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CutiePi – A Raspberry Pi 4 tablet
- captn3m0 6y agoTitle is from the shop page[0], which has lesser information. [0]: https://shop.cutiepi.io/products/cutiepi-tablet https://shop.cutiepi.io/products/cutiepi-tablet
- yspeak 6y agoI don't get it. This doesn't have a pi in it, it's "pi compatible" ? Looks dangerously close to trademark infringement ? Maybe patent infringement? Why "pi compatible"? I suppose this means software not hardware since not same form factor and no I/o pins ?? Why not just say it's a linux machine? This is open source but pi is not ?
- yspeak 6y agoAh nm see it's using the pi module. Pretty cool project.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- warp 6y agoThis was a Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/745629624/cutiepi-raspberry-pi-untethered https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/745629624/cutiepi-raspb... (I am a backer, but I haven't received mine yet, so don't yet have an opinion on the product)
- lupire 6y ago> EVERYTHING, from the hardware design, firmware, enclosure, all the way to the user interface, is open source.
- IgorPartola 6y agoExcept VideoCore? Or has something changed?
- PragmaticPulp 6y agoEverything this team produces and sells. This team isn’t involved with the Raspberry Pi team. They’re just using it in their open source product.
- kingosticks 6y agoThe cutiepi-enclosure/CutiePi_ID_spec.pdf file is marked as "confidential". Isn't that a little odd?
- geerlingguy 6y agoJust wanted to drop a link here to a page I maintain tracking as many Pi CM4-based projects as I've found: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm (including the CutiePi). The Compute Module 4 is the first revision (similar to the regular 4 model B) that is fast enough to actually be a practical/sensible replacement for a great deal of use cases where traditionally low power PC hardware would be preferred (though often more expensive). The one common theme though is the soldering of the hirose connectors is a bear to do manually.
- mattowen_uk 6y agoJeff's YouTube channel is also a delight[1], totally worth subscribing to! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR-DXc1voovS8nhAvccRZhg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR-DXc1voovS8nhAvccRZhg --- [1] Red Shirt Jeff did not make me say this, honest.
- rzzzt 6y agoSome day there might be an actual reason for sawing the board in half...
- Waterluvian 6y agoThe faq about battery concerns me a bit. "Achieved about 5 hours of standby time." Reporting standby time seems like a question dodge.
- podiki 6y agoSaw that too. Standby time usually means when it is not in use but can be woken up instantly. That's a far cry from actual usage time. :-| (Compare that too typical tablets where the standby time might be several days or longer, and usage time also much more than 5 hours. Or phones.)
- rzzzt 6y agoI was more wondering about the display brightness value given. Is the display on during standby time measurements?
- MarkusWandel 6y agoI see a sleep/wake button, but my Raspi 400 has no such feature, and googling about whether this can truly be done are inconclusive. 5h standby time suggests the sleep isn't a very deep one.
- dmos62 6y agoIt might be hibernation, as in putting RAM on disk and shutting down.
- hutzlibu 6y agoErm ... then the "standby time" would be forever.
- meatmanek 6y agoOnly if the supporting electronics (whatever's watching the sleep/wake button) have zero power consumption. It looks like they're using an STM32 for this, which I believe can be made to draw approximately zero power if it's just waiting for a button to be pressed.
- ape4 6y agoIt looks like the daughter board is bigger than the mother board (the rasp pi)
- aboringusername 6y agoLooking at the specs [1], I can't help but feel for $200 getting Wifi 4 (N, from 2008) and BT 4.0 (from 2010) leaves me underwhelmed. Maybe it was a cost decision, maybe licensing? Maybe due to power constraints? But damn, Wifi 4 is just objectively terrible and needs obliterating, it's borderline unusable and leaves me worried about the longevity of using such old standards in 2/3 years time (if that's the expecting lifetime of the product) 1: https://shop.cutiepi.io/products/cutiepi-tablet https://shop.cutiepi.io/products/cutiepi-tablet
- syntheticnature 6y agoWorth noting that WiFi 5 is 802.11ac, which only applies to 5Ghz; any WiFi 5 gear is using 802.11n for 2.4GHz. (Edit: Pi 4 can do 5GHz) One wonders if they skipped doing a 5GHz antenna for cost/space/other reasons.
