Raspberry Pi Zero - $5 computer

[rowdy]

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/

$5 for a similar configuration to the original Pi.

Also apparently being given away with the current Mag Pi (RPi magazine) issue.

How many are you getting?

[user 18]

Don't know what I would do with it, but I want one.

[njbair]

I have long dreamed about buying a bunch of small embedded computers and networking them together to build a distributed computing cluster in a rotary configuration, resembling a propeller engine. I don't know why, I just think it's a cool idea.

There's no network port on this thing, but you could use RS-232 via the GPIO pins to network them. My propellerputer might finally be within reach.

[Yoe]

Who on GH will be the first to put one of these inside a 60% keyboard?

[njbair]

Who on GH will be the first to put one of these inside a 60% keyboard?

Like just put it inside? I can do that. But if you're talking about hooking it up and making it work it'll probably be hasu.

[Yoe]

Yeh, just putting it inside, making it like an Amiga or Atari (and still possible to use as a normal usb keyboard), that was my first thought. A friend of mine has been bugging me to do that with the previous Raspberry PIs. But yeh, you could probably use it as a controller too I'm guessing.. like using the GPIO to hook up the kbd matrix or something.

[rowdy]

Who on GH will be the first to put one of these inside a 60% keyboard?

You could put this inside a 40%!

[keshley]

The Pi is just a bit underpowered for everything I usually want to do with these things, but I sure like the price. I can see a few uses for it, I can see using three of four of them easy.

[njbair]

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

[keshley]

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

I'd be using it for home automation, so it still works out pretty cheap compared to off the shelf solutions... that don't even communicate with each other, and you end up doing a lot of work anyways. So something like the Pi makes a lot of sense. But I don't have a house, so this is all hypothetical until then.

[rowdy]

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

Once you have a solution worked out for using these things, and provided it doesn't rely on USB peripherals, you just pretty much need the memory card and power.

Some uses I had in mind will need the IP pins attached - so a little soldering is required.

Apart from that it would just be a power issue.

[BlueNalgene]

I like my B+.  It is currently running as a headless torrent box.  Eventually, I plan on putting it in my Vic-20 case with a battery for a complete computer.  However, the Zero seems odd to me.  I'm not sure what I would want to use it for that wouldn't benefit from the bigger better versions.  And for small projects that need a brain, it seems like that is more of a microcontroller job than a complete system.  But, maybe I just haven't heard enough about it to appreciate it.

[njbair]

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

I'd be using it for home automation, so it still works out pretty cheap compared to off the shelf solutions... that don't even communicate with each other, and you end up doing a lot of work anyways. So something like the Pi makes a lot of sense. But I don't have a house, so this is all hypothetical until then.

How would you use this for home automation? I've got a Vera Lite Z-Wave controller at home. How would this thing communicate with other devices for automation?

[rowdy]

I like my B+.  It is currently running as a headless torrent box.  Eventually, I plan on putting it in my Vic-20 case with a battery for a complete computer.  However, the Zero seems odd to me.  I'm not sure what I would want to use it for that wouldn't benefit from the bigger better versions.  And for small projects that need a brain, it seems like that is more of a microcontroller job than a complete system.  But, maybe I just haven't heard enough about it to appreciate it.

Price is a significant factor.  $5 is pretty much throw-away.

[njbair]

I like my B+.  It is currently running as a headless torrent box.  Eventually, I plan on putting it in my Vic-20 case with a battery for a complete computer.  However, the Zero seems odd to me.  I'm not sure what I would want to use it for that wouldn't benefit from the bigger better versions.  And for small projects that need a brain, it seems like that is more of a microcontroller job than a complete system.  But, maybe I just haven't heard enough about it to appreciate it.

Price is a significant factor.  $5 is pretty much throw-away.

Pretty much this. Even if an 8-bit micro would do the job, why bother when I could use a $5 (plus accessories) ARM board that I can program in Python instead?

[keshley]

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

I'd be using it for home automation, so it still works out pretty cheap compared to off the shelf solutions... that don't even communicate with each other, and you end up doing a lot of work anyways. So something like the Pi makes a lot of sense. But I don't have a house, so this is all hypothetical until then.

How would you use this for home automation? I've got a Vera Lite Z-Wave controller at home. How would this thing communicate with other devices for automation?

Oh, there's plenty of uses. Some of the controllers make some of my old ideas obsolete, so to speak. I'm hoping that the Amazon Echo will end up controlling all my devices at some point, but that's for on-demand usage.

But mostly, I'd probably use it for scripting out routines. Or for controlling non-smart devices. There's a bunch of blog entries on the Raspberry site: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/tag/home-automation/

As awesome as my Phillips Hue system is, its frickin' expensive, and frequently, a standard bulb is just better. That's where controlling power for lighting via Pi would be nice, as an example.

[njbair]

More

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

I'd be using it for home automation, so it still works out pretty cheap compared to off the shelf solutions... that don't even communicate with each other, and you end up doing a lot of work anyways. So something like the Pi makes a lot of sense. But I don't have a house, so this is all hypothetical until then.

How would you use this for home automation? I've got a Vera Lite Z-Wave controller at home. How would this thing communicate with other devices for automation?

Oh, there's plenty of uses. Some of the controllers make some of my old ideas obsolete, so to speak. I'm hoping that the Amazon Echo will end up controlling all my devices at some point, but that's for on-demand usage.

