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A Minimum Viable Computer, or Linux for $15

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

#331

Post by ansible »

argvargc wrote: post #303
ansible wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, yes. If you're standing, then something much more compact makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't mind seeing something with the same form factor as the GPD Win3, but using a relatively low-power processor for better battery life. I suppose that wouldn't drop down the price enough to make it desirable to most of the target market though.

As I understand it, battery performance can be somewhat configurable on these, eg by adjusting BIOS settings for thermal controls to keep the CPU throttled. If you don't mind the lack of gaming controls, they have some Pentium N6000-based models. The P2 Max (2022) with this claims 8 hours continuous 1080p playback. Still expensive though - would be great to see a more terminal-focused version with a lower power CPU a…

Most of their products I would consider too big for thumb typing while standing.

The Micro PC seems about right though with a 6in screen.

https://www.gpd.hk/gpdmicropc

Apparently not for sale new anymore, and it seemed expensive when it was.

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

#334

Post by anthk »

dtech wrote: post #330
anthk wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FLAC would be easier, maybe. But at minimum it should be played on a MMX Pentium.

I doubt it has the memory capacity or bandwidth for a lossless format like FLAC.

Pentium 2 + 32MB of RAM should be enough.

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

#335

Post by Jenda_ »

miav wrote: 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…

Maybe it's including time invested into development?

The F1C100s is $5 for one piece on AliExpress, all the parts seem to be solderable by hand/manual reflow in an hour (the passives can be populated by JLC for like $30 for a batch of 5 boards, saving your time), the board would be $2/piece for a batch of 5 at JLCPCB (seems to be 2-layer), the enclosure can also be 3D-printed on a professional printer at JLC for tens of $, the only thing I don't have experience with is the conductive-rubber keyboard.

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

#336

Post by lkois »

moistly wrote: post #273
adamddev1 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The other big difference is that you generally can’t make mistakes in woodworking. Made a mistake in your code? No problem, you fix the bug. But not in woodworking. Cut a piece too short? You’re hooped. Drilled a hole in the wrong place? You’re hooped. Misalignment during glue-up? Hooped. Woodworking scratches many of the same itches as programming for me, with one key difference: it’s unforgiving of mistakes, so req…

As a former mechanical engineer, the forgiveness is an amazing feature of software development. Not only can you easily correct mistakes, but you can deliberately run head first into them over and over, essentially brute forcing a working solution, without pausing to be precise. Especially with interpreted languages.

I'm not sure if this command will work? Well I may as well just try it anyway. Something broke? I'll throw in a breakpoint and try out a bunch of dummy variables and alternative methods until the errors stop.

And while it's a common complaint that compile times force some extra care, with hardware that extra care needs to happen outside the medium itself, mucking around with CAD software and such, before sending designs off to workshops. It'd be like if the solution to avoiding compile errors was very carefully handwriting code on paper

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

#337

Post by genewitch »

pbronez wrote: post #320
skykooler wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raspberry pi is just the motherboard. Add in a screen, power supply, keyboard and case, and that's going to inflate the total cost.

Is there a kit that adds all the stuff needed to make an rPi into a battery powered hand-held device?

The screen alone is going to triple the price. A 3A boost/buck converter to power the Pi from a battery is not going to be cheap, either. You could probably cobble a few 500mA ones together and hope everything plays nice, but that's a large footprint.

If the pi actually is being used it'll definitely draw 2.5-3A, so a 2Ah battery won't last very long. I'm not really up to date on li-poly (the flat pack lithium style batteries), perhaps there's some that would be ok for a handheld with ~3A or more of draw, but again, it's another $20-$40 for batteries that are usable for a handheld. There is the pi arcade hAT or whatever, that's about $15+ iirc. 3d print a case, if you already have a printer that's just time and materials, otherwise you're gunna pay $20 for a case design and print that actually feels nice, again.

At a certain point, the steam handheld device might be a better bet, since it'll have a warranty (don't laugh!) and a support team (okay laugh a little).

All of this could be irrelevant because perhaps the pi zero does everything people want, and that's dirt cheap and also probably uses way less power.

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

#339

Post by lkois »

lazide wrote: post #321
moistly wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other big difference is that you generally can’t make mistakes in woodworking. Made a mistake in your code? No problem, you fix the bug. But not in woodworking. Cut a piece too short? You’re hooped. Drilled a hole in the wrong place? You’re hooped. Misalignment during glue-up? Hooped. Woodworking scratches many of the same itches as programming for me, with one key difference: it’s unforgiving of mistakes, so req…

Just wait until it’s machining! Wood working at least most of the time tolerances are +- 1/8”. Throwing away a thousand dollar part because you were .003” off is lame. At least if you have a grinder, welding can sometimes be more forgiving.

Oof, I used to work with one of the few workshops in the world that could produce small batches of parts down to 0.0001mm or something a bit ridiculous.

Their pricing and supply times factored in a pretty significant failure rate, and we were basically asking them for highly precise screws and nuts for a couple thousand each.

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

#340

Post by Jenda_ »

genewitch wrote: post #337
pbronez wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a kit that adds all the stuff needed to make an rPi into a battery powered hand-held device?

The screen alone is going to triple the price. A 3A boost/buck converter to power the Pi from a battery is not going to be cheap, either. You could probably cobble a few 500mA ones together and hope everything plays nice, but that's a large footprint. If the pi actually is being used it'll definitely draw 2.5-3A, so a 2Ah battery won't last very long. I'm not really up to date on li-poly (the flat pack lithium style…

> A 3A boost/buck converter to power the Pi from a battery is not going to be cheap, either.

LM2596 costs <$1 and it powers my rtl-adsb for 4 years so far (yes, this is in step-down mode, but you either want a 2S/3S battery anyway, or you use the similar step-up chip).

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