- aboringusername 6y agoI'm kind of confused but by research [1] says the CM4 they've selected does indeed support wireless AC and BT 5.0 LE [1]: https://www.seeedstudio.com/Raspberry-Pi-Compute-Module-CM4102000-p-4718.html https://www.seeedstudio.com/Raspberry-Pi-Compute-Module-CM41...
- onesun 6y agoI wonder if they just recently decided to go with the CM4 module and failed to update the specs to match. The video shows them using the CM3 module, which does have lesser wifi/bt specs.
- opencl 6y agoThere was a previous version of this tablet using the CM3 with wifi/BT hardware on the carrier board, they probably just forgot to update that part of the specs page. The new carrier board does not have wifi so they are definitely using the CM4's onboard wireless hardware.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- PragmaticPulp 6y agoI’ve been following this project for a while. I truly hope they succeed, but as always some caution is warranted about crowdfunding projects. They ran a Kickstarter last year with a target ship date of late November, but I’m not sure how many orders they’ve filled. None of my friends who ordered have received theirs. Their open source repositories are available here: https://github.com/cutiepi-io https://github.com/cutiepi-io Note this isn’t a tablet in the traditional sense. Think of it as a Raspberry Pi with external touchscreen, camera, and battery folded into a tablet-like form factor. They’ve done some cool things with software and hardware to bring it all together, but it needs to be viewed as hackable open source hardware and not a competitor to a cheap Android tablet from Amazon.
- warp 6y agoThe reason they're late is because they switched from the Raspbarry Pi 3 compute module to the (then recently announced/released) Raspberry Pi 4 compute module very late into the project. I would have preferred if they had shipped what they had, instead of delaying the project for that upgrade, but it seems most backers preferred to get the shiny new thing, even if it meant the project was delayed.
- mrtweetyhack 6y agoThe change shouldn't be that drastic to hold up the project?
- botto 6y agoI think if they had stuck to the CM3 this would have lived a short life of "Oh, this is neat, but ugh so sluggish and can't really use it" to now it's an actually viable alternative to low powered laptop/tablet as you can upgrade it to the cm4 with 8gb ram
- temp8964 6y ago> we plan to support Raspberry Pi OS desktop and apps via XWayland. I am not familiar with the Linux Ecosystem, so I don't understand what this really means. Can someone please explain? Will any Linux apps run on it directly or do developers have to create separate apps just for the platform?
- Shared404 6y agoYes, Linux apps should run natively. X is the display server on Linux for decades back, and XWayland is the compatibility layer for it built into the newer display server Wayland.
- opencl 6y agoIt's just a Pi running ARM64 Linux. The default OS image that ships on the devices has their own touch UI shell which currently runs on EGLFS, which is basically an alternative to X or Wayland meant for embedded devices. So as it currently stands you can't run normal Linux apps in the default OS. They're supposedly porting it to Wayland which will allow normal Linux applications to run within their custom shell. Their shell is a relatively straightforward Qt Quick application so it shouldn't take a huge amount of work to port. Though the most recent commit was a little over a year ago[1] so who knows when it'll actually get finished. [1] https://github.com/cutiepi-io/cutiepi-shell/tree/wayland https://github.com/cutiepi-io/cutiepi-shell/tree/wayland
- terramex 6y agoIs the rear-facing camera connected using standard CSI interface and can it be swapped for RPi HQ Camera? I sometimes use HQ Cam in the field and for now I use RPi 4 with 7" touchscreen and external power bank so this tablet would be great usability upgrade.
- remram 6y agoThis seems like a terrible Nexus 7 for twice the price and launching a decade later? That you have to charge every 5 hours?
- ekianjo 6y agoYeah, but you can bet that 10 years later you won't be running obsolete software on it.
