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The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

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Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#51

Post by shoaibmerchant »

rickcarlino wrote: post #2

Be sure to put those connectors through adequate stress testing. I’ve had several products that use a similar design (Garmin watch, Bluetooth headset) and I’ve been disappointed to find that the connector wears out with time.

Founder here, thank you for this note we will build a jig to test this out and share results on our docs. One of the things we have done to reduce wear over time is that the spring contact is on the device and we expose a very small contact surface from the housing. Check this - https://ibb.co/xqm3z3W

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#53

Post by shoaibmerchant »

globular-toast wrote: post #16
rickcarlino wrote: post #2

Be sure to put those connectors through adequate stress testing. I’ve had several products that use a similar design (Garmin watch, Bluetooth headset) and I’ve been disappointed to find that the connector wears out with time.

On Garmin watches the springy mechanical part is on the cable, not the watch. Have you observed the watch itself wearing out? I would hope it's designed such that the cable is sacrificial and the watch lasts. In the product here the springs appear to be on the device side, which seems to me like the bit that would be more likely to wear out. That's concerning, but there's more chance of being to able to replace it th…

Founder here, the reason to not put spring contacts on extensions is to make it easy for anyone to make extensions by just exposing solder contacts or hand soldering small discs. But we will evaluate more on the endurance part and take a call on this, we are still pre-production right now.

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#54

Post by shoaibmerchant »

debo_ wrote: post #30

Slightly unrelated, but whoever chose Skyroads as their videogame demo example has made my heart sing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyRoads_%28video_game%29

Founder here, that would be me. I have spent countless hours on this :D

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#55

Post by stonogo »

dmitrygr wrote: post #48

> 1.8 GHz Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 A53 is an antique in-order core whose pipeline cannot even handle two multiplies in a row. 1.8GHz is also rather slow. I caution anyone from expecting this thing to perform in any sane fashion if running modern bloated code. It would probably collapse under the pile of JavaScript that is the modern web, if you attempted to run chromium.

Is it irony, or merely a counterpoint, that I read this comment on a laptop powered by this exact SoC, running Firefox on Debian?

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#57

Post by dmitrygr »

stonogo wrote: post #55
dmitrygr wrote: post #48

> 1.8 GHz Quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 A53 is an antique in-order core whose pipeline cannot even handle two multiplies in a row. 1.8GHz is also rather slow. I caution anyone from expecting this thing to perform in any sane fashion if running modern bloated code. It would probably collapse under the pile of JavaScript that is the modern web, if you attempted to run chromium.

Is it irony, or merely a counterpoint, that I read this comment on a laptop powered by this exact SoC, running Firefox on Debian?

How well does said laptop handle google maps or a youtube live stream with chat? 1080p60fps video?

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#58

Post by debo_ »

shoaibmerchant wrote: post #54
debo_ wrote: post #30

Slightly unrelated, but whoever chose Skyroads as their videogame demo example has made my heart sing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyRoads_%28video_game%29

Founder here, that would be me. I have spent countless hours on this :D

<3 I loved this game so much as a kid!

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#59

Post by stonogo »

dmitrygr wrote: post #57
stonogo wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it irony, or merely a counterpoint, that I read this comment on a laptop powered by this exact SoC, running Firefox on Debian?

How well does said laptop handle google maps or a youtube live stream with chat? 1080p60fps video?

Video is accelerated and works fine. Google maps is useable (I just tested it) but not great. It's not too much worse than it is on my MUCH faster M3 Macbook, though. I think I just don't like Google maps. Apple maps works better on both devices.

I'm not going to pretend it's not a comparatively slow computer, but the most it really affects is application launch. Starting Firefox or Chrome is pretty bad: five to ten seconds. Once it's launched, however, it's mostly fine.

Re: The Comet is a handheld Linux computer that brings extensibility

#60

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

Etheryte wrote: post #22
dmd wrote: post #13

If you want something similar to this RIGHT NOW that has thousands of available parts and millions of users, see https://m5stack.com/

That looks pretty interesting, do you happen to have any first hand experience with this? In my experience, platforms like this live and die by the pain of unhandled edge cases, so even if the happy path works fine, it can still be something to avoid.

I've released projects based on M5Stack. Not much to say: it does what it claims. Getting the right software libraries in place is a minor pain, but all in all it's pretty straightforward as far as embedded development goes.

GP points to the home page, so I don't know which of the very many devices was being referred to. My experience is with M5Stack Tough and I recommend it.

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