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CHIP Pro

nextthing.co

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Re: CHIP Pro

#171

Post by FullyFunctional »

pooper wrote: post #141
gravypod wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can actually probably use the RPi as a desktop. I was thinking about picking up the Orange Pi and replacing my AMD 5350 machine with that. For gaming I use steam streaming. The only down side is finding a working build of the distro I use for the RPi.

I've been thinking about the odroid c2 http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:odroid-c2 (Hardware details: http://odroid.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:c2_hardware ) but they strongly recommend an eMMC module which costs a pretty penny in my opinion compared to the board itself which holds me back. I'd rather just buy a 64 GB micro SD card (which costs ~ $20 even if I got a fancy U1 samsung one that I have on my phon…

It's great actually (modulo binary blobs). With the eMMC modules compute, storage, and communication feels fast enough to be actually useful. I use the default Ubuntu installation. The 2 GiB of DRAM is really valuable to me.

Even though the Raspberries are cheaper, their only advantage to me are the vast assortment of good [value] accessories, such as the Official 7" Touch screen.

I'm intrigued by the CHIP Pro, but am so disappointed by the lack of DRAM.

Re: CHIP Pro

#172

Post by utopcell »

mgleason_3 wrote: post #160

"Powered by a chip you can actually buy" - lets hope so. Assuming thats a reference to the rpi Zero which, as of November, has been out a full year and still must be bought one at a time. Seems like we'll never be able to build more than one or two of something based on the zero. Do wish nextthing would rebrand it because its impossible to Google "chip" and hope to find anything related to this. How about "NESOC" - p…

c.h.i.p. is probably not that great of a name, but 'getchip' always returns the relevant information for me. I do like the "white-label" implications of this name: If one builds a product using chip, that fact would be hard to recover from a cursory web search.

Re: CHIP Pro

#173

Post by Dowwie »

StavrosK wrote: post #118
Dowwie wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you finish that ESP8266-based garage door opener? Why did you choose wifi for that?

I made a similar thing, and I chose wifi because the garage was simply too far for wires. It's a simple build with a relay over wifi.

Why would you use wifi rather than radio? encryption?

Re: CHIP Pro

#174

Post by milcron »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #7
Jasper_ wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every chip vendor I've dealt with, from Amlogic to Allwinner to Freescale, requires a signed NDA for full documentation. Public documentation is usually heavily redacted. The GR8 seems to be a rebadged Allwinner chip, and the no-NDA datasheet seems to be next to useless, to be honest.

> "The GR8 seems to be a rebadged Allwinner chip" It could be, but reading up on the features of the C.H.I.P. Pro it supports mainline Linux. I assumed this meant without blobs. Is there mainline support for any Allwinner chips?

> it supports mainline Linux. I assumed this meant without blobs

Fun fact, there are blobs in mainline Linux. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux-libre#History

Re: CHIP Pro

#175

Post by wyager »

countingteeth wrote: post #78
wyager wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Bare metal programming is vastly preferable for many, if not most, realistic embedded applications. I hope they have a convenient gcc-arm-none-eabi setup available. It's not just about security; it's also a lot more work to do hard realtime systems with any sort of OS, even an RTOS. We're even starting to see a bit of this on the high-level non-embedded side of things; projects like HaLVM and Mirage OS allow…

No. It would be more accurate to say that is is a lot more work to reimplement a hard realtime embedded RTOS from scratch, when you have a nontrivial application that needs features like tasking, synchronization, IPC, memory virtualization etc. That is probably not Linux, but going bare target every time you have a new application and platform with hard realtime requirements would be a huge mistake. > you use standar…

>features like tasking, synchronization, IPC, memory virtualization etc.

If you use any of these features in a hard-realtime application, you are making multiple huge mistakes.

> They don't come ex nihilo.

Did I suggest they did?

You don't have to believe me; look up the projects I mentioned.

> This is often, if not usually, the wrong level of abstract for either application architecture or efficient resource usage.

