Raspberry PI $25 PC

Khannie · 24-12-2011 12:53pm

New video up on their site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te8jt-jUkm8

Two things of note:
LXDE for the window manager
Midori for the browser

I just installed midori there. Nice and fast. Not sure how old the version I'm using is (it's the default from the ubuntu 11.04 repositories, which would be old enough at this stage). Had a slight problem with the dublin bus site. Seems like a reasonable enough browser though.

Update: Got the latest version of midori. Actually a super little browser. No more problems with the dublin bus site and very fast rendering of boards.ie. Supports plugins (i.e. flash), tabbed browsing, etc. etc. Very nice little piece of kit.

Hank Scorpio · 24-12-2011 3:05pm

Khannie wrote: »

100FPS at 1080p and 4xAA'd quake 3 for $25 is shockingly good.

You meant 10 fps? In the video they showed the framerate was 10-30 with some drops under 10, very poor imo for a game released in 1999

Khannie · 24-12-2011 6:20pm

nuxxx wrote: »

very poor imo for a game released in 1999

It's running 4x AA'd at 1920x1080 on a $25 piece of hardware and they've stated that that's below what they've seen before. Can you honestly say you've seen performance even approaching that at a similar price point anywhere? I certainly haven't.

Antar Bolaeisk · 25-12-2011 2:07am

That thing looks fricken awesome, already coming up with plans on putting one or two of them to use!

shizz · 02-01-2012 1:29pm

They've got boards up on ebay for auction at the moment, with the rest expecting to be in volume production by the end of January. The first Board on ebay is already up to nearly 2 grand :O

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180786734741?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1413

Khannie · 02-01-2012 2:07pm

Fairly shocking money that. I think it's probably just people effectively making donations.

I note in the video no their site that talks about the auctions that they're going to ship with a debian based distro. Interesting stuff. Can't wait to get one.

shizz · 02-01-2012 3:06pm

Yeah I thought as much. Really can't wait for them to come out now.

Mr Benevolent · 02-01-2012 10:33pm

Interested in this now myself, especially running Android, a small LCD screen and a LiPo battery.

I give it a 50:50 chance of it going into full production no matter what the RPi team says.

shizz · 04-01-2012 10:01pm

Ah don't be saying that

Khannie · 04-01-2012 10:27pm

Confab wrote: »

I give it a 50:50 chance of it going into full production no matter what the RPi team says.

I'll take that bet. Seriously, I'd give you odds of 2:1 up to a reasonable amount (but not gigantic) if you fancy putting some money on it? I have no insider knowledge.

The bet would be that they start production from a factory (rather than the hand assembled jobbies they have now) and an average punter can purchase one (this rules out the 2000 pound ones on ebay).

Let me know if you're game.

shizz · 04-01-2012 10:41pm

Khannie wrote: »

I'll take that bet. Seriously, I'd give you odds of 2:1 up to a reasonable amount (but not gigantic) if you fancy putting some money on it? I have no insider knowledge.

The bet would be that they start production from a factory (rather than the hand assembled jobbies they have now) and an average punter can purchase one (this rules out the 2000 pound ones on ebay).

Let me know if you're game.

:pac:

Khannie · 04-01-2012 10:52pm

Haha. No, I didn't mean it in a hard ass way. Just a bit of fun. No problem if there's no interest. I'm not looking to make megabucks, just add a bit of spice to the wait.

shizz · 04-01-2012 10:54pm

Khannie wrote: »

Haha. No, I didn't mean it in a hard ass way. Just a bit of fun. No problem if there's no interest. I'm not looking to make megabucks, just add a bit of spice to the wait.

Haha yeah this wait is killing me.

I was wondering, since all I have here with me is my laptop, is there anyway I could use my laptop's keyboard and a mouse to control the PI? Or even just use the laptop's monitor?

Mr Benevolent · 05-01-2012 12:05am

Nah I don't do wagers anymore. If they make it onto the market I will buy one and I'm willing to be slagged about it. It'd be ironic if delivery cost more than the RPi though :pac:

Khannie · 05-01-2012 1:10pm

shizz wrote: »

Haha yeah this wait is killing me.

I was wondering, since all I have here with me is my laptop, is there anyway I could use my laptop's keyboard and a mouse to control the PI? Or even just use the laptop's monitor?

