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Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

blog.popcorncomputer.com

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Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#21

Post by grugagag »

softwarejosh wrote: post #3

what can i do woth it, its twice as expensive as a flipper

The more expensive version supports LoRa:

“Pocket P.C. w/ LoRa packs a LoRa radio capable of low power, long range communication ideal for IoT developers. Build custom LoRa peer-to-peer applications or build apps for the rapidly growing worldwide LoRaWAN community. With access to LoRaWAN at your finger tips you can prototype and build cutting edge applications faster than ever. Ready to operate on frequencies EU868, US915, and AS923.

Pocket P.C. w/ LoRa is the tool for developing LoRa solutions on the go.

”

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#22

Post by kube-system »

postpawl wrote: post #6
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was immediately where I went. I loved my little iPAQ back in high school.

I could only afford a Handspring Vizor. iPAQs were so high-end.

I could only afford an iPAQ but I really wanted a Jornada.

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#23

Post by banks_h »

joezydeco wrote: post #20
phendrenad2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a pretty fine-pitch BGA on there, so I'm guessing it is (but also not a designer)

BGA isn’t usually the reason for 10 layers, it’s high speed signals like SDRAM that need isolation and timing.

Not sure why you're getting downvoted, you're dead on.

I just finished routing an LPDDR4 bus (high speed + low voltage => worst case signal integrity) between two BGAs with signals routed on only 3 layers. The catch is that you need each high speed bus to be comfortably sandwiched between solid copper planes. Layers dedicated to reference planes start to add up quite quickly when you've got RAM, eMMC, ethernet, wifi, camera input, display output, SD card, etc all crossing over and through each other.

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#24

Post by hinkley »

Looking at the circuit board is reminding me if a thought experiment I entertain from time to time: we keep trying to make the single purpose keyboard smaller so we have room for everything else in a compact device.

What if we didn’t? Instead of removing the volume, can we put something in it? Take this one for instance. How many layers does a keyboard trace need? 2? 3? How many things can you stuff on the backside of the keyboard? Between? Under?

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#25

Post by bitwize »

kube-system wrote: post #22
postpawl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could only afford a Handspring Vizor. iPAQs were so high-end.

I could only afford an iPAQ but I really wanted a Jornada.

I wanted a Sharp Zaurus. They had a pretty good Japanese hacking community.

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#27

Post by hinkley »

shakna wrote: post #8

> Our goal is to ensure that we get all aspects of our products mainlined so that custom kernels will not be required. I love these kinds of projects, but after being burned by the PocketCHIP, who also said this but never made it there, this is isn't somewhere I want to go again.

I suspect if someone were ready to pounce on the Oxide source code when it comes out, that one might make a go of a properly open portable handheld device by adding some drivers and snipping a few bits off. Radios might be the hardest things to sort out, since people seem to like to keep those as proprietary as hell, and WiFi is merely okay now.

Sounds like starlink antennae won’t be small enough for a long time, so that leaves who besides Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Apple?

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#29

Post by DEADBEEFC0FFEE »

kube-system wrote: post #22
postpawl wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could only afford a Handspring Vizor. iPAQs were so high-end.

I could only afford an iPAQ but I really wanted a Jornada.

Through work I think I had them all. Various palms, psions, iPAQ, Dells. Good times.

Re: Popcorn Computer’s Pocket P.C. Open Sourced

#30

Post by kristopolous »

wojciii wrote: post #26
softwarejosh wrote: post #3

what can i do woth it, its twice as expensive as a flipper

What is the flipper? URL?

Some hyphy SBC that's all flash and style. It's got a basic SDR and a few common SPI/i²c devices. It's 99% a marketing play.

All off the shelf and any engineering team could clone it in a few days while substantially undercutting their price. I'd place bets someone already has. The cheaper clones will probably beat their flashy device to market and work better.

But they'll do fine regardless because branding matters way more than it should.

They're selling a fashion accessory targeting the fanboy tech crowd. They haven't thought of putting a clip on the bottom so you could wear it in public yet, but it's probably coming soon. They're running a bunch of ads for it on social media.

It's really irritating how transparent and obvious of a smoke and mirrors act it is AND how successful that strategy is.

Good on them for making the play but bad on us for hitching on to any caravan that sells silicon like it's the National Enquirer.

Anyway, here you go https://flipperzero.one/one

And the $2.3 million they've raised in 9 days https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flipper-devices/flipper...

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