VoCore – Coin-Sized Linux Computer(vocore.io)
vocore.io
VoCore – Coin-Sized Linux Computer
https://vocore.io/
69 comments
> you might be better off getting more recent ARM based stamp-sized SBC for the same price.
Can you suggest any examples?
Can you suggest any examples?
FriendlyElec has a range of boards under their NanoPi brand that might fit:
https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/categor...
The NEO Air in particular is a very compact board using an Allwinner chip, which works pretty well under Linux including such niceties as support for the integrated power management chip.
I also recently got a couple of the Space Cats Jeter Nano boards. They’re more on par with the VoCore, performance-wise, but with a lot of GPIOs on more hobbyist-friendly (read: breadboard-ready) connectors.
https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/categor...
The NEO Air in particular is a very compact board using an Allwinner chip, which works pretty well under Linux including such niceties as support for the integrated power management chip.
I also recently got a couple of the Space Cats Jeter Nano boards. They’re more on par with the VoCore, performance-wise, but with a lot of GPIOs on more hobbyist-friendly (read: breadboard-ready) connectors.
The Nano Pi looks 5-6x as expensive, and quite noticeably larger and heavier.
Much more powerful though.
Much more powerful though.
The nanopi neo lts is $16 https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/product... and I have found it to be pretty good.
I’m not sure which NanoPi you’re looking at; the Core Air is not quite 2x the price ($32 vs. $18) of the VoCore and only a bit wider/longer, and similarly thin. Also, as you mention it’s in an entirely different class w.r.t. performance, if a bit power-hungry compared to newer SoC designs.
Neither one is going to compete with a cheap Atmel or RISC-V MCU in cost, but on the flip side the NEO Core et. al. can run a web server, Docker containers, or a NodeJS app under modest load vs. needing everything rewritten in very tightly-managed C. :)
Neither one is going to compete with a cheap Atmel or RISC-V MCU in cost, but on the flip side the NEO Core et. al. can run a web server, Docker containers, or a NodeJS app under modest load vs. needing everything rewritten in very tightly-managed C. :)
Hmm, I somehow ended up on a page showing a Neo Pi for $55.
As others suggested, FriendlyElec has some good offers, then there are the Orange Pi boards (some of which very similar to the FriendlyElec ones to the point they can boot the same image without modifications). Also take a look at Hardkernel and Pine64 boards; the Rock64-2GB may seem more costly at $34.95, but actually is a lot cheaper since it integrates all peripherals and connectors that would be optional on the VoCore2, aside being a lot more powerful.
Also take a look at Armbian for a very well supported Debian-Like OS: many manufacturers cease their support for their boards once the newer models are out, while Armbian and DietPi support a lot of models, including old ones, and are well worth helping with a donation.
https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/categor...
http://www.orangepi.org/
https://pine64.com/product/rock64-2gb-single-board-computer/
https://www.hardkernel.com/
https://www.armbian.com/download/?device_support=Supported
https://dietpi.com/#download
https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/categor...
http://www.orangepi.org/
https://pine64.com/product/rock64-2gb-single-board-computer/
https://www.hardkernel.com/
https://www.armbian.com/download/?device_support=Supported
https://dietpi.com/#download
Something like rock64 is completely different class, being 6x larger than vocore
Any AllWinner H3 for example (i.e. first hit at Aliexpress: https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/10000299302152.html) or something like a Sipeed Lichee Nano if you want to go smaller. (https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/4001150568609.html)
For a significant performance increase, but at a larger size (still very small): https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/10000379696950.html
Most of the RockChip/AllWinner/MediaTek type things are China ODM anyway, and besides some middleman-markup the SDKs and reference designs are all the same across the board.
If you want a product that is going to last a little longer and is a bit more useful beyond the basic physical specs (like size and I/O), you'll also want to know what bootrom, bootloader, devicetree and register documentation is available. Native in-tree Linux kernel support would be a must as well. At that point you can essentially boot any (low-footprint) distro forever until SoC support is dropped from the kernel (which takes a really long time if the SoC is still in use).
