6 ms·

This is great, I just hope that stock gets better for the pi and stays that way. I have a few projects I'm waiting to start.

by glasss 4y ago

aliqot 4y ago
According to Pi Locator, there hasn't been an 8gb RasPi in USA since October 2022. Best to move on to another company that prioritizes retail rather than donation-commitments.
- negzero7 4y ago
  Any suggestions on what's a good Pi replacement?
  - Jaygles 4y ago
    The new Orange Pi 5 has a good price for the RK3588s it uses, and can support up to 32gb of RAM. My testing shows it being 3-4x faster than the Raspberry Pi 4 4gb. Down side is it just released, so the software support is still in its infancy. And it doesn't have wifi+bt built in, so you need to use a dongle or use up the NVME slot for adding that functionality.
    - rektide 4y ago
      I bought a orange pi 5, but havent tried it yet. Various kernel-devs on ActivityPub had some very very nasty things to say about rk3588 board stability. Different folk, on different boards. Maybe this time will be better, who knows, and maybe better drivers will improve things, but seeing such sad kernel devs has been demoralizing.
      - sweetjuly 4y ago
        I would love to read the rants if you can find them. I was really considering getting some RK3588 based boards since it seems to be the most powerful ARM based SoC you can actually buy.
        geerlingguy 4y ago
        Glance through the Radxa and orange pi forums; there are plenty of growing pains still at this point, from power issues, Imagination GPU lacking support in Linux, and mostly other hardware/driver related quirks that will take time to sort out. For some use cases they're great though, as long as you don't need specific features.
      - sliken 4y ago
        Not sure if I'm lucky, or if things have improved. But I've probably ran it at all cores busy compiling for 100 hours so far, and had uptime in the weeks, currently at 5 days. I did use a beefy usb-c power brick, rated for 40 watts to ensure it's never getting less power than it asks for. So far I'd say it's at least as stable as my RPi, and doesn't have anything ugly like storage or network connected via USB.
  - sliken 4y ago
    For what? As a router or small server for running DNS, PiHole, and related services I'd recommend one of the Rk3588 systems, I bought a NanoPi R6S. The 8gb flavor is $120, $140 with a nice metal case. It's pretty fast, I compared compiling rust and it was 6-7 times faster than a RPi4 8GB. Even has two 2.5gbe interfaces.
    - sillystuff 4y ago
      Are you able to run a mainline kernel, or are you stuck with the vendor patched BSP kernel?
      - sliken 4y ago
        Not yet, all NanoPi images use the same not upstreamed 5.10.110 kernel. However progress has been made, various reports of it working, some progress, some accepted patches, some rejected. More info at: https://forum.radxa.com/t/any-progress-with-mainline-linux-kernel/10923/24 https://forum.radxa.com/t/any-progress-with-mainline-linux-k... Also: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/5bec43fe-ff81-bc68-7b62-9e605b7e1f42@omnom.net/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/5bec43fe-ff81-bc68-...
        sillystuff 4y ago
        Thanks. If pcie support in 6.3 pans out, that isn't long to wait at all.
  - hackcasual 4y ago
    Odroid is my go to low cost SBC. If you just need something like a WiFi connected display/sensor/switch, esp32. I really like the M5stick. Other than that specific projects usually have a list of alternatives which can help. There's a multi board build for Octoprint for example
    - rhinoceraptor 4y ago
      I had a pretty bad experience with Odroid. I purchased a home assistant blue, which uses the Odroid N2+ and the USB ports died on it, which is a non-starter since I use Zigbee and Zwave USB sticks. Apparently this issue is not uncommon, and there was no way to get it warrantied or do an RMA.
      - csdvrx 4y ago
        I had a pretty bad experience with a Sandisk branded "Industrial" SD I purchased directly from Odroid (they put their sticker on it, partitioned it then added the payloads) as died within 1 year of very very low use. I'm wondering if it was a real Sandisk. Since I got about 10 at the same time it sucks: I'd have to individually test them before entrusting any of these with any data.
      - hackcasual 4y ago
        That's good to know. I've used them in the past for embedded vision for FIRST robotics. I was actually thinking about getting the N2+ to replace my Rpi4 for HA, but might just go with a NUC.
  - brk 4y ago
    I've been using these with overall good results: Le Potato https://libre.computer/products/aml-s905x-cc/ https://libre.computer/products/aml-s905x-cc/
- teruakohatu 4y ago
  Not sure there have been any in New Zealand for a couple of years. It is something of a cruel joke each time new hardware is announced knowing there is no chance I am getting my hands in it.
- sho_hn 4y ago
  For the most part I've found that RaspPis are over-dimensioned for many projects I'm inclined to do, for example around the house, and have switched to much more readily-available and cheaper ESP32 and STM32 boards. I do have a RasPi in use that runs some heavier software like a Hue bridge emulator written in Python (diyHue), and for some of my projects I now have that Pi do more intensive computation centrally and then just dispatch results to esp32s. I'm currently building one of those refresh-once-a-day framed e-ink "newspaper on the wall" projects. In the picture frame I just have the panel, an IT8951 display controller and an esp32, all running off a LiPo pouch, mostly in deep sleep. The RSS scraping and pdflatex+ghostscript pipeline to produce the image is running on the central Pi in this. A single Pi may be all you need if your projects live on a network!
  - knodi123 4y ago
    How much time can you get off a lipo pouch? If it's "on the wall", why isn't it powered by an ac adapter?
    - sho_hn 4y ago
      > How much time can you get off a lipo pouch? Time will tell, but I'm hoping for at least a couple of months on a 1100 mAh. Napkin calculations had me at 6-7 months. It's e-ink, so I can shut down the entire display and controller after the refresh, and the ESP32 is in deep sleep until it wakes up on timer and performs a network fetch and display update, then back to sleep. > If it's "on the wall", why isn't it powered by an ac adapter? Effort :-) It's a picture frame on a wall, I don't want to have an externally visible cable going into it and burying a cable in the wall is more work than all the rest of it.
      - knodi123 4y ago
        Wow, I'm not used to thinking of batteries in those terms. If you hit 3 months, you deserve to crack a bottle of champagne, that's a really impressive bit of engineering. Although now that I think about it, smoke detectors have been lasting a year on a 9-volt for all my life, so maybe I'm just short-sighted. :-)
- yokoprime 4y ago
  Agreed. I’ve used refurbished thinkcentres recently. They are more power hungry (and powerful), but within the realm of an 8GB rPI+power adapter+housing+SD card. Upside: x86-64!
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

