It seems a bit expensive for what it is. I think this would be really cool for a younger hacker just getting started in the kind of scene this project is aimed at, though
Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
31–39 of 39 posts
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#32For £160 you can buy three JC1060P470, 7 inch proto-tablet systems with the same P4+C5 stack, with GPIO, ethernet in some models. I get that the expense here is miniaturising and integration, but even at half the RRP, I'd be wincing. The maker market knows how to work out a napkin-BOM, and knows that this is a lot of money for what you're getting.
Miniaturization and OS customization are significantly more expensive than the BoM suggests. By that logic, every Android phone is a Qualcomm board with some bits stuck on, why does Samsung charge so much for it?
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#33I understand the rationale, but it looks like they decided to go the Sisyphean route on this. ESP32-C5 ~$10 ESP32-P4 ~$5 Display ~$10 Case is maybe 90 cents (let's round to $1) if you print out of ABS. The rest of the components? Let's say another $15 worst case. ~$41 or around that much? Sure, but definitely not ~$193.
Surely an Android or other mobile and a USB GPIO device can do much the same. For most the outlay is then just the USB to GPIO. 15 USD from Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#34> Built-in speaker and microphone
No audio module? Audio is a great introduction to signal processing and programming overall.
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#35So refreshing to see a page that is simple and yet cool. Too tired of 100% claude designed websites in hn
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#36Very long-time lurker here; I made an account specifically to say what I am about to say: I am so sick of gameboy-style devices only ever having two buttons without a start, select or literally anything else. Playdate did the same thing and it makes games really super infuriating because nobody wants to perform a hadouken just to open a gosh-darn pause menu. I'm exaggerating of course but good lord please just give m…
What? Playdate absolutely has a menu button.
That is not a "pause" button that is an abomination. Knock it off; you know what I mean. A start button.
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#37Regarding M5, this has similar size but runs Linux and is cheaper: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/m5stack/cardputerzero
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#38For £160 you can buy three JC1060P470, 7 inch proto-tablet systems with the same P4+C5 stack, with GPIO, ethernet in some models. I get that the expense here is miniaturising and integration, but even at half the RRP, I'd be wincing. The maker market knows how to work out a napkin-BOM, and knows that this is a lot of money for what you're getting.
Miniaturization and OS customization are significantly more expensive than the BoM suggests. By that logic, every Android phone is a Qualcomm board with some bits stuck on, why does Samsung charge so much for it?
This is not phone-grade miniaturisation.
As a maker, I see somebody selling a dev kit that with £20 more in buttons, battery, and an afternoon in CAD gives me a Steam Deck sized version of this for a third the price. It's not the same format, but it's not a disparate bucket of parts either.
Again, you market yourself at people like me, this is the pushback you have to expect.
Re: Kode Dot Programmable pocket device for makers, pentesters and geeks
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
There can be other valid usecases than yours where the price is not an issue. And surely you are aware of the challenges of supply+demand and the issue of using offshore labor... that means most products made ethically and at low volumes are inherently going to be expensive. This has NFC built-in which is something I've been looking for for a long time, there are no other ready-made programmable devices on the market…
I'm an NFC enthusiast as well! Technically the flipper zero meets your criteria, but I'm guessing there's something else about it that doesn't quite meet up to your needs. When you say programmable, although the Flipper zero is "programmable", it's more like apps and you don't have full control over the device, which could be a limiting factor for whatever you're doing.
My flipper zero at least, does not have touch, and that was one of my requirements.
By programmable I mean "I can modify/flash my own firmware", which is also true for the flipper as it's all open source... and I had to do that anyway to fix their 14443B reader code to work for my application.