--
Updating mostly for my own peace of mind: like most Chinese native manufacturers, they (the SoC manufacturers) generally don't give a crap about other companies, rights or long-term sustainability. I would suspect this is mostly cultural/political and a bit of 'eat or be eaten', not some dunk in the style of "country bad, people bad". This doesn't mean that therefore nobody should use any products anywhere forever, but like the sunxi community for Linux support (https://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page) you might need to find out if there is enough knowledge and willingness available to you to actually be able to make good use of the products listed. This is why the Pi is so successful, the SoC is fine but Broadcom doesn't allow any public information on how it works and how to program for it; the community and the foundation around the Pi make it possible to make it work long-term regardless, and for any AllWinner/MediaTek/RockChip you'll want to select your parts in a way that gets you a similarly useful ecosystem. Buying a cheap thing and getting an Hello World out of it today is easy, getting a product that doesn't turn into e-waste in a year is a lot harder.
For a significant performance increase, but at a larger size (still very small): https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/10000379696950.html
Most of the RockChip/AllWinner/MediaTek type things are China ODM anyway, and besides some middleman-markup the SDKs and reference designs are all the same across the board.
If you want a product that is going to last a little longer and is a bit more useful beyond the basic physical specs (like size and I/O), you'll also want to know what bootrom, bootloader, devicetree and register documentation is available. Native in-tree Linux kernel support would be a must as well. At that point you can essentially boot any (low-footprint) distro forever until SoC support is dropped from the kernel (which takes a really long time if the SoC is still in use).
--
Updating mostly for my own peace of mind: like most Chinese native manufacturers, they (the SoC manufacturers) generally don't give a crap about other companies, rights or long-term sustainability. I would suspect this is mostly cultural/political and a bit of 'eat or be eaten', not some dunk in the style of "country bad, people bad". This doesn't mean that therefore nobody should use any products anywhere forever, but like the sunxi community for Linux support (https://linux-sunxi.org/Main_Page) you might need to find out if there is enough knowledge and willingness available to you to actually be able to make good use of the products listed. This is why the Pi is so successful, the SoC is fine but Broadcom doesn't allow any public information on how it works and how to program for it; the community and the foundation around the Pi make it possible to make it work long-term regardless, and for any AllWinner/MediaTek/RockChip you'll want to select your parts in a way that gets you a similarly useful ecosystem. Buying a cheap thing and getting an Hello World out of it today is easy, getting a product that doesn't turn into e-waste in a year is a lot harder.
I recently went down the rabbit hole with these tiny ARM devices. For anyone else looking at them, I found the best place to start is to pick a chip with full Linux mainline support.
https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort
Right now, the latest devices have new chips that aren't supported yet. So if you get one of those, you're stuck using the manufacturer's Linux distro. If you get an older chip with mainline support, you can run a 3rd party distro like Armbian.
https://www.armbian.com/
https://linux-sunxi.org/Linux_mainlining_effort
Right now, the latest devices have new chips that aren't supported yet. So if you get one of those, you're stuck using the manufacturer's Linux distro. If you get an older chip with mainline support, you can run a 3rd party distro like Armbian.
https://www.armbian.com/
I am in the middle of reading this book on Yocto[1], learning embedded Linux. If your device has been mainlined it will save you lots of troubles.
Armbian often comes with the patches you want, their ready-to-use images is great. But porting their patch to your own project will take some effort.
[1] https://www.yoctoproject.org/learn-items/mastering-embedded-...
Armbian often comes with the patches you want, their ready-to-use images is great. But porting their patch to your own project will take some effort.
[1] https://www.yoctoproject.org/learn-items/mastering-embedded-...
Ah yes, mainline support was the more condensed description I was after! That is indeed where it's at; if you are stuck with out-of-tree or vendor binary-only distribution, you're screwed.
It can be a bit of a hassle if all you have is something like "926EJS" as supported core instead of the SoC name "F1C100s", but either way, browse the linux kernel for support for your SoC to at least get a feel for its support status. If a (compiled) device tree for the SBC is available and the bootrom is either super small or open/free/libre, you can expect good integration and long life out of the device.
Even in the worst case you'll be able to follow generic buildroot or yocto instructions to get it running with up-to-date software.
It can be a bit of a hassle if all you have is something like "926EJS" as supported core instead of the SoC name "F1C100s", but either way, browse the linux kernel for support for your SoC to at least get a feel for its support status. If a (compiled) device tree for the SBC is available and the bootrom is either super small or open/free/libre, you can expect good integration and long life out of the device.
Even in the worst case you'll be able to follow generic buildroot or yocto instructions to get it running with up-to-date software.
RockPi S is one of the smaller boards around, albeit still quite significantly bigger than vocore (1" vs 1.7" square)
The VoCore is from 2014 (VoCore 1) or 2016 (VoCore 2), of course there are faster SoCs out there now...