- remram 6y agoWhat makes you think CutiePi Shell will be maintained that long? Android has withstood the test of time, and although you'd need a custom mod to update your Nexus 7, chances are CutiePi won't live that long.
- hwc 6y agoI miss my nexus 7.
- onesun 6y agoIs it just me, or does that look like a drywall screw holding the handle together?
- lodovic 6y agoThis could be nice for a hobby project, as it will probably be much easier to customize and develop for than an Android tablet, but it has no GPIO pins. So I can't just connect it to a breadboard and use it as a console for a prototype. Still, this could be very interesting for certain types of applications.
- kmfrk 6y agoWould love to see a bullet point about repairability somewhere. That's one of the most compelling points about indie projects like this for me.
- spicybright 6y agoBesides swapping the Pi out I'd imagine there's very little repair ability. PCB with tiny components, custom screen, etc.
- botto 6y agoConsidering all the hardware and software is open source the repairability will be high, obviously you will need some tools to do it.
- spicybright 6y agoTools are easy. But if a company can't supply replacement parts then your SOL with any repairs.
- amelius 6y agoAnd the ability to run (an open flavor of) Linux.
- globular-toast 6y agoSo no GPIO access or anything? If someone told me they were working on a "Raspberry Pi Project" I would have assumed it would be something taking advantage of that hardware. Do they really only mean they are programming something on Linux?
- alisonkisk 6y agoIt has gpio.
- terramex 6y agoDoes it? Board photo from their GitHub shows version 2.0 with GPIO pins [1], but it looks like updated version 2.1 [2] ditched GPIO and put microphone in its place. [1] https://camo.githubusercontent.com/1e615d82470b7e1dccbd185835f98dbee416e8cdc4a460fb0e4f1b7997fe36d2/68747470733a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f324352446e58702e6a7067 https://camo.githubusercontent.com/1e615d82470b7e1dccbd18583... [2] https://cutiepi.io/assets/pictures/board-detail.png https://cutiepi.io/assets/pictures/board-detail.png
- StevePerkins 6y agoTwo-hundred bucks is basically "impulse purchase" territory, but I'm nevertheless struggling to see the use case here. If you're into maker projects with Raspberry Pis, then I'm not sure what this does for you. It's a Pi already built into a consumer device. Not seemingly a platform for new maker projects. If you want a tablet with a Linux kernel buried in there somewhere, then there's probably a thousand Android options with better specs at the price point. Just kinda seems like a tablet with with limited apps and terrible battery life, being marketed to Pi fans who think having "Pi" in its name will make it a good conversation piece.
- dastx 6y agoTheir software and hardware are open source. Far cry from alternative android tablets. Either way, building a tablet, even based on a raspberry pi, is no easy feat.
- userbinator 6y agoIn reality, "open source" means next to nothing if you don't get any documentation... which Broadcom remains hesitant to provide. At least for the Mediatek stuff there's some leaked datasheets and programming manuals as well as board layouts and such.
- jokoon 6y agoWhy is it so hard though? I guess the problem is always power management, and I guess writing drivers for the appropriate hardware? I still fail to understand why there isn't more open source projects like this using android, since android is open source. I mean using linux on a desktop is easily feasible, but "owning" a tablet or a phone seems like it's so difficult.
- stuart78 6y agoI’ve been thinking about my kid’s first computer and something in this ballpark is interesting. More hackable than iPad, not quite the complexity of a laptop. Not sure this one is quite right’ especially compared to the Pi400, but nice to have the tablet form factor.
- amelius 6y agoNo GPIOs?
- rhysfaulkner 6y agoI don't know about it https://smartpressurewasher.com https://smartpressurewasher.com
- kodah 6y agoThis is very cool. I'm really looking forward to the day that I have a Linux tablet with something like an S-Pen. Every year is the Year of Linux on the Desktop, but I'm ready to add tablet and maybe phone to that too.
- skybrian 6y agoA device like this with a smaller display (but still including amplifier, speaker, and battery) might be nice for embedding in a music project. Does anyone know of a board like that?