Freenx is probably what you want. It displays a desktop from a unix / linux box (full screen if you want it) on your laptop. Similar to remote desktop for windows.

There is a commercial version from www.nomachine.com but I don't think they do an arm linux version.

Doge · 06-01-2012 1:03am

Khannie wrote: »

Ah ok. I think the pi is a good base to try and copy tbh. The only very minor flaw I think it has is the 2 USB ports (where there's a good chance you're going to use one for wifi, it leaves you needing an external port for a keyboard and mouse).

Actually, does anyone know if there's a keyboard and mouse on a single USB port? or a keyboard that has a usb hub built in?

edit: I think the ideal spec for me would be a pi with faster processor, more ram (512M would probably be enough for a lightweight distro to do useful stuff though a gig would be ideal) and 4 usb ports. I'd happily pay 50 euro for that.

I'm thinkering with the idea of horsing the Pi into something like this:

Only using this pic so you can get the idea, but i would actually be using a USB 2.0 bay.

There's the option of bypassing the Controller Board altogether also, and soldering wires between the USB connectors themselves and the RPi.

Would 10 ports be enough for you?

There's also the Bays that come with a multi-card reader.

It might be possible to use the existing SD Card slot on one of those, and solder wires from the pins to the pins on the SD card slot that comes with the RPi. It would be great if there was a more DIY version of the RPi which came without the connectors soldered to the board so you could use your own Panel mounted connectors instead.

Mr Benevolent · 06-01-2012 1:45pm

I plan to just tape mine to be back of the monitor.

Khannie · 06-01-2012 5:08pm

I think it will come with its own casing. That's the plan for the factory shipped ones anyway (as I understand it).

shizz · 06-01-2012 5:56pm

Khannie wrote: »

I think it will come with its own casing. That's the plan for the factory shipped ones anyway (as I understand it).

Really? Where did you see this?

Khannie · 06-01-2012 10:48pm

Pretty sure I read it in the comments section of one of the posts. That Liz lady said it. I wouldn't bet my house on it, but you can't really give an exposed piece of tech kit like that to kids (the target audience). It would be dead in five minutes. One pin damaged because of a tiny fall = bye bye raspberry pi! (I should have been a poet)

Doge · 06-01-2012 11:09pm

There'll be no cases for the initial 10K batch,

but there will be cases in a few months time when they're finished designing them.

But if that first batch is delayed a few months, then you might just end up correct after all!

massy086 · 09-01-2012 11:14pm

just what i have been waiting for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKhnoQMwjmQ&feature=youtu.be

Khannie · 10-01-2012 4:01pm

I was actually fairly impressed by the gertboard video they have over on the site. Looks very easy to make use of.

I'm half considering doing a self-built solar power solution at home and you could use a motor like that to make sure the panels were always facing exactly the right direction and still have the pi available for watching movies etc.

bonzodog2 · 10-01-2012 4:21pm

#01 of the ones on ebay (http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Raspberry-Pi-Model-B-beta-board-01-limited-series-10-/180786868894?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a17bcb29e) has 27 bids ATM, currently at £3500

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Khannie · 10-01-2012 5:25pm

Yeah, lots of people seem to be donating to the charity which is pretty cool.

Doge · 10-01-2012 7:27pm

Very heart warming story on there today!

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/503

Fair play to them.

Doge · 11-01-2012 2:37am

Holy ****, they've already began manufacturing the boards!!!!

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/509

What an awesome surprise!

Khannie · 11-01-2012 11:27am

Nice!

Anyone going to get a gertboard add on? I think I will after seeing that video with the motor. I thought that was cool.

Doge · 11-01-2012 11:32am

Khannie wrote: »

Nice!

Anyone going to get a gertboard add on? I think I will after seeing that video with the motor. I thought that was cool.

I reckon there's going to be a **** load of other GPIO boards made for it too, from various projects!

Khannie · 11-01-2012 6:14pm

I must admit I know relatively little about electronics, but I'm interested in learning and that seems like a decent way of fluting around. If only there were more hours in the day....

Doge · 11-01-2012 8:21pm

Khannie wrote: »

I must admit I know relatively little about electronics, but I'm interested in learning and that seems like a decent way of fluting around. If only there were more hours in the day....

