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Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

zdnet.com

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Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#21

Post by dfox »

tdicola wrote: post #4

Neat board, but I think it's going to be more useful for the media center/home server crowd than makers/hardware crowd. Some of the gripes I have: - Male header pins are kind of a pain to connect to a breadboard, at least compared to female pins on a Beaglebone Black or Arduino. - I'm assuming there's no analog to digital converter, like the Raspberry Pi, so that's annoying if you're reading analog sensors or other t…

Only usecase for female header pins on board like this is sticking bare wires into it, which is highly unreliable. If you want reliable connection, both female PCB mounted headers and male cable connectors are significantly more expensive than other way around.

If you want to read some analog sensor and it is at least somehow critical for you, you still have to use external ADC. There are some processors that have usable precision ADCs (MSP430AFExxx comes to mind), but they are not exactly SoCs capable of running Linux. Generally, ADCs on MCUs/SoCs are meant for non-critical applications, mostly concerned with user interface.

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#22

Post by Narishma »

chm wrote: post #3

I'm quite surprised the RPi team hasn't created a new model in two years. Sure they just released a new "compute module", but that's not destined to the same crowd. I'd like to see an RPi revision C. Other than that, do any of you know of a chip I could buy to program from scratch? I'd be interested to learn a very simple processor but I have no idea where to start. I heard M68Ks are nice.

They intentionally haven't released a new model, and don't plan to do so any time soon. They want to have a stable hardware platform, and spend time optimizing the software so it can benefit all the RPi owners, instead of continuously releasing new models and fragmenting the community.

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#23

Post by Narishma »

frik wrote: post #13

I want a dual-core 1.4+ GHz ARM board with 2GB RAM (comparable to last years smartphones). Why is there no Raspberry Pi C announcement already? The type B is already a bit dated and who needs the "compute module"?

See my reply above. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7657271

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#24

Post by xrjn »

maratc wrote: post #6

$74 after shipping? Newegg will sell you a motherboard with a dual-core x86 CPU for $50 ($32 after rebate). With a new AMD AM1 platform, you can get a four-core x86 and a motherboard for $69. Raspberry Pi is a nice thing for $35. For $75, much nicer alternatives exist.

If you search for Banana Pi on Aliexpress, you'll find other sellers listing it at ~$55 if that makes it any better. However they don't have too much reputation, it may be annoying dealing with the escrow service if it doesn't arrive.

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#25

Post by lhl »

outside1234 wrote: post #15

I actually don't want a faster version. What I want is a more energy efficient version (still ARM) with roughly the same performance that makes it feasible to run on batteries or solar. Does that exist?

The current RPi A is about 2.5W, so already pretty cheap to solar power w a battery/small panel. Search for "solar rpi" etc to find lots of examples. Depending on your use case, the Beaglebone Black is a good alternative and idles at about 1W.

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#26

Post by quanticle »

tdicola wrote: post #10
pekk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the new part would be clearly useful for home servers, I would find that refreshing. "Makers" is not an actual use case. I always struggled to see exactly what Raspberry Pi was good for, that something else isn't better for.

"Makers" is not an actual use case. I don't agree with that--it might not be a use case to you, but is certainly a valid use case for these small development boards. Look at the success of Arduino, Maker Faire, 3D printing, DIY drones, etc. to see evidence of a large and vibrant DIY and maker community.

I think a distinction can be drawn between the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. I can see a use case for a (relatively) cheap, easy to program microcontroller with a board layout that makes it dead simple to integrate with sensors, motors, actuators, switches, etc. But that's an Arduino, not a Raspberry Pi. A Raspberry Pi is a small ARM SoC that tries to be both a microcontroller and a general purpose computer and doesn't do either particularly well.

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#27

Post by InclinedPlane »

One of the cool things about arduino lately is that they're getting cheap enough and small enough to just use as part of finished projects, instead of just as learning tools or prototypes. The neat thing about raspberry pi was that it offered a similar proposition, except instead of a microcontroller you could bring to bear the full power of a computer running linux. I'm more excited to see smaller, lower power, and cheaper versions of the pi than more powerful and more expensive versions. Because that's what will result in them being used in projects more.

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#28

Post by eephd »

bananas wrote: post #2

Excellent. The more competitors to the Pi the better. I've been nothing but disappointed by mine - it's slow, convoluted and totally unreliable. I do expect the opposite for the money when you can get a generic android tablet for not much more.

Care to elaborate what kind of applications you are using your Pi for? Also which generic Android tablet can you buy for not much more than $25?

Re: Banana Pi: The next generation of single-board computers?

#29

Post by tdicola »

dfox wrote: post #21
tdicola wrote: post #4

Neat board, but I think it's going to be more useful for the media center/home server crowd than makers/hardware crowd. Some of the gripes I have: - Male header pins are kind of a pain to connect to a breadboard, at least compared to female pins on a Beaglebone Black or Arduino. - I'm assuming there's no analog to digital converter, like the Raspberry Pi, so that's annoying if you're reading analog sensors or other t…

Only usecase for female header pins on board like this is sticking bare wires into it, which is highly unreliable. If you want reliable connection, both female PCB mounted headers and male cable connectors are significantly more expensive than other way around. If you want to read some analog sensor and it is at least somehow critical for you, you still have to use external ADC. There are some processors that have us…

Precisely, bread-boarding circuits with wires is why I prefer female connectors. Once you have something working and want to take it beyond a one-off prototype then you're going to want to build your own custom circuit board anyways, so I really don't see reliability being a huge issue for dev boards.

And having an ADC on board for non-critical stuff is still super useful for many projects. For example reading a thermister or LM335 to check the temperature of a water bath in a DIY sous-vide setup would be a great application of a cheap ADC on a Linux-based dev board. You don't need a crazy 24-bit ADC with precision voltage references, etc. just to measure if water is 140 vs 150 degrees F. A simple 10-12 bit ADC is great for many uses.

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