- crazygringo 6y agoI love this concept, I just really want one with an e-ink screen instead. I think there's a great niche for "embedded" devices around the home -- weather readout panels, lighting controls, music player, intercom, etc. -- but glowing rectangles mounted to the wall are just too... glowing. E-ink panels is where it's at, and a Raspberry Pi powering it is perfect. Unfortunately, the only real general-purpose e-ink tablet I'm aware of is the Boox, but their models are all $400-800, which is way too expensive (when similar tech in a Kindle is $80). All I want is a relatively low-power, low-memory, low-storage touchscreen e-paper tablet (i.e. specs of an old Kindle) that I can run Linux and a WebKit browser on. And I want them to be cheap enough in bulk so that other companies and startups can build home devices on top of them to resell.
- darknavi 6y agoYes! I want a Home Assistant panel in my house but don't want to hack together some old Android monstrosity.
- wojciechpolak 6y agoMe too. I'd like to have a cheap HA panel in each room. This CutiePi looks promising. I hope HA community will quickly support it and create some nice solutions.
- Risse 6y agoI did something similar, Raspberry Pi with e-ink display hooked up with HA API etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0sHtZqs8Go https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0sHtZqs8Go
- kemonocode 6y agoI'm sure it has been stated before but I do wonder why e-ink displays remain still so out of reach even though the sort of parents that were encumbering them have expired? It really does seem that anything that involves e-ink panels comes with a huge markup.
- 6y ago
- marcodiego 6y agoWhat I really want: a non toy Crowpi2[0]. [0] https://www.elecrow.com/crowpi2.html https://www.elecrow.com/crowpi2.html
- JoeDaDude 6y agoYes! A good, close-to-pro level Pi based laptop. Brownie points if it includes a SDR.
- hedora 6y agoThe pinebook pro is close to that. It has a different software ecosystem, but is also much faster when web browsing than a Pi4: https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/ https://www.pine64.org/pinebook-pro/
- marcodiego 6y agoI want something I can put my favorite arm sbc inside.
- hedora 6y agoYou can do that with this laptop, as long as the RockPro64 is your favorite ARM SBC. (Disclaimer: I think the specs match, but the form factor of the laptop board might vary.)
- rhysfaulkner 6y agoWhat should you do with this? https://smartpressurewasher.com https://smartpressurewasher.com
- Sunspark 6y agoThere are a lot of people with old tablets in a drawer.. it'd be nice if there was a way to re-purpose those old screens many of which are good quality (e.g. Ipad 2, HP Touchpad, etc). So a new shell would be needed, the new PCB, likely the new battery, so the only real hard part would be the interface between the pi and the screen.
- meatmanek 6y agoIf you just want to reuse the screen, you can get boards on Ebay or AliExpress that have HDMI inputs and can drive original iPad screens. Search for "LVDS HDMI" and you'll find a bunch, mostly based around the RTD2660 chip from Realtek.
- savant_penguin 6y agoHow does it compare with a $200 phone performance wise?
- rodolphoarruda 6y agoCongratulations and good luck. I wish my kids could take their online classes using this device instead of their phones.
- mrlonglong 6y agoThey don't seem to have mentioned storage?
- hwc 6y agoMicroSD, I think. Those can be a TB, if you want to pay for it. Would be nice to load up on movies copied from DVDs I own for the kids to watch on road trips.
- SMAAART 6y agoBut... why not android? Could I get one and install Android on it?
- gavodavo 6y agoFor that you'll need to port Android to the RPi4 and then to this. Doesn't seem impossible though.
