Slashdot Mirror
Pi to Go: Hot Raspberry Pi DIY Mini Desktop PC Project
MojoKid writes "Hot Hardware recently set out to design a custom mini desktop system with the popular Raspberry Pi single board computer. People have configured the device for a variety of applications, from micro-servers to low cost media players. Basically, the goal was to turn what is currently one of the cheapest bare-bones computer boards into a fully enclosed mini desktop computer that could be taken anywhere without the need for cabling or setup. This small DIY project is just one of many examples of the flexibility of the Raspberry Pi's open architecture. And to think you can even run Quake and Minecraft on it."
They used an off-the-shelf project box made the old way in a gloopy factory? Luddites. They should have 3D printed a case which would have taken days and weeks of design and tweaking and dozens of prototype runs. All that to end up with a ridged wobbly blob. That's the future.
This simply isn't newsworthy.
Beaglebone Black is more powerful, for similar amount of money.
Someone puts some electronics in a box and that's newsworthy???
If so, then I've got a suggestion for you. Just follow me around at work for a week and you'll get enough stories for a year of stories like this.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Buy a notebook computer.
The Raspberry Pi is not open hardware at the board level (schematic but no gerbers) nor at the SoC level (no full reference manual on the Broadcom BCM2835 device) nor at the boot level (booting and boot options are handled by the proprietary VideoCore IV) nor at the GPU and DSP levels (the VideoCore is entirely closed/under NDA). In fact, the only fully open thing about Raspberry Pi is its old and rather obsolete ARM11 processor.
So why exactly is anyone associating the word "open" with Raspberry Pi?
Far more open is the similarly priced BeagleBone Black, which provides full gerbers, full SoC reference manual, and full open source boot control (U-Boot). The BeagleBone Black's TI SoC does have a closed GPU, but since the board isn't aimed at running games nor consuming media like the Raspberry Pi is, it hardly matters. And the BeagleBone Black is far more capable in almost every other respect.
It's cool that Raspberry Pi has helped to bring ARM board prices down, but it shouldn't be called an open platform when it's mostly closed.
A desktop computer you can carry anywhere, someone should have thought of this 30 years ago. It really needs it's own category name don't you think?
.. hmm, they're just not *quite* right are they?
What about the 'kneetop' or perhaps the 'stomachtop' or maybe the 'palmtop'
well gee golly shit, here I am putting my computers in paper bags for the last 30 years, and its bout time someone made a computer that can run quake, its been sitting on my shelf for 17 years and no computer to run it
My project goal was to utilize what the raspberry pi was able to do and learn about linux programming on a small scale. I have plenty of computers that could be utilized if I needed a computer that is faster or has larger capabilities. -The Author
uhm, they wont mention it because it would defeat the whole purpose of RPI in the first place.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/about
"There isn’t much any small group of people can do to address problems like an inadequate school curriculum or the end of a financial bubble. But we felt that we could try to do something about the situation where computers had become so expensive and arcane that programming experimentation on them had to be forbidden by parents; and to find a platform that, like those old home computers, could boot into a programming environment."
The pi is about education, and part of that is the price. Its the price of replacing a whole board or simply swapping an sd card. The fact that you might plug one into a $2000 TV even is not the price we are talking about. Its about the cost of hacking the computer without worrying about its price.
You are perfectly correct: we should discourage people from entering the field of electronics by focussing upon advanced projects. Yes these projects are exciting to read about, but they are impractical for the novice to attempt building. It's impractical because it's too complex to understand, too expensive to botch, and tedious for those who don't have the construction skills. We should also discourage people from entering the field of electronics by instilling the mentality that it ain't worth trying if it ain't new, thus ensuring that any project is out of reach of the novice.
After all, we wouldn't want to encourage people to get into electronics by pointing to articles about stuff that they can actually try doing.
There are so many other SBCs out there, why does everyone keep focusing on this one particular...
Its actually a reasonable comment, and for future reference on that could have been made without the bad language(I do it for effect, but it rarely adds anything), Other boards (and Android TV sticks) provided real advantage over the pi from price, to power...someone even suggests openness, and many(including me) think it has sacrificed too much in memory, and CPU(for that price)...and for me misses a critical SATA header.
The reality is the best technology does not win, It gained support by having good intentions(and succeeding in them)...revolutionise Computer science education (hell its now made in Wales), and has become the the most supported board out there...there are three distribution for XBMC alone, and some really cool things done with it. I own one it works great
Indeed. However, power usage is something to consider. A model B RPi uses a piddling 3.5 W, whereas a Core 2 Duo E6850 by itself consumes nearly 20 times as much power (65 W). If you're running it 24x7, that's the difference between 17 kWh per month and 327 kWh per month. With an electricity cost at about 12 US cents per kWh (US average), that translates to a US$37.20 per month difference. The cost of the Pi is thus more than made up by electricity savings in just a month. Other factors, e.g. the fact that most Core 2 Duo machines will likely have fans and other moving parts that will reduce its overall reliability, that a Pi is much smaller overall, etc, are probably serious considerations. It really depends on what you want to be able to do. The one I bought sees use as a HTPC and home file server (among other things), and it is more than ideal for the purpose. I was considering buying an ITX Atom board for this purpose before I settled on a Pi: the power consumption was what decided the issue.
Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
Please check your math, it's an order of magnitude off. Often whole houses don't draw 327 kWh/mo.
Per my calculations, R-Pi will cost 30 cents/mo, and an E6850 will be $5.70/mo. However if you close the lid of the notebook it draws much less, about 23-25W, and then the costs drop down to about $2.50/mo. Nobody worries about such a piddly expense.
For example: 3.5W * 24 hrs/day * 30.5 days/mo = 2.562 kWh (30.744 cents/mo.)
If you want a generic portable computer with an ARM CPU, buy an Allwinner-based tablet. Those use the Allwinnner system on a chip, which has an ARM core and costs about $7 in quantity. They're under $70 in the US, around $30 in Shenzhen.
"fully enclosed mini desktop computer that could be taken anywhere without the need for cabling or setup"
So, basically, a laptop?
Seriously -- how is that news? People have been doing it for years now. Here is a random google link from 2012: http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-pi-computer-build-your-own-portable-rpi-to-go/
there are better solutions. RPi in a plastic case? where is the news?
There was an unknown error in the submission.
Well, any $99 Android tablet really. You get the screen for the price.