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

neutis.io

81–90 of 123 posts

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

#81
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

https://imgur.com/gallery/myVny my PayPal is masle.com@gmail.com. Thanks!

That's more like ten dollars though.

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

#82
post #73
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a rpi zero for $5 in my country. At least $11 and then there's shipping. and limits of one per customer.

I've bought multiple Pi Zero Ws for $5 at my local microcenter. The first one is $5 but the second one is $15. I just would pick one up on lunch every couple days. I have four in my house. $20

I wish they didn't pull that shit, though. I can't buy two of them because of that. I didn't even know you can buy more than one, every site limits to one per order. I wish they just priced them normally and let me buy them in bulk.

Right now my Pi Zero is collecting dust because I know I can't find a second one easily. Meanwhile, I buy ESP8266s by the tens and use them for every throwaway purpose.

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

#83
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.

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.

Pi Zero W includes wlan and bluetooth, and the kit that includes PSU and SD card cost around ~$35.

Stil I agree, its not really comparable. The Pis is mostly learning/teaching tool. I can see using this in a product directly. Something I would grab when I needed something more than an ESP.

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

#84
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…

Also, i can have a Pi from any number of stores.

Most of the other boards are either direct from manufacturer, or via some kind of specialized store that can set any markup they like.

That said, i would love to see some kind of mobile device built around this.

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

#85
post #71
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…

It's a niche, but I can see real value in this for small runs ( In the event Neutis is at risk of folding or you want to go to larger scale production, you can put the time and effort into dropping the Allwinner SoC and SoM peripherals straight onto your design. I have a couple of projects in mind that could use this, where I was otherwise considering the C.H.I.P. Pro or going through the effort of integrating a SoC.

My thoughts exactly. I think many of the posts here are from people who are not designing for manufacture and are just looking at the specs like it's a small standalone computer like the rpi.

It looks pretty good to me. Havent had to use those high density connectors before but assume its straight forward enough.

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

#87
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://imgur.com/gallery/myVny my PayPal is masle.com@gmail.com. Thanks!

That's more like ten dollars though.

Nobody claimed it was $5 including shipping. It's still £3.82 ($5.32) without VAT (deducting it since US prices never include sales tax, either) and shipping at Pimoroni UK right now.

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

#88
post #59
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.

The RPi Zero at $5 is a (hardly verifiable) reality only for a few lucky purchasers, especially writers in some blogs/magazines, but an urban legend for everyone else. 10 people every now and then telling the world they got it at $5 mean nothing when there are thousands who can't get it without price inflating bundles. We already know why it is produced in so scarce quantities, so I won't comment further. Besides that, the RPi Zero has also way inferior capabilities compared to this one..

Regarding the Emlid board, yes, it's way overpriced, but it doesn't seem a product aimed at makers -though it also tries to sell itself as such-. Once you add the board to make it useable the price will grow a lot. To me it has its uses as an industrial module manufacturers can stick into their products. I personally would rather get a NanoPi NEO2 plus its dock at a total cost of $28, or 10 more for 1GB RAM, and the OrangePI also has some boards with similar characteristics, but that's a personal choice: Nano/OrangePI boards are wonderful boards for makers and experimenters but if you're building something critical then you should look elsewhere. If the Emlid board satisfies safety requirements then its price is totally justified (and selling it as a makers board could do bad PR), otherwise they should make a breadboard friendly version at a lower price.

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

#89
post #79
post #47

It claims to run on mainline Linux but mainline Linux does not yet support CPUFreq, hardware crypto, HDMI, nor the GPU for the Allwinner H5. http://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort

It says "based on mainline linux", not "running on mainline linux". They probably have non-upstreamed patches.

But by that definition, what linux isn't 'based on mainline linux'? Unless they're offering some guarantee that they'll keep their patches up-to-date...

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

#90
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.

Designing your own board looks easy from the outside, but quickly turns out to take a lot of effort and time as you work through PCB design, first boards, initial bring-up, tweaks, new boards, EOL notice one of your components, slight redesign, and finally you're headed of to (pre-)certifications only to find you need to fix something there.

This assumes that your SoC vendor actually cares about you as a customer and provides you all documentation, erratas, and EOL notices in a timely manner and not considers you a liability that due to small volumes (I'm making a living developing big and small embedded systems for customers as a software developer, so I see this mostly from the outside, and depending on the experience of your team and how good your contacts to your component suppliers are, you may be able to speed up the process.

But for sure it takes a lot of effort to get to the stage where you have what this $49 SOM gives you. $49 times 10k units is quickly eaten into, and then have you have to consider what value you put on time to market.

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