H1, H2 and H3 are also from <2014, they were faster then and they are faster now. But speed isn't the only factor. MIPS 24K is dead.
Example: https://linux-sunxi.org/H3
On the other hand, between then and new many things have changed, yet this VoCore submission is only 8 hours old. Seems like a good idea to point out that it's not the newest, shiniest thing everyone should flock to just because it's on HN.
Example: https://linux-sunxi.org/H3
On the other hand, between then and new many things have changed, yet this VoCore submission is only 8 hours old. Seems like a good idea to point out that it's not the newest, shiniest thing everyone should flock to just because it's on HN.
Vocore2 is the only time I've ever been ripped off on a crowdfunding project. Not impressed.
Can you provide more details around this? I was interested in this, but now I'm hesitant.
The board never arrived. At some point (after months) I asked them about it, and they said it had been returned to them due to not deliverable. When I asked them to send it out again, they demanded extra money for postage. The amount they wanted was more than the board originally cost, which had shipping included.
Tried to reason with them, but they would not budge and got pretty rude about it; they wanted money. So I will never buy anything from them again.
Tried to reason with them, but they would not budge and got pretty rude about it; they wanted money. So I will never buy anything from them again.
I wish PoE were more common as an option to power these SBCs.
PoE devices needs an isolation transformer in order to be compliant, and it takes quite some real estate. However, so does 110V/220V, but i guess we're so used to "hiding" it in a wall-wart.
Something like [0] would basically cover your PoE adapter needs for this, right? Remember that these SBC's also don't directly cover using 120V AC mains power as an option; they rely on a wall wart for that.
The trade-off to the gain in mechanical flexibility of having a very small size is that you have to put the big (in miniature electronics terms) inductors elsewhere.
[0]https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Gigabit-Ethernet-Splitter-TL-...
The trade-off to the gain in mechanical flexibility of having a very small size is that you have to put the big (in miniature electronics terms) inductors elsewhere.
[0]https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Gigabit-Ethernet-Splitter-TL-...
Yeah, I have PoE to USB-C splitters like this one:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TJ3ZNJ4/
I used it to power a phone used as 5G backup to my Internet connection, combined with this Ethernet to USB-C with power passthrough adapter:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086SV2FK4/
Works, but way clunkier than a built-in solution.
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TJ3ZNJ4/
I used it to power a phone used as 5G backup to my Internet connection, combined with this Ethernet to USB-C with power passthrough adapter:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086SV2FK4/
Works, but way clunkier than a built-in solution.
there is a PoE-Hat addon available, at least.
edit: just realized that you meant other projects.
edit: just realized that you meant other projects.
Oh, what an idea: take some battle-tested router hardware, put it into the tiniest possible form factor, use the battle-tested router-oriented Linux distro. Instant win!
This thing still allows you to wire 4 Ethernet ports, if you feel like it. But apparently these pins can be used somehow differently, too.
This thing still allows you to wire 4 Ethernet ports, if you feel like it. But apparently these pins can be used somehow differently, too.
if it doesn't load: https://web.archive.org/web/20220513102852/https://vocore.io...
I backed both the VoCore 1 and 2 back when they were on Kickstarter (or Indiegogo?). They are awesome devices for their size, and yes, while there might be newer SOCs out there now, the VoCore was from 2014, and the VoCore2 from 2016, there was nothing comparable (in price, size and performance) back then.
The guys behind VoCore keep updating their software stack, fixing bugs in the Linux WiFi driver. Just read their blog to see the level of attention to detail they're putting into their product
The guys behind VoCore keep updating their software stack, fixing bugs in the Linux WiFi driver. Just read their blog to see the level of attention to detail they're putting into their product
No industrial rating, unfortunately.
https://octavosystems.com/octavo_products/osd335x-sm/ is probably more interesting for a lot of applications (though maybe not as open... but this is the same chipset as the BeagleBoneBlack).
https://octavosystems.com/octavo_products/osd335x-sm/ is probably more interesting for a lot of applications (though maybe not as open... but this is the same chipset as the BeagleBoneBlack).
This is really cool and I really want one, even though I have no use for it
Reminds me of my 3 RaspberryPI's :-)
RPi's are like lottery tickets. You buy them for the license to dream it gives you. They're potential.
Got a genuine chuckle out of me. That really is how I feel about it. It didn't cost me anything significant, I never did anything of value with it, but I don't regret buying it. Exact same way I feel about the handful of lottery tickets I've bought over the years.
