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Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#451

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

DHJSH wrote: post #302
noonespecial wrote: post #209

Oh Nice! They are finally delivering on what I feel was the great promise of the Raspi in the beginning. Full linux install in the size and price of a micro (read: Arduino). Some people are bound to gripe about the "lack" of ports but its not like this one displaced the A or B models. Its just another spin of the concept where you don't have to pay for expensive physical parts you don't need. Its a linux server at a…

I have no idea why Arduino is so popular--it has NO debugging support unless you use an ICE. (People "debug" with printf statements.) We use Netduinos because with .NET we can single step and inspect variables in live code.

IME Arduino is so popular because it's so cheap. I can buy Arduino ProMicros on Alibaba cheaper than I can buy the Mega168 MCU itself. And that's not counting the PCB, additional chips or board.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#452

Post by Udo »

Jemaclus wrote: post #417

I've got three Raspberry Pis. I don't know why. I don't know what to do with them. None of the projects that I've seen have been particularly compelling to me, and I'm not creative enough to come up with a good idea. So they sit on my desk, gathering dust, and act as a conversation piece when friends come over. "That? Yeah, I can build X, Y, or Z." and they say, "oooh, cool" and then I never actually follow through.…

Just as a counterpoint, I have found many, many uses for Pis in my life. One is hosting my home automation software, I have built several information radiators with it, one is acting as a network-controlled media player, I even made one that acts as a faux remote control for the AC with IR diodes attached to the GPIO ports.

By contrast, I have several Arduino boards sitting here, and never found a good use for them. For me the appeal of the Pi lies in the combination of low energy usage, low price, networking, and comparatively high computing power. Once you get over the "woah, wasting an entire computer just for [insert menial task]" barrier, it's simply incredible what this single component enables you to cook up on a whim. The Pi allows me to make things that are not yet (or will never be) available commercially.

However, I would not say this thing is necessarily useful for all hackers or nerds. It's only useful if you have ideas for small, self-built devices that require programmable intelligence. Take note that this is also fundamentally different from the stated purpose of the Pi, as stated by its manufacturer.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#453

Post by anonu »

Jemaclus wrote: post #417

I've got three Raspberry Pis. I don't know why. I don't know what to do with them. None of the projects that I've seen have been particularly compelling to me, and I'm not creative enough to come up with a good idea. So they sit on my desk, gathering dust, and act as a conversation piece when friends come over. "That? Yeah, I can build X, Y, or Z." and they say, "oooh, cool" and then I never actually follow through.…

I hear ya. One of my Raspberry Pi's sat around for a year or two. Then I got this idea to connect my sheet-fed scanner to it and scan pages directly to Dropbox. That worked nicely. My 2nd RPi I got 2 Canon Selphy Printers and setup a gmail account where I could send pictures to. The RPi picks up the images and send them to the printers in a round-robbin fashion. ... I guess what I'm saying is the sky is the limit... So how do you follow-through? The idea needs to have some practical purpose. In my case, I use both those setups regularly.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#454

Post by thawkins »

eddd wrote: post #274

I am no Rasberry expect, so I need to ask: Is it possible to connect Rassbery Zero to some network in some convenient way?

Something like this would probaly work well, you would probaly be able to hack it and put tbe pi inside.

http://www.dx.com/p/combo-usb-2-0-lan-ethernet-adapter-3-por...

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#455

Post by teh_klev »

tejtm wrote: post #405
tibbon wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the problem for most of us isn't the money, but just the time. A cheap computer probably doesn't give us any more time/ease than an expensive computer (which we probably already have 1+ of)

Find a local makerspace and pop in every once in a while. A bit of time spent with others doing things rubs off.

I live in rural Scotland, there is no such thing, and sadly I don't have the time available to start one.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#456

Post by Tsagadai »

superuser2 wrote: post #437
Spooks wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not build a htpc or an arcade box? very straight forward and you'll have more to talk about when your friends come over!

Can you actually build an HTPC? My understanding is they can't really handle video, except from the purpose-built camera module.

Been running OpenElec on mine for years now. Works great and does 1080p output without transcoding or anything like that.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#457

Post by simonswain »

Jemaclus wrote: post #417

I've got three Raspberry Pis. I don't know why. I don't know what to do with them. None of the projects that I've seen have been particularly compelling to me, and I'm not creative enough to come up with a good idea. So they sit on my desk, gathering dust, and act as a conversation piece when friends come over. "That? Yeah, I can build X, Y, or Z." and they say, "oooh, cool" and then I never actually follow through.…

I set mine up with a camera to do timelapse.

https://simonswain.com/day

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#458

Post by ac2u »

ant6n wrote: post #446
xanderstrike wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly wrong. They have the same processors as used in phones, which means they have hardware level decoding for video. My B+ can stream massive 1080p blu-ray rips over ethernet with zero problems. They make fantastic HTPCs.

My phone doesn't ever play 12GB blu-ray rips; and the rpi hardware is older than current phones (which use armv7 and armv8). Given the speed of the cpu, it's surprising it can decode a full H264 stream. But It's good to know. The down-vote seems unnecessary.

It's not so much software running on the CPU doing the work here. It's hardware support for decoding via the GPU that enables it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#459

Post by rasz_pl »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #449
TheCapn wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Build them out as dummy media boxes and sell them for a markup. I've had people knocking my door down after they saw my Kodi setup but I simply pointed them to the how-to guides and told them to learn for themselves. I'm sure there's a few people out there who'd take one for $50 or so.

Probably. But at $50 each you're not really making a profit.

chinese seem to do just fine at that price point

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Streaming-Med...

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#460

Post by X-Cubed »

rockmeamedee wrote: post #333

This is great, but for people who want to "get started in computing", don't they also need a display, a mouse and a keyboard? LCD screens are like, $100, a mouse is $10-$20 new and low-end keyboards are $10-$30. At that combined price, why does it matter if the computer is $25 or $5? And if one is going to outlay the 150 bucks in peripherals, they might as well spend a bit more than $5 on the computer to get a signif…

Commodore 64s, ZX Spectrums, BBC Micros and the like never came with monitors, you just used your TV. This board has HDMI out on it, or composite if you solder in a connector, so you can use it with your existing TV or monitor.

A mouse is optional too, you can do everything you need to from the keyboard.

So really, it's only a keyboard that you need.

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