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Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

raspberrypi.org

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Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#481

Post by jgowans42 »

sklogic wrote: post #195
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.

It's easy to imagine multiple simple designs. You can couple it with an ESP2866, for example, using a number of attinys to access their analog inputs, or with a CAN-SPI head collecting data from multiple sensors, processing and then reporting through an ESP2866.

The ESP2866 is perhaps something to consider. Something like it really should have come built in though. (IMHO)

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#482

Post by jgowans42 »

yuvadam wrote: post #189
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.

So you're basically saying you're not getting enough value for $5?

I'm saying that adding a few dollars worth of wifi would make it go from something that I can't think of many uses for to something excellent.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#483

Post by jgowans42 »

neals wrote: post #186
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.

media player with an external HDD for content.

Yeah, that's basically all I could think of as well. I'd gladly swap the HDMI port for a wifi chip.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#484

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

xorcist wrote: post #356
creshal wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no ethernet port. So, also an ethernet adapter. But there's only one USB port (µUSB, too, so you most likely need an adapter to regular USB). So if you want more than just ethernet, you'll need an USB hub. But the RasPi's power supply has always been weak, so better get an actively powered one… And soon you're paying four times as much for the accessories than for the RasPi.

Ethernet USB adapters tend to be very flakey. (At least that's my opinion/experience.)

It was my understanding that the ethernet on the Raspberry Pi sat on the USB anyway.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#485

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

el_benhameen wrote: post #439
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 suppose it's good these sold out so fast. I probably would've bought six or seven, used one, and left the rest to collect dust.

I hear ya, I've been "lucky" and got my order in on every model of Pi on the day of release - even the original. I went through the same process of "ooh, shiny thing!" when I saw this announcement, then thought back to my other RasPi's sitting on my desk doing nothing and decided to leave it for someone who might actually get some use out of it. I'll be getting a Zero when they're more generally available though, if only to complete the collection!

That said, they have been used in the past for various things - a simple SSH server, a networked webcam, a serial interface for my Atari ST, and I've even done some tinkering with a breadboard and the GPIO, so I have had some use out of them at least.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#486

Post by lngtmelistener »

codecamper wrote: post #115
TeMPOraL wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it depends on your use case and on your expectations. It took me about as much time to set up my RPi 2 as it takes to set up a new Linux VM, and since then it lies peacefully on top of a wardrobe, and I just connect over SSH to it. Rarely I need to reboot it :).

I wanted to set up the pi as a wifi repeater. This sort of thing required lots of reboots. Took way too long to setup. I think the way it should work is they need an emulator that runs on a desktop machine. Just like iOS & Android development. You get your setup working on the desktop & then deploy to device. I guess the main problem with this is that often you want to try hardware that only works on the pi. Not sure…

If you do want to play with it as a wifi repeater, perhaps another OS is a good idea? Something like openwrt https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/raspberry_pi_foundation/raspber... should be quick to write to the SD-card and quick to boot. Raspbian may be a bit heavy.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#487

Post by [deleted] »

oneJob wrote: post #465
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmmm. I had a conversation the other day about side projects. People would ask me what I did for side projects, since I have experience in software, electrical engineering, control systems, mechanical assemblies, etc. My answer was generally that at my day job I got to write software to control electromechanical systems with a budget in the millions. What am I going to do on the side to compete with that? Sound famil…

It used to be called a "hobby", but now it's a "side project"?

[deleted]

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#488

Post by mSparks »

rsync wrote: post #397
TeMPOraL wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because Broadcom won't sell them doesn't mean the factory won't make some more. This is China, they have a pretty liberal (and one could argue: more reasonable) approach to issues of intellectual property :). Or at least it used to be so; sadly, in the last few years the US was pressuring Chinese government to crack down on it. Anyway, you can read more about this phenomenon here: [0]. Oh, and one more thing. It…

"So Broadcom may not sell you their chip, but the lady on the first floor of SEG building in Shenzhen just might." And she will also happily affix a holographic "genuine" sticker to the part and package it in "original" "tamper proof" packaging. Just like brand new!

or you get the broadcom+ chip. which kindly breaches your entire network and sends the content of everything it finds to a Chinese ip address...

don't have any data on that either. but I'm guessing it is more likely than getting what you ordered.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#489

Post by facepalm »

teraflop wrote: post #404
facepalm wrote: post #287

What I would like to know more about is how to power these gadgets. Say I want a sensor that sends data to a server. Do I need to plug it into a power outlet? Can I run it off a battery for a significant amount of time (months)? Can I use solar power? How much power does WiFi consume, or should I look into Bluetooth or ZigBee?

> Can I run it off a battery for a significant amount of time (months)? Depends on how big a battery you're willing to use. In the other thread, someone claimed that the Pi Zero's typical power consumption is about 0.8 watts, so running it for a month would require about 600 watt-hours. That's roughly the energy content of one car battery, or ten Macbook batteries, or about 230 alkaline AAs. A USB wifi adapter would…

Thanks!

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#490

Post by IanCal »

bigiain wrote: post #131
IanCal wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes. At least for limited values of yes. You need to run it on 3.3v which means 3.3v versions of your sensore or external level shifting. You've got limited IO compared to, say, Arduino. But of you've got 3.3v sensors - yeah - all you need is an ESP8266 and some way of providing 3.3v. (And probably some pulldown/up resistors and decoupling caps...)

Fantastic, thanks for the info :)
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