That's how hype works. The amusing part is that you can be hyped up for something that you already have. There was a game I played on PS2 and NDS and then it got ported to PC and I was hyped for it and enjoyed it as if I played it for the first time.
They're really just a sign of how weak general purpose computing has become. Almost all uses of Raspberry Pis for hobbyist projects could and should be done just as well with the computers that you already own and already have running.
Not sure my main PC can run at 2 Amps..
Well, seeing that most desktop PCs are running at 110V or 230V, I think it's quite easy to find something that will run under ~220W or ~460W ;]
You are technically correct
:b
:b
The marginal extra energy consumption of running more stuff on your main PC is likely less than 2 amps.
Then I'd need to run my PC 24/7 with no sleeping, to serve something so miniscule like DNS records from PiHole, just taking one example, to provide service for all the stuff in my front room and my pocket.
I'm glad you mentioned PiHole because it's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about.
Dedicating a Raspberry Pi to running a DNS server is silly.
You could run it on your wifi router instead, or you could run it on the individual nodes. Either of those should be extremely easy. But practical general purpose computing has decayed (or was never really there?) so instead there's this silly PiHole thing where you just buy yet another computer and convert it into yet another special-purpose appliance because general purpose computing is so hard.
Dedicating a Raspberry Pi to running a DNS server is silly.
You could run it on your wifi router instead, or you could run it on the individual nodes. Either of those should be extremely easy. But practical general purpose computing has decayed (or was never really there?) so instead there's this silly PiHole thing where you just buy yet another computer and convert it into yet another special-purpose appliance because general purpose computing is so hard.
No, you can't. You can't load a list big enough in the memory provided on a small router and even then only one flashed with OpenWRT (or similar). There are lite versions but they're incomplete and lack the UI facilities and other options PiHole does.
You want me to run a full pihole on my TV, laptop, phone, tablet? I have to administer all those and deal with the headaches of installation on all of those (if even possible in jailed envs).
You say it should be easy, have you ever done it?
Who says I'm just running a pihole on that too, you're making a hell of a lot of assumptions here. It's a media server, ssh bouncer, tailscale node and a lot more.
You want me to run a full pihole on my TV, laptop, phone, tablet? I have to administer all those and deal with the headaches of installation on all of those (if even possible in jailed envs).
You say it should be easy, have you ever done it?
Who says I'm just running a pihole on that too, you're making a hell of a lot of assumptions here. It's a media server, ssh bouncer, tailscale node and a lot more.
Why do you have such an underpowered wifi router running proprietary software you can't modify? Because it is a general purpose computer that has been reduced to the status of an appliance.
Again, more assumptions, now it's why don't I have a more powerful router when I could be running in (along with a load of other stuff) on a Pi.
Firstly not all ISP provided routers are even flashable with OpenWRT, so how the hell do you install something on there to start with?
I have a hAP.ac from Microtik, I flashed myself by PXE booting the OpenWRT images, not an underpowered router in the slightest, it just doesn't have enough RAM to load the lists needed, as I said. Connection state tables in SOHO routers don't need to be large, so why need all the RAM, their inteded purpose wasn't soley to run after market, home hacked, heavy memory intensive software.
You know, if you'd actually attempted this and had some valid point, I could take you seriously, but you seem to ignore everything I said, like I run multiple things on the Pi, or I'd have to keep the PC on 24/7 and the idle draw would be more (electicity is expensive here), or how I can just magically install pihole on any router, then why is my router not 'powerful' enough.
Yes, I want my router to be an appliance, not something I need to curate, like updating my PC or laptop with the latest and greatest packages. I want it to be a dumb box in the corner (with security patches when needed) but I don't want to be messing with it.
I have a Pi to mess around with things I want to run 24/7 but not take excessive amount of energy in doing so.
Firstly not all ISP provided routers are even flashable with OpenWRT, so how the hell do you install something on there to start with?
I have a hAP.ac from Microtik, I flashed myself by PXE booting the OpenWRT images, not an underpowered router in the slightest, it just doesn't have enough RAM to load the lists needed, as I said. Connection state tables in SOHO routers don't need to be large, so why need all the RAM, their inteded purpose wasn't soley to run after market, home hacked, heavy memory intensive software.
You know, if you'd actually attempted this and had some valid point, I could take you seriously, but you seem to ignore everything I said, like I run multiple things on the Pi, or I'd have to keep the PC on 24/7 and the idle draw would be more (electicity is expensive here), or how I can just magically install pihole on any router, then why is my router not 'powerful' enough.
