Did more reading this morning on it. I love it! Gonna pick one up and play with it for sure. The HTPC use really interests me but I bet there will be automotive uses since there's a GPIO board for it coming soon after release.
Awesome! With the GPIO board, I'd favor the Raspberry Pi over the Arduino for its full PC capability. Cheaper than the similar BeagleBoard and a great charity angle, this seems like a great choice.
One reason I never got an Arduino is that the costs add up so quickly for each expansion board you might need. For some projects, a Raspberry Pi would be overkill, but getting way more power for around the same money (depending on GPIO board $$) is pretty sweet.
hi to all at icrontic.com i thought i had sent this newyears eve but it didnt send so i have sent it again all the best for new year to you all - matt-gent
This (and BeagleBoard, Gumstix, Pandaboard, et al) play in a different space than Arduino. Arduino is an easy entry to the world of microcontrollers and is really good at providing an easy and rapid way to prototype low-level computationally-simple applications. There aren't any easy ways to do low-level development on ARM. Raspberry Pi, and Beagleboard, Pandaboard, Gumstix, et al provide a desktop-like embedded environment on which you can develop desktop-like embedded software.
To give an example, Arduino provides a software serial port implementation using bit-banged GPIO in case you need more serial ports than what's available in hardware. You include the software serial library into your code, declare which GPIO pins to use, and compile/link/flash the firmware. Doing the same thing in Linux requires you to write a kernel device driver implementing the port (either from scratch or with a reference code block you found somewhere) using the GPIO libraries for the ARM SoC you're using, assuming these libraries exist and are available. If they aren't, you have to get a register map for the SoC and write them yourself. Realistically, you would figure out how to make do with the built-in ports. Repeat ad nauseum for whichever peripherals you need but aren't available on your ARM SoC.
Things look a lot better if you don't try to use these things in that kind of application. All the applications listed in this thread are good applications for this kind of hardware.
P.S. Gargoyle, the easy solution is to not buy those expansion boards. Just get whichever parts you think you need and breadboard it. The schematics and bill of materials for those boards are available 9 times out of 10.
I don't know much about computer parts, nor do I have the cash flow to buy this. But I heard Linux....I hope someone has the good sense to replace the Linux components with infinitely superior Microsoft components.
I don't know much about computer parts, nor do I have the cash flow to buy this. But I heard Linux....I hope someone has the good sense to replace the Linux components with infinitely superior Microsoft components.
I find the best solution is always to RAID the microsoft and linux components together. It allows you to use the benefits of both types of hardware.
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KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
No, but I have four on order. All should arrive in September or October. I'll bring one to ICOK.
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midga"There's so much hot dog in Rome" ~digi(> ^.(> O_o)>Icrontian
I've got one coming in (with a swell case. Swag). I think it's supposed to get here in late October. I'm gonna turn it into a media (read: Netflix and Soma.FM) box for my bedroom, completely ignoring its potential and under-utilizing it.
I really want to get my hands on one of these and use it for home surveillance in conjunction with ZoneMinder... that's going to take some time and work to do though :/
Basil
NubcaekEngland Icrontian
Comments
I'm all for small form factors. What's a real-world use for one of these?
Should make that area interesting though, $35 for a model B vs $89 for a BeagleBone.
- matt-gent
To give an example, Arduino provides a software serial port implementation using bit-banged GPIO in case you need more serial ports than what's available in hardware. You include the software serial library into your code, declare which GPIO pins to use, and compile/link/flash the firmware. Doing the same thing in Linux requires you to write a kernel device driver implementing the port (either from scratch or with a reference code block you found somewhere) using the GPIO libraries for the ARM SoC you're using, assuming these libraries exist and are available. If they aren't, you have to get a register map for the SoC and write them yourself. Realistically, you would figure out how to make do with the built-in ports. Repeat ad nauseum for whichever peripherals you need but aren't available on your ARM SoC.
Things look a lot better if you don't try to use these things in that kind of application. All the applications listed in this thread are good applications for this kind of hardware.
P.S. Gargoyle, the easy solution is to not buy those expansion boards. Just get whichever parts you think you need and breadboard it. The schematics and bill of materials for those boards are available 9 times out of 10.
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-fm/495116896-Mini6410-ARM11-S3C6410-Board-4-3-LCD-Touch-Screen-wholesalers.html
Deal with it.