Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#411

Post by macavity23 » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:19 PM UTC

lsaferite wrote: post #307

Raed667 wrote: post #241

I'm still bothered by Raspberry Pi's choice not to include WIFI by default in all/some of its products. Almost every Raspberry Pi project I have encountered needs some sort of connectivity and doing this with 3rd party dongles (some don't even work on most recent versions of Raspbian) is just ridiculous in my opinion.

Why does it need embedded WiFi when you can get micro sized USB WiFi dongles? The engineering and certification will surely raise the overall cost quite a bit. Let the companies that make WiFi equipment shoulder that cost. Sure, maybe you can bundle a low cost WiFi dongle if you like.

There's also power... a wifi module will probably double the power draw on this thing. Lots of projects don't need it.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#412

Post by ticklemyelmo » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:28 PM UTC

IanCal wrote: post #174

StavrosK wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost is $4 for a NodeMCU, $2 for the sensors, $1 for a breadboard to stick them on, and $1 for a microUSB cable to power them from. You can power the sensors from the NodeMCU's Vin, since that's the 5V from the USB. I have done exactly this, it sends values to an MQTT server on my NAS every second or so, which the NAS then adds to Graphite and plots them in Grafana. It also has some logic to act on these values a…

Perfect, thanks, I'll have a look at the NodeMCU, looks like exactly what I'm after.

The nodemcu is definitely the sweet spot. It saves you the trouble of power management, is breadboard friendly, and integrates the programmer. It's way easier to work with than the base ESP-01.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#413

Post by feelix » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:34 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #409

malandrew wrote: post #371

I would love to see someone sell these as preconfigured as minimal bandwidth tor exit nodes with wifi so they can be spread far and wide. Just connect to power, make sure it is connected to a wifi network and then leave it alone. Just make sure it advertises itself as such so that law enforcement knows that it is likely not owned by the owner of the Internet connection and therefore doesn't make sense to do anything…

These are not well suited for Tor. No built in networking and a serious lack of CPU power needed for processing encryption.

How much CPU power do you need to process encryption in TOR?

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#414

Post by feelix » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:35 PM UTC

Hyperborian wrote: post #399

VMG wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also economical implications. Bandwidth isn't free. Now if you also could charge for your service with micropayments, we have a winner.

I believe the implication is that these would be placed in locations that have free wifi available, without necessarily having permission to do so.

McDonalds would be perfect

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#415

Post by forinti » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:37 PM UTC

hueving wrote: post #403

forinti wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But books, magazines, etc. don't pay taxes. That's why this free Rpi with MagPi #40 is awesome: you don't have to pay taxes at all.

Tax is not just based on the price. If the fact that you were getting it for free were good enough to avoid import taxes, everyone would just have friends in other countries send them 'gifts'.

Well, in Brazil books are exempt and stuff that gets shipped gratis along with them doesn't get taxed. Usually, it's CDs and once I did see software shipped as Manual+free CD in order to evade taxes. I was quite surprised (and a tad disappointed) that it worked, but I don't think it would work with larger products.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#416

Post by ascorbic » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

feelix wrote: post #413

driverdan wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not well suited for Tor. No built in networking and a serious lack of CPU power needed for processing encryption.

How much CPU power do you need to process encryption in TOR?

No wifi, no Ethernet. You need to use a USB adapter.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#417

Post by Jemaclus » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:45 PM UTC

I've got three Raspberry Pis. I don't know why. I don't know what to do with them. None of the projects that I've seen have been particularly compelling to me, and I'm not creative enough to come up with a good idea. So they sit on my desk, gathering dust, and act as a conversation piece when friends come over. "That? Yeah, I can build X, Y, or Z." and they say, "oooh, cool" and then I never actually follow through. I'm a terrible nerd. :(

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#418

Post by duskwuff » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:47 PM UTC

DHJSH wrote: post #302

noonespecial wrote: post #209

Oh Nice! They are finally delivering on what I feel was the great promise of the Raspi in the beginning. Full linux install in the size and price of a micro (read: Arduino). Some people are bound to gripe about the "lack" of ports but its not like this one displaced the A or B models. Its just another spin of the concept where you don't have to pay for expensive physical parts you don't need. Its a linux server at a…

I have no idea why Arduino is so popular--it has NO debugging support unless you use an ICE. (People "debug" with printf statements.) We use Netduinos because with .NET we can single step and inspect variables in live code.

Why is Arduino so popular? Brand name recognition, a decent standard library, and a ton of sample code and tutorials online.

I agree that it's not a great platform, though. I personally prefer STM32 these days; it's dirt cheap (a basic development board is <$5) and powerful (72 MHz / 20 KB RAM / 128 KB flash on one of those boards). I believe there's even a way to integrate it into the Arduino IDE nowadays!

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#419

Post by phamilton » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 7:50 PM UTC

tinkerdol wrote: post #308

Tepix wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux also isn't a real-time OS which is often important when dealing with motors and sensors.

What would be a real-time OS? I'd be interested in hooking up a bunch of independent boards that could interact with each other, and have as quick as a response to sensors as possible... Do you have any advice as to where to start with this type of project?

Sensor latency will be measured in milliseconds in Linux. A real time OS is more necessary when you have feedback loops, inverted pendelum problems, bitbanging protocols, etc. Not being a real time OS just means that when you say "ping me in X time" it might ping you in X +- Y. Y tends to be too big for critical applications, but generally small enough that it won't matter.

Re: Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

#420

Post by comrh » Thu, Nov 26, 2015, 8:03 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #267

TeMPOraL wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great! :). Will be refreshing /new/ tomorrow.

Hmm, it looks like I open-sourced most of it a while ago (way to go, past me!): https://github.com/skorokithakis/ArduiRC I'll write up the details, but this is a good chunk of it.

I JUST started this exact functionality to communicate with a wireless scale, thanks for sharing!