Yes, I want my router to be an appliance, not something I need to curate, like updating my PC or laptop with the latest and greatest packages. I want it to be a dumb box in the corner (with security patches when needed) but I don't want to be messing with it.
I have a Pi to mess around with things I want to run 24/7 but not take excessive amount of energy in doing so.
>You know, if you'd actually attempted this and had some valid point, I could take you seriously
I do in fact run everything on the same machine as my wifi router: http://catern.com/computers.html
I do in fact run everything on the same machine as my wifi router: http://catern.com/computers.html
I think you're conflating 'general purpose computing' with multitasking or multifunction devices.
PiHole exists precisely because the Pi is a general-purpose computing device: it uses a relatively stock operating system and network stack to perform its task. Its competition here is not a desktop computer, it's a bespoke network appliance with custom hardware/firmware manufactured by somebody like Cisco.
What you lament is that so many of our "PC" systems seem to have wasted processing potential, but I think this is optimizing along the wrong axis. Sure, my desktop PC could run a home DNS server without breaking a sweat, but my desktop PC is not on all the time. Even the idle power draw from the ATX power supply likely outweighs the full-throttle power usage of a Pi-equivalent device.
Home computing (PiHoles, routers, and "smart home" devices) are a devolution of computing to commodity status in the same way that the PC was a devolution away from a mainframe-and-terminal environment. I think further progression along this axis is inevitable, and we should welcome entries like the Pi or this VoCore that keep the ethic of hackable, general-purpose computing even in a commodity footprint.
PiHole exists precisely because the Pi is a general-purpose computing device: it uses a relatively stock operating system and network stack to perform its task. Its competition here is not a desktop computer, it's a bespoke network appliance with custom hardware/firmware manufactured by somebody like Cisco.
What you lament is that so many of our "PC" systems seem to have wasted processing potential, but I think this is optimizing along the wrong axis. Sure, my desktop PC could run a home DNS server without breaking a sweat, but my desktop PC is not on all the time. Even the idle power draw from the ATX power supply likely outweighs the full-throttle power usage of a Pi-equivalent device.
Home computing (PiHoles, routers, and "smart home" devices) are a devolution of computing to commodity status in the same way that the PC was a devolution away from a mainframe-and-terminal environment. I think further progression along this axis is inevitable, and we should welcome entries like the Pi or this VoCore that keep the ethic of hackable, general-purpose computing even in a commodity footprint.
>What you lament is that so many of our "PC" systems seem to have wasted processing potential
That's not my lament. I don't care at all about not wasting processing power.
I care about the fact that it's so difficult for people to use their existing computers in ways that were not intended by their manufacturers, that even technically adept people will just buy a new computer rather than deal with it.
It should be easy to install some new software on any of your computers (router or desktop or TV or phone or whatever) and have it do some useful new thing. But it's not.
That's not my lament. I don't care at all about not wasting processing power.
I care about the fact that it's so difficult for people to use their existing computers in ways that were not intended by their manufacturers, that even technically adept people will just buy a new computer rather than deal with it.
It should be easy to install some new software on any of your computers (router or desktop or TV or phone or whatever) and have it do some useful new thing. But it's not.
> It should be easy to install some new software on any of your computers (router or desktop or TV or phone or whatever) and have it do some useful new thing. But it's not.
I disagree. I don't think it's difficult for compute-related tasks (gpio now, that I'll grant). However, installing this sort of think on a desktop PC is more likely to be bespoke just because of the near-infinite range of user configurations and customizations. The PiHole works as well as it does because it's a uniform base without being a walled garden.
I disagree. I don't think it's difficult for compute-related tasks (gpio now, that I'll grant). However, installing this sort of think on a desktop PC is more likely to be bespoke just because of the near-infinite range of user configurations and customizations. The PiHole works as well as it does because it's a uniform base without being a walled garden.
Yes, and the price of Pi's is now very high due to a shortage.
A Pi 4 costs more than a second-hand tiny i5-4700 series with SSD and 8GB of RAM.
Still the Pi has GPIO and PLLs which Intel-based boards don't have.
A Pi 4 costs more than a second-hand tiny i5-4700 series with SSD and 8GB of RAM.
Still the Pi has GPIO and PLLs which Intel-based boards don't have.
Bah. Most laptops don't have GPIO pins.
