6 ms·

The #1 threat to my business right now is the dependency on Raspberry Pis. I'm evaluating other SBCs for my embedded ML product (Rock Pi on the low end, Intel N

The #1 threat to my business right now is the dependency on Raspberry Pis. I'm evaluating other SBCs for my embedded ML product (Rock Pi on the low end, Intel NUC on the high end).

ahepp 4y ago
Have you looked into the beaglebone products? I assume you're talking about the business listed in your about page? If you're doing any kind of stepper motor control ,the AM335X and AM57XX SoC families seem to have some pretty cool realtime units and cortex M mcus onboard.
- grepLeigh 4y ago
  The Raspberry Pi doesn't drive 3D printer motors - that's typically an ATMega, Duet, or another 32-bit ARM SoC like the boards you mentioned. 3D printer manufacturers typically distribute a 32-bit SoC with either Marlin or Klipper firmware. https://www.klipper3d.org/ https://www.klipper3d.org/ I distribute an aarch64 Linux distro for the Pi (PrintNanny OS), which handles monitoring and automation tasks. The Pi also hosts a web GUI.
  - ahepp 4y ago
    Makes sense, looks like a cool project! Are you saying you don't think your software could run on a 32 bit SoC? That would surprise me, but you would certainly no better than I would. Edit: I didn't realize there was CV involved, that probably uses a lot more resources. Really awesome project, I hope the supply issues get better.
    - grepLeigh 4y ago
      Thank you! Yeah, I run a WebRTC stack and gstreamer+nnstreamer application to stream video from the Pi. I'm running a TensorFlow Lite model on-device for object detection. Getting that stack to run on a 32-bit SoC without an operating system would be tough. That said, there are some incredibly talented people in the world advancing the field of "TinyML" https://www.tinyml.org/ https://www.tinyml.org/ - it's not like you're suggesting something ridiculous! There are already specialized camera + NPU (Neural Processing Units) boards on the market for specialized edge CV tasks. PrintNanny's workflow/automation requires general computing capability though, which rules out a lot of specialized CV boards.
rdtwo 4y ago
How many pi’s do you need that it’s a signify factor? Seems wired that you works run any size business off em and either not be able to just pay extra and pass on costs or switch to a different platform
- grepLeigh 4y ago
  There are around 3,000 people on PrintNanny.ai's waitlist blocked from trying the product, due to Raspberry Pi 4 supply issues. I'm porting to Rock Pi and Intel NUC for enterprise support agreements, but am basically locked out of the self-serve / mid-market until I build equivalent tooling like Raspberry Pi's imager (but for Rock/Orange Pi). https://twitter.com/grepLeigh/status/1572683931769778176 https://twitter.com/grepLeigh/status/1572683931769778176 Starting a business with off-the-shelf hardware like Raspberry Pi is extremely common, especially for a bootstrapped business.
  - rdtwo 4y ago
    Have you tried buying directly on the secondary market? You might be able to cut a deal with some of the reselling groups and buy in bulk at 20-30% below eBay
  - reitzensteinm 4y ago
    Have you contacted them? My understanding is that they are specifically prioritizing shipments to businesses in your situation.
    - grepLeigh 4y ago
      Yeah, I've reached out to try and buy a small (50) batch.

The #1 threat to my business right now is the dependency on Raspberry Pis. I'm evaluating other SBCs for my embedded ML product (Rock Pi on the low end, Intel NUC on the high end).

ahepp 4y ago

Have you looked into the beaglebone products? I assume you're talking about the business listed in your about page? If you're doing any kind of stepper motor control ,the AM335X and AM57XX SoC families seem to have some pretty cool realtime units and cortex M mcus onboard.

grepLeigh 4y ago
The Raspberry Pi doesn't drive 3D printer motors - that's typically an ATMega, Duet, or another 32-bit ARM SoC like the boards you mentioned. 3D printer manufacturers typically distribute a 32-bit SoC with either Marlin or Klipper firmware. https://www.klipper3d.org/ https://www.klipper3d.org/ I distribute an aarch64 Linux distro for the Pi (PrintNanny OS), which handles monitoring and automation tasks. The Pi also hosts a web GUI.
- ahepp 4y ago
  Makes sense, looks like a cool project! Are you saying you don't think your software could run on a 32 bit SoC? That would surprise me, but you would certainly no better than I would. Edit: I didn't realize there was CV involved, that probably uses a lot more resources. Really awesome project, I hope the supply issues get better.
  - grepLeigh 4y ago
    Thank you! Yeah, I run a WebRTC stack and gstreamer+nnstreamer application to stream video from the Pi. I'm running a TensorFlow Lite model on-device for object detection. Getting that stack to run on a 32-bit SoC without an operating system would be tough. That said, there are some incredibly talented people in the world advancing the field of "TinyML" https://www.tinyml.org/ https://www.tinyml.org/ - it's not like you're suggesting something ridiculous! There are already specialized camera + NPU (Neural Processing Units) boards on the market for specialized edge CV tasks. PrintNanny's workflow/automation requires general computing capability though, which rules out a lot of specialized CV boards.

rdtwo 4y ago

How many pi’s do you need that it’s a signify factor? Seems wired that you works run any size business off em and either not be able to just pay extra and pass on costs or switch to a different platform

grepLeigh 4y ago
There are around 3,000 people on PrintNanny.ai's waitlist blocked from trying the product, due to Raspberry Pi 4 supply issues. I'm porting to Rock Pi and Intel NUC for enterprise support agreements, but am basically locked out of the self-serve / mid-market until I build equivalent tooling like Raspberry Pi's imager (but for Rock/Orange Pi). https://twitter.com/grepLeigh/status/1572683931769778176 https://twitter.com/grepLeigh/status/1572683931769778176 Starting a business with off-the-shelf hardware like Raspberry Pi is extremely common, especially for a bootstrapped business.
- rdtwo 4y ago
  Have you tried buying directly on the secondary market? You might be able to cut a deal with some of the reselling groups and buy in bulk at 20-30% below eBay
- reitzensteinm 4y ago
  Have you contacted them? My understanding is that they are specifically prioritizing shipments to businesses in your situation.
  - grepLeigh 4y ago
    Yeah, I've reached out to try and buy a small (50) batch.