all the amazing stuff I planned when I bought my first pi - then I could justify buying this

I know what you mean. I have a Tessel here (Nodejs base micro controller) and never used it...

Didn't know about Tessel, the plug and play modules look very tempting!

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#259

Post by timthorn » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:48 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #176

TeMPOraL wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this price point, for many projects it doesn't matter; you can now use Raspberry Pi as a throwaway SOC for powering little stuff. I wouldn't, for example, put an $35 RPi 2 in charge of a bunch of sensors over my doors, but with $5 RPi it is an option. EDIT: And given the power, you can start offloading computation on what would otherwise be "dumb" control/data acquisition units. Hell, with that much compute you ca…

The only case where it matters for me is that this runs Linux, which means that I'll have an extra computer to secure against intruders. An Arduino can't do as much damage to the rest of the network if it gets hacked.

It could run RiscOS instead, with a very different attack surface?

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#260

Post by ZenoArrow » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #242

jgowans42 wrote: post #184

I find the lack of ethernet or wifi concerning. I get that they're trying to keep it small and low cost, but I can't immediately see any use for a Pi that can't run standalone.

You are right, the next Raspberry Pi should have a AC or N wireless, it would be of huge value and those AC/N wireless chips are small or can even be incorporated into the SoC. I wonder how much cost there is for these AC/N wireless chips? It seems like a no brainer. Given that you can get a 150Mbps Wireless N usb dongle for $4, just buying the IC should be crazy cheap: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/150Mbps-USB-Wire…

> "You are right, the next Raspberry Pi should have a AC or N wireless"

There are other single board compuers with WiFi built in, you don't have to wait for a new Raspberry Pi.

http://linuxgizmos.com/ringing-in-2015-with-40-linux-friendl...