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A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

bbenchoff.github.io

261–270 of 408 posts

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> neither WiFi nor BT I understand having WiFi, it'd be great for a small device like this. But why would we need Bluetooth? It only has 32MB of RAM so I doubt you could get any music running on it.

I'm old so I'll just say that my Amiga 500 had 512KB of RAM, and it played really cool music!

You had 512KB? I had 64KB. If the machine booted to BASIC, it had exactly 28815 bytes free.

I could play music. Not waveforms, but MIDI-level.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#262
post #27

This is $15 BoM cost (ie, parts), not including assembly, packaging, shipping, etc etc. So not what most people think when they see the headline. Still, it is a nice design

nor profit - traditionally as a rule of thumb one doubles the price to cover that, and then again to cover retail markup

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#263
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which devices? Unlike an RPi, this thing has a screen, a keyboard, a sleek case, a battery compartment. What are other devices that have these all, and cost, say, under $40?

These little game things are $40. I have one. They use an old style removable cell phone battery and have a screen that isn't great (320x240 though similar to the one described in the article). It runs linux but Lamentably I don't think its easy to install your own version. https://powkiddy.com/products/powkiddy-v90-3-inch-ips-screen...

Have one too, got it at £27 with delivery, very nice hardware (especially with the custom miyoocfw firmware installed). If a device like this, with perhaps slightly larger screen & wifi, was integrated with keyboard (like the rpi 400) one would have killer device for nerd-working/gaming on the go.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#264
post #222

> It costs $10,000 USD to build one of these > The ten thousandth one costs $15 As a software engineer, I'm used to being able to build essentially whatever I want, with the only cost being my time. I'm often unpleasantly reminded that software is an outlier in that regard and as soon as physical items are concerned, especially hardware, it turns out that manufacturing even a simple thing is prohibitively expensive i…

So true. I recently helped a friend build a little bit of a backyard carpentry project and I was struck by the fact that I got the same creative satisfaction from building little pieces of software. With one big difference: that 2-day carpentry project cost around $1000 in materials. People wanting to create these kinds of things have to pay a big price. Whereas with code (and lots of free-tier cloud services etc) I can bang out endless ideas and useful projects for free.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#266
post #222

> It costs $10,000 USD to build one of these > The ten thousandth one costs $15 As a software engineer, I'm used to being able to build essentially whatever I want, with the only cost being my time. I'm often unpleasantly reminded that software is an outlier in that regard and as soon as physical items are concerned, especially hardware, it turns out that manufacturing even a simple thing is prohibitively expensive i…

Really depends. I started a small (consumer electronics) hardware startup. Bootstrapped and producing small quantities. There are ways to make it work.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#267
The first one costs $10k? It seems a bit disingenuous. All the electronics and PCB manufacture is more expensive in single quantities, but I would be shocked if it wasn't still within 2x-3x of $15 (namely $30-$45).

The big initial expense, as far as I can tell, is the custom enclosure and keyboard. Maybe there's an interim design that doesn't require injection molded parts?

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#268
post #222

> It costs $10,000 USD to build one of these > The ten thousandth one costs $15 As a software engineer, I'm used to being able to build essentially whatever I want, with the only cost being my time. I'm often unpleasantly reminded that software is an outlier in that regard and as soon as physical items are concerned, especially hardware, it turns out that manufacturing even a simple thing is prohibitively expensive i…

Most of that "$10,000" is because of paying someone else for custom parts. If you use existing parts or make the custom parts yourself (if you have the ability/tools), it's less than $100.

So the software equivalent would be if you oursourced a large chunk of your project to someone else, and in that case, I think $10,000 might not be too far off.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#269
post #114

Would be nice to see an equivalent “minimum viable trustable computer” that used only parts from “trusted” supply chains (pick your own definition of “trusted”, but it might for example exclude generic parts marketplaces).

Pinedio stack is probably the best cheap option, as it has been fully reverse engineered, including the radios- no firmware blobs. Similar to m5 stack but riscV core.

For an OS you have nuttx, but for the memory size, Oberon ports (A2) might be feasible.

Re: A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

#270
post #27

This is $15 BoM cost (ie, parts), not including assembly, packaging, shipping, etc etc. So not what most people think when they see the headline. Still, it is a nice design

nor profit - traditionally as a rule of thumb one doubles the price to cover that, and then again to cover retail markup

And this is the BOM cost at qty 10,000.
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