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CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

cutiepi.io

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Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#111

Post by jodrellblank »

crazygringo wrote: post #47

I love this concept, I just really want one with an e-ink screen instead. I think there's a great niche for "embedded" devices around the home -- weather readout panels, lighting controls, music player, intercom, etc. -- but glowing rectangles mounted to the wall are just too... glowing. E-ink panels is where it's at, and a Raspberry Pi powering it is perfect. Unfortunately, the only real general-purpose e-ink tablet…

> "I love this concept, I just really want one with an e-ink screen instead."

How close would a hand-crank mechanism be to driving an e-ink tablet for a useful amount of time? A quick look at a clockwork crank-wind-up torch shows it has 300mAh battery and 30hrs of blinking SOS LED on a full charge, and they claim 1min of winding gives it 2hrs of blinking LED, so roughly 20mAh per minute of winding. How much computing can one do in 20mAh?

"Clockwork radio" and no-battery crystal radios must be quite low power, and one approach for e-ink screens is to only update a small changed area of screen at once. The FireBeetle ESP32 can deep-sleep on 0.011mA [1] and reference is at 39mA. Maybe 1min of clowkwork winding could drive it at reference power for 30 mins, and half-power for an hour?

What kind of computing UX/UI/OS could there be with primarily audio feedback[2] using a low power earphone, e-Ink style screen updated only on demand?

I carried on this thought to "treadle powered computer" thinking of a flywheel, and found someone has built one: https://scoraigwind.co.uk/2010/07/treadle-powered-computer/ which seems to be generating around 6 Watts and running a laptop.

[1] https://diyi0t.com/reduce-the-esp32-power-consumption/

[2] http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/ - EMACSPEAK computing interface for the blind. Also ref the classic `ed` editor which doesn't print unless you ask, because it was from the days of printing on paper

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#112

Post by bbernhard90 »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #104
crazygringo wrote: post #47

I love this concept, I just really want one with an e-ink screen instead. I think there's a great niche for "embedded" devices around the home -- weather readout panels, lighting controls, music player, intercom, etc. -- but glowing rectangles mounted to the wall are just too... glowing. E-ink panels is where it's at, and a Raspberry Pi powering it is perfect. Unfortunately, the only real general-purpose e-ink tablet…

Inkplate 6 looks good to me on paper, though I haven't seen a real one yet. https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6

The Inkplate 6 works pretty well - I am using it for my digital picture frame. The only disappointing thing for me is, that they haven't released the actual source files (Eagle, Kicad, etc..) for the hardware yet. [1]

[1] https://github.com/e-radionicacom/Inkplate-6-hardware/issues...

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#113

Post by gbear605 »

SimianLogic2 wrote: post #91
crazygringo wrote: post #47

I love this concept, I just really want one with an e-ink screen instead. I think there's a great niche for "embedded" devices around the home -- weather readout panels, lighting controls, music player, intercom, etc. -- but glowing rectangles mounted to the wall are just too... glowing. E-ink panels is where it's at, and a Raspberry Pi powering it is perfect. Unfortunately, the only real general-purpose e-ink tablet…

Seconded. I looked into this at the start of the Pandemic -- there are a few crap ones on Amazon. I couldn't get them to work with my phone. I'd love to just have a set of web bookmarks and be able to load those or send it a URL from my device or even a page out of Notion. My main use case: when I'm following a recipe, my devices go to sleep in a minute or two and it's a huge pain in the ass to wake it up and type in…

It seems like the simple solution is just to change your phone’s sleep settings when you know you’re going to be cooking

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#114

Post by dxxvi »

If I buy a tablet with Raspberry Pi inside, I want to use genuine Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Alpine ... not Android) with different apps (terminal, vs code, python, node, java ...) besides the browser. I will type a lot on it. So, I need a bigger screen (bigger than the 12.9" ipad pro) and a keyboard and touchpad like the ipad magic keyboard. I also like to have 4 chargeable USB-C ports on 4 sides of the tablet. I think I'm dreaming :-)

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#115

Post by isaiahg »

StevePerkins wrote: post #39

Two-hundred bucks is basically "impulse purchase" territory, but I'm nevertheless struggling to see the use case here. If you're into maker projects with Raspberry Pis, then I'm not sure what this does for you. It's a Pi already built into a consumer device. Not seemingly a platform for new maker projects. If you want a tablet with a Linux kernel buried in there somewhere, then there's probably a thousand Android opt…

I have a use for this for sure. I got two 400 models for my 3 and 4 yo and installed all the Linux educational software. Recently I started working on my own educational games for them in C and having something like this I can carry around the house to code on vim while I watch them would be super handy.

