Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

neutis.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 123 posts

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#61

Post by bunderbunder »

tty7 wrote: post #59
fernly wrote: post #55

My flabber is gasted at people complaining about paying a meaty $49 for a quad-core, 64bit, cpu with 8gb of local storage. Twenty years ago I was writing docs for the SGI Challenge[1] with its four MIPS R4000s in a tidy cabinet the size of a two-drawer file (disk drives mounted externally) weighing about 250lbs. This thing far exceeds the capacity of that machine, costs several orders of magnitude less, and FITS IN A…

so? $49 is way too expensive for this. i can get a x86 from ebay way more cheaper than this. who would even bother, the rpi zero is $5.

Not an apples-to-apples comparison.

The pi zero has no wireless, a single-core ARM11 CPU, no on-board flash storage, less than half as many GPIO pins, requires a higher supply voltage, etc etc.

The pi 3 is much more comparable, and at a much more comparable price, especially after you add in the price of the SD card, which is necessary. Pi 3 is also much bigger, and, I'm guessing, draws more power.

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#62

Post by megy »

tmuir wrote: post #45
megy wrote: post #41

I just want a cheap one that has bluetooth LE so it can be controlled from a phone app. Does such a thing exist?

Any linux board that has a USB A port, runs the bluez stack and node js, can do this with a $5 bluetooth dongle. There's a really nice set of node.js libraries, noble and bleno, which allow you to communicate in both directions. Noble allows your linux box to be a central device, and bleno allows your linux box to be a peripheral.

Yup, that is too big. I want it to create wearable tech, or other small devices.

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#63

Post by megy »

SlowBro wrote: post #44
megy wrote: post #41

I just want a cheap one that has bluetooth LE so it can be controlled from a phone app. Does such a thing exist?

ESP32 sounds like it meets your needs, but it won't run Linux. It will run MicroPython though.

I will have a look, thanks!

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#65

Post by voltagex_ »

tty7 wrote: post #59
fernly wrote: post #55

My flabber is gasted at people complaining about paying a meaty $49 for a quad-core, 64bit, cpu with 8gb of local storage. Twenty years ago I was writing docs for the SGI Challenge[1] with its four MIPS R4000s in a tidy cabinet the size of a two-drawer file (disk drives mounted externally) weighing about 250lbs. This thing far exceeds the capacity of that machine, costs several orders of magnitude less, and FITS IN A…

so? $49 is way too expensive for this. i can get a x86 from ebay way more cheaper than this. who would even bother, the rpi zero is $5.

I'll PayPal you $5 if you can show me a receipt for a purchased Pi Zero for $5.

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#66

Post by voltagex_ »

tmuir wrote: post #45
megy wrote: post #41

I just want a cheap one that has bluetooth LE so it can be controlled from a phone app. Does such a thing exist?

Any linux board that has a USB A port, runs the bluez stack and node js, can do this with a $5 bluetooth dongle. There's a really nice set of node.js libraries, noble and bleno, which allow you to communicate in both directions. Noble allows your linux box to be a central device, and bleno allows your linux box to be a peripheral.

Except when you find you bought a fake CSR Bluetooth dongle that doesn't actually support BTLE.

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#67

Post by quickthrower2 »

fernly wrote: post #55

My flabber is gasted at people complaining about paying a meaty $49 for a quad-core, 64bit, cpu with 8gb of local storage. Twenty years ago I was writing docs for the SGI Challenge[1] with its four MIPS R4000s in a tidy cabinet the size of a two-drawer file (disk drives mounted externally) weighing about 250lbs. This thing far exceeds the capacity of that machine, costs several orders of magnitude less, and FITS IN A…

Depends what you are going to do with it. If you are buying 1 for a hobby, you have a point. If you are buying 10000 for you business, you'll care about the cost down to the cent.

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#68

Post by nmjohn »

voltagex_ wrote: post #65
tty7 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so? $49 is way too expensive for this. i can get a x86 from ebay way more cheaper than this. who would even bother, the rpi zero is $5.

I'll PayPal you $5 if you can show me a receipt for a purchased Pi Zero for $5.

I've ordered multiple rpi zero's / zero w's at cost ($5/$10 respectively) + a few dollars for shipping. Purchased through adafruit, pi hut, and canakit. No need for a receipt, it's in stock for purchase right now [0][1][2]

What you don't get however, is the ability to purchase them in any bulk quantity at that price. However the bulk price is still much less than $49.

[0]: https://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-zero.html [1]: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero [2]: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3400

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#69

Post by mkj »

bradstewart wrote: post #51
keenerd wrote: post #14

Eh, I'll stick with the PocketBeagle board. It is half the price, very easy to source, doesn't require any special connectors and has those extremely useful PRUs. Slightly larger, slower and no wireless connectivity but that is a worthwhile tradeoff.

Are you actually using the PRUs? They sound fantastic on paper, but I can't shake the feeling they'd be extremely difficult to actually use.

In my experience the PRU code is fairly straightforward and fun to write, but wrangling Linux drivers/remoteproc/TI SDKs/devicetree etc is a bit of a hassle.

https://github.com/mkj/pru-mic/blob/master/pru/asmpr0.asm is the guts of some code to read from MEMS microphones, for example.

Re: Tiny quad-core system-on-module for makers and hardware startups

#70

Post by fake-name »

Hasz wrote: post #53

No idea why anyone would want to use this. There's dozens of SBCs with 2x better specs than a Pi, but the Pi is arguably the most dominant board out there. For makers (for anyone really), documentation is king. Working code, lots of examples, and good forums make the SBC, not the hardware. As for the other group, "hardware startups": Why on earth would you lock yourself into another startup for the brains of your new…

This isn't competing with the pi at all.

It's competing with the pi compute module, and it's significantly nicer (onboard eMMC, WiFi).

Also, you're really, REALLY underestimating the additional effort involved in a complex BGA layout for any modern device. For low-volume, specialist stuff, it's generally FAR more economical to buy-in a compute module then design in house. If you expect to sell a few thousand expensive specialty $INSTRUMENT_THINGs, the hundreds of hours of engineer time needed to bring up linux on a new board layout can buy a lot of compute modules.

After all, if at a later point you do want to move to in-house, you can always just design a footprint-compatible module at a later date.

Shit, I'd personally have been really excited about this if it were a few years ago. I was doing board layout for a project with a compute-module. The selection now is so much better then it was in 2012.

Post reply on HN