4 ms·

what kind of projects does the Raspberry Pi shine in which a 35-50$ phone cant do ? let's say this one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3000mAh-Homtom-HT16-5-

what kind of projects does the Raspberry Pi shine in which a 35-50$ phone cant do ? let's say this one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3000mAh-Homtom-HT16-5-0-inch-3G-Smartphone-MTK6580-Quad-Core-1GB-RAM-8GB-ROM-Wakeup/32814472811.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3000mAh-Homtom-HT16-5-0-inch...) running Android 6.0 in a 1GB RAM package. You have access to battery, GPS, wifi, USB, acclerometer and a display out of the box (which you typically pay extra for on rpi). And obviously... Android. P.S. remember Android 6.0 has COSU mode to set your device in a single-purpose single-app mode (https://developer.android.com/work/cosu.html https://developer.android.com/work/cosu.html) just like the rpi3. Which has the pleasant side-effect that you can manage a ton of these devices using a central enterprise-grade management system. In addition, you can build custom hardware that interfaces with Android in a standard way (the AOA protocol) - https://source.android.com/devices/accessories/custom https://source.android.com/devices/accessories/custom. Which makes doing a hardware startup prototyping easier on the android platform than rpi. Is the rpi (or the Asus Tinker Board) merely a consequence of what was possible at a particular price point some time back ?

jsilence 9y ago
Regarding the first question of your post: two things. one: no gpio pins on the phone. two: short model production cycles. Sure, there is a certain fluctuation on the SBC landscape, but the models lifetime and availability is usually much longer than with phones.
- sandGorgon 9y ago
  Why would model production cycles impact you in the Android world. My current app runs seamlessly on nearly 200 hundred different models (in India). The application dev ecosystem and abstractions are very different in the Android world. Accessing the GPS is completely independent of underlying hardware and is already something we run happily on a daily basis. On gpio - curious. What applications would you use it for ? Generally they are useful for attaching peripherals like GPS modules, wifi,etc....And I grant there might be some modules that you might need. But isn't the phone solving the 99 percentile use case without need for gpio?
  - elaus 9y ago
    GPS or Wifi could easily be attached via USB, you don't need GPIO for that. The huge benefit of GPIO ports are all those things that DON'T have standard ports like USB: sensors (temp/humidity/air, radar, …) or controlling lights (e.g. LED strips) or other basic electronics that you wire to your SBC. Really the GPIO pins are what makes SBCs so great for me... a smartphone is just a closed-off portable computer with very limited built-in sensors.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
    No more than a phone solves the 99 percentile use case better than a small PC does. I have a custom-built fluid handler built from a Rpi and a $20 3.5" touchscreen, a $6 Arduino relay board and some additional hardware. I need the GPIO to run pumps and valves and additional I/O. Could it be done on a phone? Yes, with additional hardware and more effort. The lower cost of the phone would be eaten up in the first hour it took me longer than on the Pi. I've recommended to many people contemplating complex Arduino projects that they move to the Pi instead. Often, by the time you purchase multiple Arduino "shields" to do a task, you're well past the price of a Raspberry Pi that has all the needed I/O: networking, audio output, storage and more built in. Hell, I'm involved in a high-speed signal processing project where I use an Arduino M0 for the speed but I still needed to do some of the behavior in analog circuits because the Cortex M0 still wasn't fast enough to process everything digitally. I would have preferred to use a Pi but I don't trust the reliability (industrial application), and I need guaranteed real-time behavior. I wholeheartedly agree with you that many hobbyist RPi projects could be done just as well on a phone: I noticed that quite some time ago. But hardware is less and less the limiting factor these days. Learning curves can be expensive. I tend to build things in small volumes, so any price savings from using a cheap phone or tablet is often meaningless in comparison to how long it will take me to get up to speed on a new platform.
adrianN 9y ago
The Pi has HDMI and can play full HD.
johnthedebs 9y ago
As someone who's been obsessing over SBCs recently, your comment really got me thinking. Many of the additions/changes I want to make to my Raspberry Pis is to make them more like a smartphone (microphone, camera, GPS, touchscreen, battery). And as an iOS user, I'm considering buying an Android phone just to play around with because it's so cheap and capable for odd projects. That said, some easy things that come to mind regarding the usefulness of the Raspberry Pi and other SBCs: 1. GPIO pins for connecting external sensors/modules/peripherals 2. More "personal computer"-style ports than a phone (standard USB, ethernet, HDMI ports) which are good for things like small file servers, retro game consoles, or light desktop use (to name a few things)
- sandGorgon 9y ago
  I made this comment in another reply. >On gpio - curious. What applications would you use it for ? Generally they are useful for attaching peripherals like GPS modules, wifi,etc....And I grant there might be some modules that you might need. But isn't the phone solving the 99 percentile use case without need for gpio? External ports like USB, HDMI,etc are easily done. In fact, there are zillions more accessories for the Android world than the RPI world. And cheaper too. https://youtu.be/n1BBX6hEo8E https://youtu.be/n1BBX6hEo8E
  - johnthedebs 9y ago
    > External ports like USB, HDMI,etc are easily done. I agree that it's easily done, but can you do 2-4 USB ports and HDMI at the same time for a gaming console, or USB + ethernet for a file server? I genuinely don't know, but knowing what I know about iPhone accessories (admittedly also not a ton) I don't think you can. At the very least it adds to the cost and removes some convenience. Some GPIO sensors I've played with are: IR receiver, RGB LED, waterproof temperature sensors, combination temperature/humidity sensors. You can connect many of these at once, and solder the connections for a more permanent tiny appliance. This link lists lots of interesting/useful sensors and components: https://tutorials-raspberrypi.com/raspberry-pi-sensors-overview-50-important-components/ https://tutorials-raspberrypi.com/raspberry-pi-sensors-overv...
- 9y ago
kaoD 9y ago
- RPi isn't Chinese, as in, I'm not locked in (by default) into a Chinese stock OS with god-knows-what spyware installed. - It runs Linux as a first-party-sanctioned OS. Great ecosystem for tinkering. Not locked in to the whims of the manufacturer OS updates. - GPIO pins. - No built-in screen (which I guess draws less power). - HDMI, USB and Ethernet ports.
- sandGorgon 9y ago
  Any Android phone can be rooted and flashed to Lineage os atleast. For other points, I have mentioned in other comments.
  - kaoD 9y ago
    Yes but that's not first party, voids the warranty (messing with bootloaders, yuck), in my experience has tons of problems with propietary drivers, is still Android (which is an awful OS/ecosystem for anything that isn't a phone), eventually stops being updated (as many of my not-so-old phones can attest)... RPi and Android phones might overlap for some applications but I see them as very distinct devices.
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    > Any Android phone can be rooted and flashed to Lineage os atleast. If your manufacturer hasn't decided to lock the bootloader, that is.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  RPi is British, our GCHQ is well known for never illegally spying on anyone. /s >"Prior to this [2012], the Raspberry Pi was made in China; some models are now also made in Japan." (https://www.zdnet.com/article/14-million-raspberry-pis-sold-10-million-made-in-the-uk/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/14-million-raspberry-pis-sold-...) // Now made primarily in UK.
FRex 9y ago
Anything where you don't want a touch screen or want a matte screen (or are there now matte touch screen already) or don't want/care about Android? E.g. turning it into a handheld emulator with RetroPie and a nice custom (3D printed or otherwise) case [0]. Yes, GDP XD (which uses Android) exists but it's a custom built product and not a phone and you take it or leave it (unlike the customization you get from Raspberry Pi). [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux9lXBexw0o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux9lXBexw0o
spacenick88 9y ago
Well a RPi gives you a standard Linux with proper init system, tools like docker, proper headless support using SSH and so on. From a software point a RPi runs exactly the same stuff as any other Linux server out there. An Android phone on the other hand is a pretty quirky system for anything that's not a purpose built UI application