- worik 6y agoI love this idea, but I would like something more ambitious. This is a interesting addition to the stable of Linux Tablets - with the Pine Tab that is one and a half? Thing is I am desperate to have a tablet with decent capabilities (and at about $500 price point) that is not a consumer device, and I need it nine months ago. Too late now - up to my eyebrows in Apple iPad nonsense. I have been working on a application that uses a dedicated tablet (iPad FFS, why does Apple hate developers so much? I spent thirty years away from them - how fantastic they used to be... I digress) I would really like to have complete control of the tablet that the users are out using - controlling millions and millions of dollars of assets and revenue - not have a consumer device with all the cruft that implies. Whilst it is possible to strip capabilities off of a consumer device, as a developer I am not in control of it. The only confidence I can have in it is based on Apple's engineering, and as a developer I have a inside look at that, and it is not what it was (or seemed to a younger me thirty years ago). Nice start, too little, too late - for me.
- axiolite 6y ago> Thing is I am desperate to have a tablet with decent capabilities (and at about $500 price point) that is not a consumer device Reading your rant, I have no idea what your problem or requirements actually are. Why not buy $350 Surface Go tablets and put together a Linux image that runs on it?
- worik 6y agoBecause: (a) The money spent on the OS (b) The bios is not open so cannot do that (c) impossible to gain the confidence of bosses doing this, it has to come from a manufacturer (d) the expense of doing that for each device is not trivial, if done even half way properly. I do not think that is a very good suggestion!
- dxxvi 6y agoIf I buy a tablet with Raspberry Pi inside, I want to use genuine Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Alpine ... not Android) with different apps (terminal, vs code, python, node, java ...) besides the browser. I will type a lot on it. So, I need a bigger screen (bigger than the 12.9" ipad pro) and a keyboard and touchpad like the ipad magic keyboard. I also like to have 4 chargeable USB-C ports on 4 sides of the tablet. I think I'm dreaming :-)
- offtop5 6y agoWhy only two gigs of RAM, I would be open to this if it somehow exposed the GPIO pins.
- unnouinceput 6y agoI have this on my list as TODO for my kids. Mine will be with: - 30k mAh battery, instead of 5k - use of RPi HQ camera (12 MP, not 5) - 8 GB RAM (not 2) & a 1 TB NVMe SSD Projected price for above components is ~ $350. I want to introduce them to Linux (they do everything on Windows for now) and by exposing the RPi's GPIO to also introduce them to robotics.
- GekkePrutser 6y agoWhy do these things always have to be so chunky? The CM4 is really small, should be possible to make something that's not a brick :) Not as svelte as some Android tablets no, but still better than this.
- rsync 6y agoInteresting that the device is thick enough, and the board has room for, an ethernet port ... but does not have one.
- utf_8x 6y agoOne thing that really bothers me about this is the micro HDMI connector... It's a notoriously bad and unreliable connector and the board looks like it could've fit a full-sized HDMI.
- teleforce 6y agoPersonally I've been waiting for the CutiePi to use the CM4, and now they have updated the platform I'll probably get one myself. Having said that it looks like a missed opportunity here for supplying the masses with a Linux device for learning purposes especially in the developing countries during the pandemic or not. I think the best price for this device is USD$100 as promised by the ill fated OLPC laptop project. Perhaps USD$100 is not much by developed countries standard incomes but in most part of developing countries you are very lucky to have USD$100 disposable income at the end of the month (or year) to buy your children a tablet/laptop/computer. It also interesting to note that the 2019 Galaxy Tab A (without LTE) with similar specs (8", 2 GB RAM, etc) to the CutiePie is probably cost about USD$100 nowadays [1]. The good news is that since CutiePie is based on open hardware system perhaps someone can use the open design to come up with a cheaper version closer to the USD$100 price point[2]. p/s: RPi 400 costs about USD$100 but the fact it does not has a built-in screen limits it impacts on usability department for children [1]https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_a_8_0_(2019)-9760.php https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_tab_a_8_0_(2019)-976... [2]https://github.com/cutiepi-io/cutiepi-board https://github.com/cutiepi-io/cutiepi-board
- ChrisArchitect 6y agoSaw the handle on this thing and more and more I think someone is going to accidentally reinvent the old OLPC one day
- rhysfaulkner 6y agonice picture you have uploaded https://drcarpolisher.com/best-oil-for-turbo-car/ https://drcarpolisher.com/best-oil-for-turbo-car/