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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

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...
gh02t 9y ago
Also wired Ethernet. Running a server over WiFi is flaky, especially on a phone optimized for low power usage. The Pi's wired networking is lackluster, but it's still more stable than WiFi. And adding on to GPIO, the Pi has easy to use SPI and i2c busses. That opens up a huge range of sensors and other things like displays that work with easy to understand code. For a lot of use cases it's better to think of the RasPi as a very beefed up Arduino, not a barebones PC (or phone).
- sandGorgon 9y ago
  Hi, I'm looking to understand the sensors bit. Beyond the fact that the most common sensors/peripherals are built in...I can find a lot of USB sensors that work with Android. In general you can also drop down to NDK (c code) on Android if you want. So I'm still curious on which sensors would not work with a Android phone that people would want to.
  - kaoD 9y ago
    USB sensors are more expensive and need an USB hub (which raises the price, what's the point then?). Not to mention most sensors (humidity or CO2 for example, or even just a simple potentiometer) are not USB (and for a good reason, I don't want/need USB chips and connectors in each one of my sensors). Example applications I use Pi for: automated irrigation, custom digital musical instruments.
  - nottorp 9y ago
    Let's see... USB sensors add unneeded complexity AND power requirements. How would you stick an Android phone plus a whole octopus of usb peripherals inside a nice neat box? It would be at least shoe box size. If you need a board that will run 24/7 and control some process, remember Android goes into power management to save battery, and you need to fight it to operate continously. Might not even be possible any more with newer Androids that restrict wake locks. RPi reliability isn't as good as it could be, at least not without cooling, but I would trust it for long time operation any time over a $30 phone that had to include a screen and a battery in that price and thus has made a lot more compromises.
  - 8y ago

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...

gh02t 9y ago

Also wired Ethernet. Running a server over WiFi is flaky, especially on a phone optimized for low power usage. The Pi's wired networking is lackluster, but it's still more stable than WiFi. And adding on to GPIO, the Pi has easy to use SPI and i2c busses. That opens up a huge range of sensors and other things like displays that work with easy to understand code. For a lot of use cases it's better to think of the RasPi as a very beefed up Arduino, not a barebones PC (or phone).

sandGorgon 9y ago
Hi, I'm looking to understand the sensors bit. Beyond the fact that the most common sensors/peripherals are built in...I can find a lot of USB sensors that work with Android. In general you can also drop down to NDK (c code) on Android if you want. So I'm still curious on which sensors would not work with a Android phone that people would want to.
- kaoD 9y ago
  USB sensors are more expensive and need an USB hub (which raises the price, what's the point then?). Not to mention most sensors (humidity or CO2 for example, or even just a simple potentiometer) are not USB (and for a good reason, I don't want/need USB chips and connectors in each one of my sensors). Example applications I use Pi for: automated irrigation, custom digital musical instruments.
- nottorp 9y ago
  Let's see... USB sensors add unneeded complexity AND power requirements. How would you stick an Android phone plus a whole octopus of usb peripherals inside a nice neat box? It would be at least shoe box size. If you need a board that will run 24/7 and control some process, remember Android goes into power management to save battery, and you need to fight it to operate continously. Might not even be possible any more with newer Androids that restrict wake locks. RPi reliability isn't as good as it could be, at least not without cooling, but I would trust it for long time operation any time over a $30 phone that had to include a screen and a battery in that price and thus has made a lot more compromises.
- 8y ago