But most of them do have USB ports, and: https://numato.com/product/8-channel-usb-gpio-module-with-an...
Cheapest version is 31$. Without internal pullups. Which means it's basically gonna bit-bang if you want to interface with SPI, I2C etc. I'd consider a raspberry pi even if it costs more because it has a _lot_ of I/O capabilities and starts at 5$.
For a comparable option, consider one of the Pi-Picos, Arduinos with VUSB, or a USB-Serial board with extra GPIOS.
For a comparable option, consider one of the Pi-Picos, Arduinos with VUSB, or a USB-Serial board with extra GPIOS.
Where are you finding raspberry pi for $5?
I think they meant Raspberry Pi Pico, which is definitely not a microcomputer with Linux, but it has plenty of I/O pins.
I have three of them and they're all in use. The only ones not in use are the Pine64 (not well supported anymore) and a Jetson Nano. I've been tempted to use the Jetson Nano for something like OctoPrint, but it seems like that would be a waste of the GPU.
12 here... sigh.
Then again, all of them have had a good amount of use over the years. But 10 of them (RPi 1B-3B+) are no longer in use.
Tempted to buy a VoCore, but I won't. It'd most probably just join the Raspberry Pis in a drawer.
Then again, all of them have had a good amount of use over the years. But 10 of them (RPi 1B-3B+) are no longer in use.
Tempted to buy a VoCore, but I won't. It'd most probably just join the Raspberry Pis in a drawer.
> But 10 of them (RPi 1B-3B+) are no longer in use.
Sell them. There's basically no supply and very strong demand right now, because in addition to hobbyist uses, there are a lot of people who have built products that are based around Pis and who can't sell their products, because they can't get Pis.
Go check eBay prices. 3Bs are selling for $70-$100. The 8GB 4s are selling for $150-$200. It's the best time to unload them you're ever likely to see for older hardware.
Sell them. There's basically no supply and very strong demand right now, because in addition to hobbyist uses, there are a lot of people who have built products that are based around Pis and who can't sell their products, because they can't get Pis.
Go check eBay prices. 3Bs are selling for $70-$100. The 8GB 4s are selling for $150-$200. It's the best time to unload them you're ever likely to see for older hardware.
I have a drawer where old SBC's go to die :) It's right next to my arduino/micropython boards.
Years ago i ran quite a lot of stuff on a Raspberry Pi, but despite them growing more and more capable, my computing needs at home have gotten less and less.
I ran a homebuilt surveillance system on them for some years, RPi Zeros for the nodes with motion detection, and a NAS as a storage target and object detection, but i eventually replaced it with UniFi Protect and HomeKit Secure Video.
A couple of years ago i still had a couple running AdguardHome, but after that got replaced by NextDNS, i have only one left, running "power monitoring" and HomeBridge in my summerhouse.
Years ago i ran quite a lot of stuff on a Raspberry Pi, but despite them growing more and more capable, my computing needs at home have gotten less and less.
I ran a homebuilt surveillance system on them for some years, RPi Zeros for the nodes with motion detection, and a NAS as a storage target and object detection, but i eventually replaced it with UniFi Protect and HomeKit Secure Video.
A couple of years ago i still had a couple running AdguardHome, but after that got replaced by NextDNS, i have only one left, running "power monitoring" and HomeBridge in my summerhouse.
> but despite them growing more and more capable, my computing needs at home have gotten less and less.
And still, with my computing needs becoming more minimalistic, my RPi3B+ just doesn't deliver.
I'm currently trying to make it run my emacs/cli-based workflow somewhat acceptable, but the darn thing can't even run a shell without noticeable lag. There is a noticeable delay between keyboard entry and things showing up every few seconds. Not cool.
And still, with my computing needs becoming more minimalistic, my RPi3B+ just doesn't deliver.
I'm currently trying to make it run my emacs/cli-based workflow somewhat acceptable, but the darn thing can't even run a shell without noticeable lag. There is a noticeable delay between keyboard entry and things showing up every few seconds. Not cool.
You could probably donate or sell the older Raspberry Pis...
These are super cool! Does anyone here actually use one of these for anything?
I’m always tempted to get one of these sorts of things but I can never think of an actual real-world use that I’d need.
I’m always tempted to get one of these sorts of things but I can never think of an actual real-world use that I’d need.
[deleted]
It's OpenWRT powered!
What is interesting about this one is that it has reasonable documentation for a change (but not about the MediaTek SoC) and they might actually be able to move volume on both their main device and extension boards.