Live data from Hacker News

CHIP Pro

nextthing.co

31–40 of 207 posts

Re: CHIP Pro

#31
post #8

I'm waiting for a PocketCHIP (mainly to mess with pico8) that I preordered at the start of this month, and it has estimated shipping of November. I wonder if the Chip Pro shipping in December will have any impact on my order.

I got mine a few weeks ago and love it. Pico-8 is wonderful, I haven't done much besides mess with that.

Really? I find Pico-8 is barely playable with the keyboard. Are you using a bluetooth controller?

Re: CHIP Pro

#32
post #22

I have the chip, esp8266, rpi, teensies, trinkets, arduinos... I studied electronics principles and built various circuits.. yet I have no idea what I can practically use these devices for in my life. They all sit in a box and I have a hard time justifying buying more of them.

Media devices or home automation is two big players I would say. But I feel exactly the same as you. I used my rpi as a server for different things and I have used it as a media player.

But now I want to build video surveillance and control it all with my rpi. Though, I live in an apartment so there is not a super large need which makes me prioritize other stuff since I don't really need it.

Another thing I want to do is an app that connect to different lights in my house so when my alarm goes off in the morning I want it to light up the hallway so that I can wake up. I live in Sweden so here it's dark as fuck most of the year at 06:00-07:00.

Re: CHIP Pro

#33
post #22

I have the chip, esp8266, rpi, teensies, trinkets, arduinos... I studied electronics principles and built various circuits.. yet I have no idea what I can practically use these devices for in my life. They all sit in a box and I have a hard time justifying buying more of them.

Raspberry Pis and CHIPs: good for a home automation hub of sorts or a thing where you want a portable computer capable of working with video, audio, or large volumes of data.

Arduino et al: need to have buttons do more complicated things than buttons can actually do: slowly change light colors, actuate things, CNC, etc.

ESP8266: sensors and remote controls for switches and such. Anything Arduino does above, except the button is now on a network and not necessarily physical.

I have the same problem, but at the same time I have found some use cases. For example an Arduino to remember the height settings for my sitting/standing desk project. Or an ESP8266-based garage door opener on the cheap.

I do think that a lot of the not-Arduino hardware a la teensy is not really that relevant to me. I don't want to study hardware. I want to build shit, and in most cases a Wemos D1 Mini is actually what I need. But there are cases where things like that can be really nice. The MSP430 for example is a really low power chip.

Basically if you don't know what to do with the stuff, donate it to a local hackerspace. Or find a project idea, then dig into the box-o-stuff.

Re: CHIP Pro

#34
post #14

I order the original CHIP at end of May, and I still haven't received it today, it was supposed to ship by June. They kept getting delayed. Latest update is that the shipping is for November. Can't help but suspect they are doing this on purpose to wait for price drop on the components to sustain the business.

just to provide a counterpoint, i have received mine on time (original promised date). although, they're still sitting around waiting for my next big idea(tm)!

Re: CHIP Pro

#35
post #30

Is it possible to make use this as a starting point for an open source smartphone?

In theory, yes, but the lack of LVDS/MIPI display connector/driver (or even HDMI) makes it difficult to connect any practical display on it.

Re: CHIP Pro

#36
post #14

I order the original CHIP at end of May, and I still haven't received it today, it was supposed to ship by June. They kept getting delayed. Latest update is that the shipping is for November. Can't help but suspect they are doing this on purpose to wait for price drop on the components to sustain the business.

I got mine during the June shipment, not quite sure how/when I ordered mine, however.

Re: CHIP Pro

#38
post #22

I have the chip, esp8266, rpi, teensies, trinkets, arduinos... I studied electronics principles and built various circuits.. yet I have no idea what I can practically use these devices for in my life. They all sit in a box and I have a hard time justifying buying more of them.

You mean like going to the super market without having a shopping list, buying everything that attracts your attention which all goes out of date in your fridge because you forgot you had all that food and not having any time to plan your house hold duties?

Re: CHIP Pro

#39
I still haven't received my original, pre-ordered, CHIP device and here they are releasing new versions...

Re: CHIP Pro

#40
Great hardware, but do you really want to run a full Linux system on low-end IoT devices? That's what made the recent massive DDOS attack possible - lots of little machines with way too much network-side functionality.

Linux just has too much attack surface.

Post reply on HN