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The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

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Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#31

Post by duskwuff »

zdw wrote: post #24
georgemcbay wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was quite easy to do non-Flash development and hacking on the chumby if you wanted to, though admittedly there would then be no "market" for the app (not that Chumby really had any kind of market at all, you could upload community apps but there was no ability to sell them). The chumby was basically just a small, touchscreen ARM based Linux system, before the raspberry pi made that cool (and super cheap). I've hac…

Any chance you know of a more modern set of kernel patches for the Infocast (8" BB model) than what Chumby released, or if there's any community developed support? I have two of them and back in the day I followed Bunnie's guide here to get a browser going on it: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=1294

I was working on getting Linux 3.13 ported over a while back. Never got everything working (audio and wifi was particularly painful), but it might be a start:

https://github.com/duskwuff/silvermoon-linux

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#32

Post by danial »

jaymcnuggets wrote: post #3

Excited to give this a read - he's also got a good reference book for non-native Mandarin speakers on navigating the Shenzhen markets[1] Just bought mine from the publisher as an ebook + hardcover package for about $10 more than Amazon price for just the book, includes early access with code EARLYBIRD: https://www.nostarch.com/hardwarehacker [1] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3189

I bought a copy too. I was a little disappointed that the early access ebook has the last few chapters missing.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cjoxjb1pk1lmo5b/Hardware%20hacking...

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#33

Post by billpollock »

kasbah wrote: post #9

I believe this book is a print edition of a selection of blog posts that have appeared on http://www.bunniestudios.com/ .

It's based on bunnie's blog but one of our editors poured her heart and soul into this. She's a EE with incredible passion. In other words, this isn't just a print out of his blog. It's a real book.

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#34

Post by reubenmorais »

zcarter wrote: post #6

Prominently featured in a recent documentary on manufacturing in Shenzhen. Recommended: http://www.wired.co.uk/video/shenzhen-full-documentary

I second the recommendation. The documentary talks in detail about the differing views on intellectual property between Western countries and China that is mentioned in the article.

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#35

Post by [deleted] »

j_s wrote: post #15
justin66 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank God for that. I was worried Boing Boing might earn five cents when I clicked on that Amazon link.

Thanks for your feedback! Amazon Affiliates get credit for purchases for up to 24 hours, including "an aggregate view of what people bought and in what quantities" (as of 5 years ago, but I believe this is still the case). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4157107 I personally believe that added value is worth rewarding but this particular blurb didn't add much. @deutronium provided more value by linking to the ac…

[deleted]

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#36

Post by mwcampbell »

Sanddancer wrote: post #26
mwcampbell wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't know about the Chumby at the time; I only read about it after the fact. But with the benefit of hindsight, I can think of one detail in the execution that probably didn't help the product's longevity. In 2009, at around the time that the iPhone 3GS and newer Android phones were using ARMv7-based processors and 256 MB of RAM, the Chumby One used an ARMv5-based chip (the i.MX233) that could only handle 64 MB o…

Not really. That little chip is /still/ about the fastest chip you're gonna get for any sort of hardware hacking project for which you want a display, and the ability to prototype using one of the super cheap pcb makers.

Really? Can you explain more about why the i.MX233 has those unique benefits? Might it be better to use something like the CHIP (https://getchip.com/), based on an Allwinner R8, instead? Yes, the CHIP is itself a PCB, but it's so small and has enough pin headers that I guess you could treat it as a system-on-module and solder it to a carrier board.

Starting a new project with an ARMv5-based processor today seems really stupid to me, even more so than in 2009. But maybe I'm just hyper-sensitive about obsolete hardware because a community that I care about has been burned in that area before. I'm talking about PDAs designed specifically for blind people. I explained more about that in a mailing list posting here:

https://www.mail-archive.com/arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk/...

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#37

Post by kasbah »

billpollock wrote: post #33
kasbah wrote: post #9

I believe this book is a print edition of a selection of blog posts that have appeared on http://www.bunniestudios.com/ .

It's based on bunnie's blog but one of our editors poured her heart and soul into this. She's a EE with incredible passion. In other words, this isn't just a print out of his blog. It's a real book.

Thanks, good to know.

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#38

Post by Sanddancer »

mwcampbell wrote: post #36
Sanddancer wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. That little chip is /still/ about the fastest chip you're gonna get for any sort of hardware hacking project for which you want a display, and the ability to prototype using one of the super cheap pcb makers.

Really? Can you explain more about why the i.MX233 has those unique benefits? Might it be better to use something like the CHIP ( https://getchip.com/ ), based on an Allwinner R8, instead? Yes, the CHIP is itself a PCB, but it's so small and has enough pin headers that I guess you could treat it as a system-on-module and solder it to a carrier board. Starting a new project with an ARMv5-based processor today seems re…

The big advantage comes from its packaging and everything built into the chip. It comes in a 144 pin lqfp package, which means that routing pins can be done by a couple people with real minimal amounts of training, and it can be laid out onto a two-layer board, which tends to be a lot cheaper than a four layer board which a bga package pretty much requires. It's also got a dac and adc built in which has the circuitry to directly drive headphones, so you don't need amplification circuitry to do that. Similarly, it's got integrated power regulation, so you don't need those chips either. Finally, all the info on it is available in a datasheet you don't need to jump through hoops to read [1]. It's not as fast as a chip, but because of everything it has, it's much more flexible for when you are designing something.

[1] http://www.nxp.com/assets/documents/data/en/reference-manual...

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#39

Post by zdw »

georgemcbay wrote: post #25
zdw wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any chance you know of a more modern set of kernel patches for the Infocast (8" BB model) than what Chumby released, or if there's any community developed support? I have two of them and back in the day I followed Bunnie's guide here to get a browser going on it: http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=1294

Nope. Looks like you asked me this same question quite a while ago (kudos for persistence in trying to get it updated!): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7975378 Not aware of anyone making available newer, working patches since then either... I don't even have any working chumby 8" devices anymore.

Wow, way to remember that. I've keep it around asone of those "hey I could do this eventually..." sorts of things that's probably not worth it anymore given that a raspberry pi and the official touchscreen is > I don't even have any working chumby 8" devices anymore.

Do you want one?

Re: The Hardware Hacker: Bunnie Huang's Tour-De-force

#40

Post by georgemcbay »

zdw wrote: post #39
georgemcbay wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Looks like you asked me this same question quite a while ago (kudos for persistence in trying to get it updated!): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7975378 Not aware of anyone making available newer, working patches since then either... I don't even have any working chumby 8" devices anymore.

Wow, way to remember that. I've keep it around asone of those "hey I could do this eventually..." sorts of things that's probably not worth it anymore given that a raspberry pi and the official touchscreen is > I don't even have any working chumby 8" devices anymore. Do you want one?

Nope, but thanks for asking!

I have the same issue you do where I keep things around just in case I might someday make a project with them. I actually got rid of a bunch of my old chumby devices (plus a lot of old freescale developer boards and miscellaneous embedded devices) specifically in a purge to get rid of such things, so I don't want to relapse!

I've found (as you mentioned) that if such a project does turn up I'm better off just buying a newish device like whatever the newest raspberry pi is and using that... more expensive than using scavenged parts, but lots less wasted time trying to get a modern kernel up, etc.

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