In that case If I were you, I'd wait till there's tutorials and projects finished for external boards before jumping into it.
Might be still handy to buy the Gertboard in advance, but there will probably be better boards made also.

If you want to jump into that world sooner you could buy an arduino, as there's plenty of finished projects out there for that right now.

Dublin_Gunner · 12-01-2012 12:12am

Khannie wrote: »

I must admit I know relatively little about electronics, but I'm interested in learning and that seems like a decent way of fluting around. If only there were more hours in the day....

To help get in the swing of things, why not buy a little electronic project kit? You can pick them up for like a tenner in Maplins / Peats or online. Something simple like making a board to control a fan / heater or similar. Should help give you a little understanding.

Oh, some basic C would probably help a little for compiling simple software to control external boards too

unkel · 12-01-2012 12:30am

Khannie wrote: »

I was actually fairly impressed by the gertboard video they have over on the site.

Congratulations for being the first person ever to mention gertboard on boards.ie :cool:

Must say I was pretty impressed too with this demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UK4mKBpTBE

Doge · 12-01-2012 2:15am

unkel wrote: »

Congratulations for being the first person ever to mention gertboard on boards.ie :cool:

This is clear proof that we need more nerds in Ireland!

Khannie · 12-01-2012 5:00pm

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

To help get in the swing of things, why not buy a little electronic project kit? You can pick them up for like a tenner in Maplins / Peats or online. Something simple like making a board to control a fan / heater or similar. Should help give you a little understanding.

Oh, some basic C would probably help a little for compiling simple software to control external boards too

Ah, I probably have what most people would consider a reasonable level of understanding. I have good C / C++ / other languages (been a coder for many years) and I have worked for a hardware company in the past so basic logic gates electrical circuits and so forth are ok with me.

Dublin_Gunner · 12-01-2012 5:03pm

Khannie wrote: »

Ah, I probably have what most people would consider a reasonable level of understanding. I have good C / C++ / other languages (been a coder for many years) and I have worked for a hardware company in the past so basic logic gates electrical circuits and so forth are ok with me.

Well sure then you're more than capable of creating a bit of control software for external boards such as those! No need to be so modest about your capabilities.

bonzodog2 · 13-01-2012 3:29pm

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/13/raspberry_pi_foundation_rolls_out_linux_based_pcs/

end of the month, supposedly

Tallon · 13-01-2012 3:41pm

Awesome, I am definitively going to try get one of the first batch!!!

Quick question though, how pushed are people on paying more?

Like, if it was manufactured in England and had a quicker turnaround, would people be tempted to pay a little extra?

I know I would, but I'm an impatient git who likes to have his toys NOW

Doge · 13-01-2012 3:50pm

Tallon wrote: »

Awesome, I am definitively going to try get one of the first batch!!!

Quick question though, how pushed are people on paying more?

Like, if it was manufactured in England and had a quicker turnaround, would people be tempted to pay a little extra?

I know I would, but I'm an impatient git who likes to have his toys NOW

Yeah I would definitely, but charging a higher price defeats the whole aim of this charity foundation.

They are trying to get these things in the hands of school kids, for as cheap as possible so they can actually learn some proper computer skills like kids did in the 80s.

Not just the MS WORD 101 dumbed down bull**** that people (myself included) have been thought since then in schools.

Tallon · 13-01-2012 3:52pm

Ah, I perfectly understand that.. But what if the had a model C? Just for the fanboys

Doge · 13-01-2012 4:14pm

Tallon wrote: »

Ah, I perfectly understand that.. But what if the had a model C? Just for the fanboys

Well then they would have to move away from the Broadcom BCM2835, and use a chip that would offer more RAM.

Nobody except Broadcom knows if an incarnation of the BCM2835 exists with more RAM.

I think a private company would be best suited to deliver a higher spec'd device with a similar form factor.

That demand is not what the charity is catering for, and should never cater for it imo.

Don't worry though, I'm predicting an explosion of these sized devices in the next few years.

Check out the Cubox which is already on sale, (at a much higher price) and keep an eye on Rhombus Tech who are proposing to make a more powerful device than the Rpi, but with a similar price.

