4 ms·

The rabbit hole gets deeper still: there are at least three in-progress ITX or ATX motherboard designs based on the Compute Module 4: https://pipci.jeffgeerling

The rabbit hole gets deeper still: there are at least three in-progress ITX or ATX motherboard designs based on the Compute Module 4: https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm https://pipci.jeffgeerling.com/boards_cm

walrus01 6y ago
sure, why not, I guess? At least if people want a really low cost desktop, or something like a computer powering a kiosk, there's a plethora of low cost but functional mini-itx, microatx or atx sized steel cases. If you go to newegg and sort by price, for instance: https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811147295R?quicklink=true https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811147295R?quicklink=true If you look further there's some much smaller slimline desktop mini-itx (170x170mm format) barebones cases that are probably about the same price. vast economies of scale in standardized mounting formats and open standards, like the dimensions/mounting holes for a normal ATX power supply...
squarefoot 6y ago
Many of them probably are unaware of these things: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265106510516 https://www.ebay.com/itm/265106510516 (random result sorted for low price, just search for "picopsu") Once paired with a fanless Mini-ITX board they make for a really compact system that can be supplied by a single 12V line.
- KaiserPro 6y ago
  That has an appeal, but it lacks the peripherals and support that comes with the raspberry pi. The great things about the pi, if not the greatest, is the sheer amount of documentation for doing all sorts of things. Trying to get access to the i2c on an intel board? yeah its possible, but its not easy.
  - numpad0 6y ago
    It shouldn’t be hard to use a PCIe GPIO card in a PC for bare metal programming or “in conjunction with third party OS such as MS-DOS(R) or Linux(tm)”, factory automation companies might still be doing exactly that. I think why those are not brought up often is cost.
    - mbreese 6y ago
      If you really want to do something like that, you could always connect an Arduino or RPi (or similar) to a PC over serial/USB. Then you could use it as a kinda-gateway device. Taking commands from the primary PC and interfacing with low level peripherals over i2c, etc. But for the cost of this, it would probably make more sense to just wired the gateways up directly to Ethernet to allow one system to control all of the devices... which is how I imagine most factory automation is done. No need to have an extra PC to manage network control when an Arduino can do that by itself. Aside from the hobby aspect, one reason why Arduino and RPi are so popular for these types of projects is that they are effectively cheap enough to devote to an individual project. You’d wouldn’t want to devote an entire PC just to manage a sensor or control a door, or... but an Arduino for $10 or RPi for $30, sure.
  - squarefoot 6y ago
    There are small and cheap adapters to take a serial/USB line and transform it into a i2c one, but the i2c bus on most motherboards is already accessible and documented because it's what operating systems use to read various sensors on the board. https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/i2c.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/i2c.html If the i2c but is used for example to do r/w on gpios, then other products can be used, for example: https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/usb-io-board/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/usb-io-board/
- undersuit 6y ago
  There's been considerable movement to just get rid of the 3.3v and 5v lines from power supplies anyways. Newer motherboards are being built with the ability to just take 12v and convert it on board, essentially the circuitry on that miniPSU you linked.
warmwaffles 6y ago
I'm also getting into this as well. Currently working on a PCB schematic for a compute module 4 with a full sized nvme, usb port and ethernet port for clustering.

walrus01 6y ago

sure, why not, I guess? At least if people want a really low cost desktop, or something like a computer powering a kiosk, there's a plethora of low cost but functional mini-itx, microatx or atx sized steel cases. If you go to newegg and sort by price, for instance: https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811147295R?quicklink=true https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811147295R?quicklink=true If you look further there's some much smaller slimline desktop mini-itx (170x170mm format) barebones cases that are probably about the same price. vast economies of scale in standardized mounting formats and open standards, like the dimensions/mounting holes for a normal ATX power supply...

squarefoot 6y ago

Many of them probably are unaware of these things: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265106510516 https://www.ebay.com/itm/265106510516 (random result sorted for low price, just search for "picopsu") Once paired with a fanless Mini-ITX board they make for a really compact system that can be supplied by a single 12V line.

KaiserPro 6y ago
That has an appeal, but it lacks the peripherals and support that comes with the raspberry pi. The great things about the pi, if not the greatest, is the sheer amount of documentation for doing all sorts of things. Trying to get access to the i2c on an intel board? yeah its possible, but its not easy.
- numpad0 6y ago
  It shouldn’t be hard to use a PCIe GPIO card in a PC for bare metal programming or “in conjunction with third party OS such as MS-DOS(R) or Linux(tm)”, factory automation companies might still be doing exactly that. I think why those are not brought up often is cost.
  - mbreese 6y ago
    If you really want to do something like that, you could always connect an Arduino or RPi (or similar) to a PC over serial/USB. Then you could use it as a kinda-gateway device. Taking commands from the primary PC and interfacing with low level peripherals over i2c, etc. But for the cost of this, it would probably make more sense to just wired the gateways up directly to Ethernet to allow one system to control all of the devices... which is how I imagine most factory automation is done. No need to have an extra PC to manage network control when an Arduino can do that by itself. Aside from the hobby aspect, one reason why Arduino and RPi are so popular for these types of projects is that they are effectively cheap enough to devote to an individual project. You’d wouldn’t want to devote an entire PC just to manage a sensor or control a door, or... but an Arduino for $10 or RPi for $30, sure.
- squarefoot 6y ago
  There are small and cheap adapters to take a serial/USB line and transform it into a i2c one, but the i2c bus on most motherboards is already accessible and documented because it's what operating systems use to read various sensors on the board. https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/i2c.html https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v4.12/driver-api/i2c.html If the i2c but is used for example to do r/w on gpios, then other products can be used, for example: https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/usb-io-board/ https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/usb-io-board/
undersuit 6y ago
There's been considerable movement to just get rid of the 3.3v and 5v lines from power supplies anyways. Newer motherboards are being built with the ability to just take 12v and convert it on board, essentially the circuitry on that miniPSU you linked.

warmwaffles 6y ago

I'm also getting into this as well. Currently working on a PCB schematic for a compute module 4 with a full sized nvme, usb port and ethernet port for clustering.