But mostly, I'd probably use it for scripting out routines. Or for controlling non-smart devices. There's a bunch of blog entries on the Raspberry site: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/tag/home-automation/

As awesome as my Phillips Hue system is, its frickin' expensive, and frequently, a standard bulb is just better. That's where controlling power for lighting via Pi would be nice, as an example.

But without wired or wireless networking, you've got to figure out how to make them talk.

[trenzafeeds]

This is nice! Pi's are awesome for setting up weird little labor-saving systems around the house.

[keshley]

More

You also have to remember it's not really a $5 computer, at least not in the sense that we normally use the term. Before you can even use it you need an SD card for storage, a power supply, and likely some kind of case or mounting solution. Not to mention a monitor for many applications, a USB network adapter, and in the case of the original Raspberry Pi (and thus probably this one as well) a powered USB hub to provide enough electrical current if you choose a Wi-Fi adapter.

Since this one is powered by micro-USB, you could use the powered hub as the power supply, which cuts costs a bit. But it still ends up costing a lot more than $5.

I'd be using it for home automation, so it still works out pretty cheap compared to off the shelf solutions... that don't even communicate with each other, and you end up doing a lot of work anyways. So something like the Pi makes a lot of sense. But I don't have a house, so this is all hypothetical until then.

How would you use this for home automation? I've got a Vera Lite Z-Wave controller at home. How would this thing communicate with other devices for automation?

Oh, there's plenty of uses. Some of the controllers make some of my old ideas obsolete, so to speak. I'm hoping that the Amazon Echo will end up controlling all my devices at some point, but that's for on-demand usage.

But mostly, I'd probably use it for scripting out routines. Or for controlling non-smart devices. There's a bunch of blog entries on the Raspberry site: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/tag/home-automation/

As awesome as my Phillips Hue system is, its frickin' expensive, and frequently, a standard bulb is just better. That's where controlling power for lighting via Pi would be nice, as an example.

But without wired or wireless networking, you've got to figure out how to make them talk.

I'm planning on running cat 5/6 to every wall. After that, most everything can be done in Python, or has PHP modules. I built a system all in PHP for my Hue and Nest a couple years ago, ran it off my storage server. Some of it is still active even: when my girl texts, for example, one of my Hue lights flashes. Ideally I'd move all this functionality to something more low powered, like a Pi, so I can put my storage server to sleep at night, or when nobody is home. A lot of the stuff I had running isn't available with any of the canned solutions.

[rowdy]

Here's an interesting comparison of the %4 Pi and the $9 C.H.I.P.: http://makezine.com/2015/11/28/chip-vs-pi-zero/

(GH discussion about the C.H.I.P. here.)

Bottom line: the C.H.I.P. is cheaper to get going (considering cables, power, memory card) but is not available for general purchase yet, and the Pi has a very large established userbase of similar and compatible Pi models, and is available for purchase now (if you can find somewhere that has not sold out).

[tp4tissue]

guyz..  what's the current most powerful pocketable.

[njbair]

guyz..  what's the current most powerful pocketable.

iPhone 6S Plus.

[rowdy]

guyz..  what's the current most powerful pocketable.

iPhone 6S Plus.

)

[trenzafeeds]

guyz..  what's the current most powerful pocketable.

iPhone 6S Plus.

)

Yeah stop kidding around, everyone knows its the Gameboy Advance

[njbair]

guyz..  what's the current most powerful pocketable.

iPhone 6S Plus.

)

Yeah stop kidding around, everyone knows its the Gameboy Advance

I'm only half joking. I mean, it's hard to consider a device "pocketable" without an integrated display, an input interface of some kind, a battery, and networking.

Now if you mean very small computer, the answer is probably the Intel NUC.

[keshley]

Also depends on how big your pockets are...

[_joe_king]

Yeh, just putting it inside, making it like an Amiga or Atari (and still possible to use as a normal usb keyboard), that was my first thought. A friend of mine has been bugging me to do that with the previous Raspberry PIs. But yeh, you could probably use it as a controller too I'm guessing.. like using the GPIO to hook up the kbd matrix or something.

Like put the actual pi in a 60 for an emulator? I am building a pintendo as we speak just waiting on some parts to arrive. Getting it into a case would work but would mean you have to haul a keyboard around with it.

[Yoe]

Yeh, just putting it inside, making it like an Amiga or Atari (and still possible to use as a normal usb keyboard), that was my first thought. A friend of mine has been bugging me to do that with the previous Raspberry PIs. But yeh, you could probably use it as a controller too I'm guessing.. like using the GPIO to hook up the kbd matrix or something.

Like put the actual pi in a 60 for an emulator? I am building a pintendo as we speak just waiting on some parts to arrive. Getting it into a case would work but would mean you have to haul a keyboard around with it.

I just woke up from dreaming that I was about to make a handheld pi zero based game emulator... got a bit inspired it seems

Yeh, there would be no point in putting it inside a keyboard just to put it inside a keyboard of course.

[tp4tissue]

guyz..  what's the current most powerful pocketable.

iPhone 6S Plus.

)

Yeah stop kidding around, everyone knows its the Gameboy Advance

I'm only half joking. I mean, it's hard to consider a device "pocketable" without an integrated display, an input interface of some kind, a battery, and networking.

Now if you mean very small computer, the answer is probably the Intel NUC.

Is the NUC good at hax0rzing..

I want to control a large led cube...