I've been thinking about making a small PC dedicated to NES and SNES emulation. Is there anything that would make the BeagleBone a better or worse choice than a Raspberry Pi for this project?
BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
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Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't the finickiness related to power consumption? USB is only rated up to 500mA, so drawing too much power from the Raspberry Pi's own USB port will cause all sorts of havoc especially when the RPi itself is powered off another computer's USB port. In fact technically RPi model B's official spec is that it requires 700mA. You can often get away with less, but you'll definitely start to hit 500mA+ under stress and w…
I can vouch for this. I use a Blackberry wall-wart type charger for my Pi, and it's been rock solid. I only power it down it when I'm off travelling someplace for more than a day. pi@raspberrypi ~ $ uptime 10:58:03 up 17 days, 13:45, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05 pi@raspberrypi ~ $
Of course if you never plug anything in, it will stay up for a long time. The problem arises when there are things being plugged in and out.
Many USB devices don't work with the Pi. It's pretty picky.
pi@mia ~ $ uptime
15:40:15 up 94 days, 23:03, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#63I've been thinking about making a small PC dedicated to NES and SNES emulation. Is there anything that would make the BeagleBone a better or worse choice than a Raspberry Pi for this project?
The BeagleBone CPU is much faster than the RPi. The GPU is less sophisticated, but that hardly matters for your application.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#64I've been thinking about making a small PC dedicated to NES and SNES emulation. Is there anything that would make the BeagleBone a better or worse choice than a Raspberry Pi for this project?
If you want your SNES emulation to be accurate, this won't cut it I'm afraid.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-o...
But if you're just doing run-of-the-mill SNES emulation, it should be great.
The raspi does have analog video output, but it's composite. If you're an old school gaming purist you'd want something with analog RGB output.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#65The impulse buying tech nerd within me sees a $45 computer with potential for being able to make anything and I am stuck for ideas as to what I could use this for. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I was interested in getting an arduino for a while but wasn't sure what to do with it and was busy with other software projects. Recently, I got a pi at PyCon for free, then shortly after we bought some chicks for raising chickens for eggs. I put the two together and am building out a monitoring system for them, that includes a web cam, temperature sensor and remotely controlled brooder light. I like to call it a chi…
I missed pycon, but got a Pi anyway.
Mine is currently a part time camera host for the (hot, young) chick cam, and rapidly getting the electronics and control programming to run the door on the coop. My long term plan is to have a few webcams in the coop and do some computer vision for chicken detection.
Pulling in the Shenzhen thread -- I wish I had the lab I had in HS 20 years back to do this: a bench full of scopes and power supplies, meters, and a parts room that was open for use. No paying retail + $10 shipping and waiting a week for parts.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#66I've been thinking about making a small PC dedicated to NES and SNES emulation. Is there anything that would make the BeagleBone a better or worse choice than a Raspberry Pi for this project?
I've got a Raspberry Pi set up emulating a bunch of NES and SNES games like you plan on doing. I had to overclock it pretty far to get SNES working at all, and higher-end games (particularly those using the FX chip like Star Fox) really struggle. The emulators can't really use the Pi's better video card as far as I know, but I think the stronger CPU on the BeagleBone may give it the edge.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#67I got the MK808B for $48. It's a dual core 1GB PC with WIFI in the size of a thumb drive. It comes with Android and connects to TV via HMDI. Works pretty well as a Android TV device. Want to get another one to install Linux to play with it.
Can you please provide a link? I have been playing w/ an MK802 stick and it has a few issues.
Various sellers from $40 and up. The free shipping ones from reputable sellers are close to $48.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00ALSZNLW/ref=dp_olp...
PicUntu http://ubuntu.g8.net/ seems to got Ubuntu booted and running on the device.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
No I don't have a power meter. I know the Black works on a USB 2.0 port of my laptop and my desktop too, so it uses less than 500mA. From my experience working with Ti's stuff, they are often pretty good about power consumption though. My main problem with the Pi is that it is very finicky... plug a USB device in, and it dies/connection drops and all kinds of weird things happen. I have seen none so far on the Black.
Isn't the finickiness related to power consumption? USB is only rated up to 500mA, so drawing too much power from the Raspberry Pi's own USB port will cause all sorts of havoc especially when the RPi itself is powered off another computer's USB port. In fact technically RPi model B's official spec is that it requires 700mA. You can often get away with less, but you'll definitely start to hit 500mA+ under stress and w…
The USB implementation in the rpi's chip is rather... odd.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#69Great piece of kit. For some reference we just put together a listing of 30+ prototyping platforms: http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-hardware that people have been using for "Internet of Things" DIY projects.
Re: BeagleBone Black: A 1-GHz computer for $45
#70"Carlos Betancourt, a marketing engineer for TI's Sitara processors, described BeagleBone Black as "truly" open source. He noted that open source software is not always as open as it claims to be. "When it comes to hardware, open source means you can buy all these chips and use them for your own design," Betancourt said. " I'm sorry, but that is NOT open source "when it comes to hardware". It's very cool, it's open s…
You realize the Beagle project is developed by TI, right?
I think their marketing has been just superb on this platform, and it's a huge turnaround from the days of $4,000 EVKs for their chips.