jsilence 9y ago

Regarding the first question of your post: two things. one: no gpio pins on the phone. two: short model production cycles. Sure, there is a certain fluctuation on the SBC landscape, but the models lifetime and availability is usually much longer than with phones.

sandGorgon 9y ago
Why would model production cycles impact you in the Android world. My current app runs seamlessly on nearly 200 hundred different models (in India). The application dev ecosystem and abstractions are very different in the Android world. Accessing the GPS is completely independent of underlying hardware and is already something we run happily on a daily basis. On gpio - curious. What applications would you use it for ? Generally they are useful for attaching peripherals like GPS modules, wifi,etc....And I grant there might be some modules that you might need. But isn't the phone solving the 99 percentile use case without need for gpio?
- elaus 9y ago
  GPS or Wifi could easily be attached via USB, you don't need GPIO for that. The huge benefit of GPIO ports are all those things that DON'T have standard ports like USB: sensors (temp/humidity/air, radar, …) or controlling lights (e.g. LED strips) or other basic electronics that you wire to your SBC. Really the GPIO pins are what makes SBCs so great for me... a smartphone is just a closed-off portable computer with very limited built-in sensors.
- HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
  No more than a phone solves the 99 percentile use case better than a small PC does. I have a custom-built fluid handler built from a Rpi and a $20 3.5" touchscreen, a $6 Arduino relay board and some additional hardware. I need the GPIO to run pumps and valves and additional I/O. Could it be done on a phone? Yes, with additional hardware and more effort. The lower cost of the phone would be eaten up in the first hour it took me longer than on the Pi. I've recommended to many people contemplating complex Arduino projects that they move to the Pi instead. Often, by the time you purchase multiple Arduino "shields" to do a task, you're well past the price of a Raspberry Pi that has all the needed I/O: networking, audio output, storage and more built in. Hell, I'm involved in a high-speed signal processing project where I use an Arduino M0 for the speed but I still needed to do some of the behavior in analog circuits because the Cortex M0 still wasn't fast enough to process everything digitally. I would have preferred to use a Pi but I don't trust the reliability (industrial application), and I need guaranteed real-time behavior. I wholeheartedly agree with you that many hobbyist RPi projects could be done just as well on a phone: I noticed that quite some time ago. But hardware is less and less the limiting factor these days. Learning curves can be expensive. I tend to build things in small volumes, so any price savings from using a cheap phone or tablet is often meaningless in comparison to how long it will take me to get up to speed on a new platform.