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#116

Post by asabjorn »

prox wrote: post #95
StevePerkins wrote: post #39

Two-hundred bucks is basically "impulse purchase" territory, but I'm nevertheless struggling to see the use case here. If you're into maker projects with Raspberry Pis, then I'm not sure what this does for you. It's a Pi already built into a consumer device. Not seemingly a platform for new maker projects. If you want a tablet with a Linux kernel buried in there somewhere, then there's probably a thousand Android opt…

One of the first things I bought for my Pi was a battery HAT and with VNC on, I use my iPad as its screen, and a BT keyboard from an old Mac. It’s the best of both worlds. I can take the Pi anywhere and work on some Python projects. I went out in nature and it is quite cool to have your tools of the trade with you. Perhaps this fits in that kind of -maybe niche- use case.

Can you please add details on what hardware you bought and what battery life you have achieved? I want to build something similar.

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#117

Post by rzzzt »

mattowen_uk wrote: post #24
geerlingguy wrote: post #7

Just wanted to drop a link here to a page I maintain tracking as many Pi CM4-based projects as I've found: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm (including the CutiePi). The Compute Module 4 is the first revision (similar to the regular 4 model B) that is fast enough to actually be a practical/sensible replacement for a great deal of use cases where traditionally low power PC hardware would be preferred (though of…

Jeff's YouTube channel is also a delight[1], totally worth subscribing to! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR-DXc1voovS8nhAvccRZhg --- [1] Red Shirt Jeff did not make me say this, honest.

Some day there might be an actual reason for sawing the board in half...

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#118

Post by rzzzt »

podiki wrote: post #58
Waterluvian wrote: post #9

The faq about battery concerns me a bit. "Achieved about 5 hours of standby time." Reporting standby time seems like a question dodge.

Saw that too. Standby time usually means when it is not in use but can be woken up instantly. That's a far cry from actual usage time. :-| (Compare that too typical tablets where the standby time might be several days or longer, and usage time also much more than 5 hours. Or phones.)

I was more wondering about the display brightness value given. Is the display on during standby time measurements?

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#119

Post by prox »

asabjorn wrote: post #116
prox wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the first things I bought for my Pi was a battery HAT and with VNC on, I use my iPad as its screen, and a BT keyboard from an old Mac. It’s the best of both worlds. I can take the Pi anywhere and work on some Python projects. I went out in nature and it is quite cool to have your tools of the trade with you. Perhaps this fits in that kind of -maybe niche- use case.

Can you please add details on what hardware you bought and what battery life you have achieved? I want to build something similar.

Sure! I bought this HAT : https://www.pishop.us/product/pijuice-hat-a-portable-power-p... and I also bought the AUKEY model pb-t3 16000mAh as an external battery, as it was recommended for this setup by people on the Raspberry forums. You can charge the HAT 4 times, or your Ipad.

The battery lasts long enough, I run some services and some other tools and the HAT alone will last you a day or so. If you do something like video encoding, it will burn quicker obviously. Think phone battery levels of juice with the HAT.

Re: CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet

#120

Post by qwertox »

ianthehenry wrote: post #89
goliatone wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is the m5paper[1] that is around $80 with shipping. It uses an esp32 and is arduino compatible, and the provided libraries are pretty good. [1] https://docs.m5stack.com/#/en/core/m5paper

Oh my gosh. I've spent hours looking for something like this, and was never able to find one. Unfortunately they're out of stock right now, but I'll be ordering one as soon as I can. Thanks!

I once bought a small E-Paper display [1] for a Raspi, and was very disappointed with the refresh rate, it was useless.

I wanted to use it to display room temperature and electrical information like home power consumption, solar panel power generation and stuff like that, and expected a refresh rate of around 1 update per second.

Having it blink and do stuff for around 7 seconds just to redraw the next frame made me send it back and replace it with a small LCD touchscreen [2].

[1] Waveshare 1.54 Inch E-Paper Raw Display Panel(B) V2,200x200 Resolution,3.3v [ https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B074P32F9B ]

[2] ELEGOO Display 3.5" Zoll TFT LCD Touch Screen Monitor 480x320 für Raspberry Pi mit Allen Daten und Touch Pen (SPI Schnittstelle) [ https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01JRUH0CY ]

Edit:

Look at all that needs to happen just to update the minute counter as well as the temperature and humidity. It certainly is faster than the colored display I bought, but still, do you really want such a flashing display? https://youtu.be/v9sNzmtMSXo?t=164

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