This is because current tools don't support developing software in this way. Hence the variety of in-development projects to facilitate it.

Re: CHIP Pro

#176

Post by Razengan »

platz wrote: 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.

As a muggle, every time I see these things I can't help but wonder:

WHY do we not have a good open-source gaming handheld based on one of these yet?

Smartphones have all but killed the traditional physical-buttons Game Boy/DS/Vita model. Gaming on glass sucks, but people generally don't want to carry around another device in addition to their phone. I'm looking forward to the Nintendo NX, but I'm afraid a proprietary platform won't be able to bring handhelds back again — it will just be too limited and locked-down.

Here's my wish/suggestion list for a modern handheld, for those of you that can build these things:

- Open-Source OS. (Android?)

- Bundled with emulators for all classic systems (C64/GB/NES/SNES/etc.) out of the box.

- A game store.

- Two joysticks, D-Pad, 4 buttons, 2 Triggers.

- 720p Touchscreen.

- AirPlay-like ability to play on my TV screen, or on a computer screen via a macOS/Windows/Linux app.

- SD card storage.

- WiFi.

- Ideally, Swift toolchain with a high-quality games SDK :-) (or at least Unity support.)

Don't need a camera. Don't need "apps" like browsers and media players or whatnot. Got 'em on the phone. Probably don't require Bluetooth either. Not sure about a microphone — may be needed for multiplayer chat.

The price point would need to be cheaper than any other handheld and most smartphones.. I wonder if the tech is there to make and sell something like this for less than a 100 bucks?

Re: CHIP Pro

#177

Post by rdiddly »

gcb0 wrote: post #159
platz wrote: 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.

exactly what most people were talking about computers before. think of those things as hobby computers and Intel/amd/arm as the huge inaccessible ivory tower mainframes. you know how you have zero access to any device on your laptop or phone? those things will eventually solve that. but they are hobbyist grade for now.

Aha, thanks for the perspective. I was about to lament my lack of motivation to fart around Arduino'ing & CHIPping stuff but this actually puts a bit more wind in my sails!

Edit: Pun not intended but retroactively affirmed between "fart" and "wind."

Re: CHIP Pro

#178

Post by rthille »

function_seven wrote: post #58
stop1234 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Sibling comment to mine thinks you're harsh, but I think you nailed it. I have an Arduino and a Raspberry Pi both just sitting around because I never came up with interesting things to do with them. I also have a lot of food in the fridge and pantry that's expired or near-expiring because of the promises I made myself at the supermarket that I've totally reneged on. So, harsh or not, I think you're dead on.

I'm in the same boat wrt hardware, but I've got lots of interesting ideas about things to do with all the devices, just epsilon time to do it in...

Re: CHIP Pro

#179

Post by Scaevolus »

durkie wrote: post #148
Palomides wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to mill at least the outline of your board anyway, a little more is trivial.

yeah, it just seems like if it were really optimized for smt, they would have milled the back side of the CHIP and placed the flash et al components in there so that you wouldn't have to find the extra real estate on your own board.

If you were really optimizing for cost, you wouldn't have a $16 monolithic board in the middle with extra components you don't need. Compared to that, the extra cost of milling the board you're placing it on is minimal.

Re: CHIP Pro

#180

Post by zhemao »

Razengan wrote: post #176
platz wrote: 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.

As a muggle, every time I see these things I can't help but wonder: WHY do we not have a good open-source gaming handheld based on one of these yet? Smartphones have all but killed the traditional physical-buttons Game Boy/DS/Vita model. Gaming on glass sucks, but people generally don't want to carry around another device in addition to their phone. I'm looking forward to the Nintendo NX, but I'm afraid a proprietary…

Probably because that would be a legal nightmare. You'd have to get approval from all the companies that made the systems you're emulating and the companies that made those games (sometimes they're the same company). And I doubt they'd be interested in supporting a system that will eat into their own sales.
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