4 ms·

Here's an idea: create a subscription service that signs me up for 20 USD per month and gets me the latest hip boards in a reasonable time frame (I realize that

by _pmf_ 10y ago

Here's an idea: create a subscription service that signs me up for 20 USD per month and gets me the latest hip boards in a reasonable time frame (I realize that this specific board is outside of this price range).

trome 10y ago
Your gonna end up with a bunch of Amlogic, Allwinner & Rockchip boards with little to no software support unless you get a bunch of H3 based Allwinner boards. Most of what is out there is nothing to write home about, the decent stuff (eg. OrangePi PC) is either pure luck, or browbeating by the community (OrangePi+ 2e) with the occasional vendor like FriendlyARM coming in using SOCs that the community mainlined support for. Then you have incompetent vendors like Olimex, Pine64, Next Thing Co (of C.H.I.P., the "$9" SBC) that fuck up the hardware, software, or both, and forget critical stuff like heat spreading copper layers in the SBC (Olimex), misroute ethernet so it can't actually do a gigabit a sec (Pine64), or lie about SOC software support and scramble to port the closed blobs that make their board work forward (Next Thing Co).
- buserror 10y ago
  You are bit hard on Olimex -- to be fair, they release hardware specs, schematics and so on well in advance, and in true 'open hardware' form -- so nothing stops you actually reviewing and/or fixing it if you get a chance! I've used quite a few Olimex boards for pretty serious work project, often as a prototype before we settle on a 'real' hardware to develop, and I've always been very pleased with what I've got. Altho, I haven't bough any of their 'really fancy' boards lately. Disclaimer: I was the one who rewrote and upstreamed the original Mini2440 'friendlyarm' board.
  - elijahparker 10y ago
    I'm a big fan of Olimex and have been impressed overall by the reliability of their boards, and I really appreciate the openness of their hardware and development process (e.g., you can check out eagle files for boards that haven't event been released yet and provide feedback)
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- jimsparkman 10y ago
  Which Olimex board? As part of evaluation of a next gen product we had thermal imaging done on an A20 with very positive results. They usually use industrial rated parts.
- benjaminl 10y ago
  Care to expand upon the issues with Next Thing Co? Was considering C.H.I.P. for a new project (besides the ridiculous name of their SBC).
- koz1000 10y ago
  Hey let me throw KaRo on that pile as well. They refused to remove a label from their SoC in production so we could install a thermal sink plate in our final assembly. Even for 2,000 SOMs/year they wouldn't do it. Went to Boundary Devices and they happily helped us out.
VLM 10y ago
https://www.adafruit.com/adabox https://www.adafruit.com/adabox $60/quarter was what you asked for, interestingly. third one ships this week or so. I'm not sure if its an upside or a downside that all the boards are adafruit products. Its adafruit so its excellently documented but its essentially the "feather ecosystem quarterly subscription" in practice. I realize they have customer service type costs but it would be interesting to see something other than feather ecosystem products. I'm not saying its not fun, its a lot of fun, I'm just saying it would be more fun to get something truly weird in the box. I enjoyed building the robot in the second box and generally hacking around on it.

by _pmf_ 10y ago

trome 10y ago

Your gonna end up with a bunch of Amlogic, Allwinner & Rockchip boards with little to no software support unless you get a bunch of H3 based Allwinner boards. Most of what is out there is nothing to write home about, the decent stuff (eg. OrangePi PC) is either pure luck, or browbeating by the community (OrangePi+ 2e) with the occasional vendor like FriendlyARM coming in using SOCs that the community mainlined support for. Then you have incompetent vendors like Olimex, Pine64, Next Thing Co (of C.H.I.P., the "$9" SBC) that fuck up the hardware, software, or both, and forget critical stuff like heat spreading copper layers in the SBC (Olimex), misroute ethernet so it can't actually do a gigabit a sec (Pine64), or lie about SOC software support and scramble to port the closed blobs that make their board work forward (Next Thing Co).

buserror 10y ago
You are bit hard on Olimex -- to be fair, they release hardware specs, schematics and so on well in advance, and in true 'open hardware' form -- so nothing stops you actually reviewing and/or fixing it if you get a chance! I've used quite a few Olimex boards for pretty serious work project, often as a prototype before we settle on a 'real' hardware to develop, and I've always been very pleased with what I've got. Altho, I haven't bough any of their 'really fancy' boards lately. Disclaimer: I was the one who rewrote and upstreamed the original Mini2440 'friendlyarm' board.
- elijahparker 10y ago
  I'm a big fan of Olimex and have been impressed overall by the reliability of their boards, and I really appreciate the openness of their hardware and development process (e.g., you can check out eagle files for boards that haven't event been released yet and provide feedback)
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jimsparkman 10y ago
Which Olimex board? As part of evaluation of a next gen product we had thermal imaging done on an A20 with very positive results. They usually use industrial rated parts.
benjaminl 10y ago
Care to expand upon the issues with Next Thing Co? Was considering C.H.I.P. for a new project (besides the ridiculous name of their SBC).
koz1000 10y ago
Hey let me throw KaRo on that pile as well. They refused to remove a label from their SoC in production so we could install a thermal sink plate in our final assembly. Even for 2,000 SOMs/year they wouldn't do it. Went to Boundary Devices and they happily helped us out.

VLM 10y ago

https://www.adafruit.com/adabox https://www.adafruit.com/adabox $60/quarter was what you asked for, interestingly. third one ships this week or so. I'm not sure if its an upside or a downside that all the boards are adafruit products. Its adafruit so its excellently documented but its essentially the "feather ecosystem quarterly subscription" in practice. I realize they have customer service type costs but it would be interesting to see something other than feather ecosystem products. I'm not saying its not fun, its a lot of fun, I'm just saying it would be more fun to get something truly weird in the box. I enjoyed building the robot in the second box and generally hacking around on it.