The more companies that pick up this market, the more competition there will be to drive down prices.

Khannie · 17-01-2012 6:09pm

So what are you all going to use them for once they're out?

I'm half thinking of building a system that lets me control the house heating from my phone. You could issue a command wirelessly over ssh once you were on a LAN fairly handy (like set an on / off time, turn on for x minutes, that kind of thing). That's if that gertboard works out to be easy enough to use. If you had the proper port forwarding set up it would allow you to turn on the heating on your way home (this occurred to me while on the way home from a weekend away when I was walking in the door at 12.30 into a bleedin' ice box). You could make all sorts of smart additions to your house.

There's a lad who bought one of the beta boards answering loads of questions over on reddit. Link.

Doge · 17-01-2012 6:59pm

Media Centre/wireless print server/wireless NAS are going to be my practical uses anyways.
Will also use it to learn linux me thinks.

Some guy has created a Virtual Box VM specifically for emulating the Raspberry Pi:

http://russelldavis.org/2011/09/10/virtualbox-vm-for-raspberrypi-development/#comment-340

You can download it from the torrent links on that page.

Khannie · 17-01-2012 7:04pm

Mobile but....I think it will make a poor nas. Will explain more later.

Like the print server idea.

Doge · 17-01-2012 7:51pm

Khannie wrote: »

Mobile but....I think it will make a poor nas. Will explain more later.

Like the print server idea.

I used the term NAS as lazy as possible there.

Just want to use it to share files from an external hard drive on my network, nothing fancy.

Khannie · 17-01-2012 8:46pm

Yep and in general linux is really well suited to that. I've been doing it for about 4 years now with no trouble whatsoever. The problem with the pi will be its lack of processing power. Typically USB devices suck the life out of a processor. It might be ok for streaming a single movie but an equivalent device with a SATA connected hard drive would be capable of much more. USB is just a bit of a dog for whatever reason.

Might be worth asking yer man on reddit what it's like.

massy086 · 21-01-2012 10:38pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NR57ELY28s

Khannie · 22-01-2012 12:15pm

That's very nice. Very nice looking indeed.

I wonder what it would be like with a dvb-s receiver for some freesat + media centre over wifi + NFS. Not sure the processor would be up to decoding the mpeg2 of the lowdef stations.

I already have a HTPC in the house that acts as a media server for other boxes in the house so that could be brilliant if coupled with a remote of some sort.

duffman85 · 02-02-2012 12:01am

Raspberry Pi XBMC Distro announced

http://www.stmlabs.com/2012/01/30/raspbmc-the-xbmc-distribution-for-raspberrypi/

Features include:

Custom Linux distribution with minimalised kernel.
Auto-updating
UI installers for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X to allow installation onto a removable device
PVR / AirTunes / AirPlay / Spotify integration
Same stability and support as the Crystalbuntu Linux distribution
Expansive capabilities allowing the installation of a desktop and web browser
AFP, NFS and SMB file sharing
Configuration utility allowing installation of custom nightlies, audio configuration, update management,
Server mode – allows MySQL database hosting and Thumbnail sharing for XBMC multiseat systems.
1080p decoding

It will be available from www.raspbmc.com once the website goes live.

@Khannie ->They won't be shipping with MPEG2 as the licensing cost is too great, $2.50 per board
From this Post : http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/592

Raspberry Pi Blog wrote:

Codecs

Two licensed codecs will be provided at launch, MPEG4 and h.264. Codec licences have quite an impact of the cost of the device which is why there are only two at this stage. There are non-licensed Codecs such at MPEG2, VC1 etc, but for the moment they will not be accelerated by the GPU.

Dom adds: As an aside, the GPU can hardware decode H264, MPEG1/2/4, VC1, AVS, MJPG at 1080p30. It can software (but still vector accelerated) decode VP6, VP7, VP8, RV, Theora, WMV9 at DVD resolutions. We are restricted due to licensing what we can support. We should be able to support VP8, MJPG and Theora, as I believe they are license free.

Can't wait to get my hands on one of these!

Khannie · 02-02-2012 2:24pm

Nice. I wish they'd give some kind of update on an expected release date. It's starting to do my noodle in a bit at this stage.

Raspberry PI $25 PC

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