adrianN 9y ago

The Pi has HDMI and can play full HD.

johnthedebs 9y ago

As someone who's been obsessing over SBCs recently, your comment really got me thinking. Many of the additions/changes I want to make to my Raspberry Pis is to make them more like a smartphone (microphone, camera, GPS, touchscreen, battery). And as an iOS user, I'm considering buying an Android phone just to play around with because it's so cheap and capable for odd projects. That said, some easy things that come to mind regarding the usefulness of the Raspberry Pi and other SBCs: 1. GPIO pins for connecting external sensors/modules/peripherals 2. More "personal computer"-style ports than a phone (standard USB, ethernet, HDMI ports) which are good for things like small file servers, retro game consoles, or light desktop use (to name a few things)

sandGorgon 9y ago
I made this comment in another reply. >On gpio - curious. What applications would you use it for ? Generally they are useful for attaching peripherals like GPS modules, wifi,etc....And I grant there might be some modules that you might need. But isn't the phone solving the 99 percentile use case without need for gpio? External ports like USB, HDMI,etc are easily done. In fact, there are zillions more accessories for the Android world than the RPI world. And cheaper too. https://youtu.be/n1BBX6hEo8E https://youtu.be/n1BBX6hEo8E
- johnthedebs 9y ago
  > External ports like USB, HDMI,etc are easily done. I agree that it's easily done, but can you do 2-4 USB ports and HDMI at the same time for a gaming console, or USB + ethernet for a file server? I genuinely don't know, but knowing what I know about iPhone accessories (admittedly also not a ton) I don't think you can. At the very least it adds to the cost and removes some convenience. Some GPIO sensors I've played with are: IR receiver, RGB LED, waterproof temperature sensors, combination temperature/humidity sensors. You can connect many of these at once, and solder the connections for a more permanent tiny appliance. This link lists lots of interesting/useful sensors and components: https://tutorials-raspberrypi.com/raspberry-pi-sensors-overview-50-important-components/ https://tutorials-raspberrypi.com/raspberry-pi-sensors-overv...
9y ago

kaoD 9y ago

- RPi isn't Chinese, as in, I'm not locked in (by default) into a Chinese stock OS with god-knows-what spyware installed. - It runs Linux as a first-party-sanctioned OS. Great ecosystem for tinkering. Not locked in to the whims of the manufacturer OS updates. - GPIO pins. - No built-in screen (which I guess draws less power). - HDMI, USB and Ethernet ports.

sandGorgon 9y ago
Any Android phone can be rooted and flashed to Lineage os atleast. For other points, I have mentioned in other comments.
- kaoD 9y ago
  Yes but that's not first party, voids the warranty (messing with bootloaders, yuck), in my experience has tons of problems with propietary drivers, is still Android (which is an awful OS/ecosystem for anything that isn't a phone), eventually stops being updated (as many of my not-so-old phones can attest)... RPi and Android phones might overlap for some applications but I see them as very distinct devices.
- saagarjha 9y ago
  > Any Android phone can be rooted and flashed to Lineage os atleast. If your manufacturer hasn't decided to lock the bootloader, that is.
pbhjpbhj 9y ago
RPi is British, our GCHQ is well known for never illegally spying on anyone. /s >"Prior to this [2012], the Raspberry Pi was made in China; some models are now also made in Japan." (https://www.zdnet.com/article/14-million-raspberry-pis-sold-10-million-made-in-the-uk/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/14-million-raspberry-pis-sold-...) // Now made primarily in UK.

FRex 9y ago

Anything where you don't want a touch screen or want a matte screen (or are there now matte touch screen already) or don't want/care about Android? E.g. turning it into a handheld emulator with RetroPie and a nice custom (3D printed or otherwise) case [0]. Yes, GDP XD (which uses Android) exists but it's a custom built product and not a phone and you take it or leave it (unlike the customization you get from Raspberry Pi). [0] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux9lXBexw0o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux9lXBexw0o

spacenick88 9y ago

Well a RPi gives you a standard Linux with proper init system, tools like docker, proper headless support using SSH and so on. From a software point a RPi runs exactly the same stuff as any other Linux server out there. An Android phone on the other hand is a pretty quirky system for anything that's not a purpose built UI application