This is great, I just hope that stock gets better for the pi and stays that way. I have a few projects I'm waiting to start.

by glasss 4y ago

This is great, I just hope that stock gets better for the pi and stays that way. I have a few projects I'm waiting to start.

aliqot 4y ago

According to Pi Locator, there hasn't been an 8gb RasPi in USA since October 2022. Best to move on to another company that prioritizes retail rather than donation-commitments.

negzero7 4y ago
Any suggestions on what's a good Pi replacement?
- Jaygles 4y ago
  The new Orange Pi 5 has a good price for the RK3588s it uses, and can support up to 32gb of RAM. My testing shows it being 3-4x faster than the Raspberry Pi 4 4gb. Down side is it just released, so the software support is still in its infancy. And it doesn't have wifi+bt built in, so you need to use a dongle or use up the NVME slot for adding that functionality.
  - rektide 4y ago
    I bought a orange pi 5, but havent tried it yet. Various kernel-devs on ActivityPub had some very very nasty things to say about rk3588 board stability. Different folk, on different boards. Maybe this time will be better, who knows, and maybe better drivers will improve things, but seeing such sad kernel devs has been demoralizing.
    - sweetjuly 4y ago
      I would love to read the rants if you can find them. I was really considering getting some RK3588 based boards since it seems to be the most powerful ARM based SoC you can actually buy.
      - geerlingguy 4y ago
        Glance through the Radxa and orange pi forums; there are plenty of growing pains still at this point, from power issues, Imagination GPU lacking support in Linux, and mostly other hardware/driver related quirks that will take time to sort out. For some use cases they're great though, as long as you don't need specific features.
    - sliken 4y ago
      Not sure if I'm lucky, or if things have improved. But I've probably ran it at all cores busy compiling for 100 hours so far, and had uptime in the weeks, currently at 5 days. I did use a beefy usb-c power brick, rated for 40 watts to ensure it's never getting less power than it asks for. So far I'd say it's at least as stable as my RPi, and doesn't have anything ugly like storage or network connected via USB.
- sliken 4y ago
  For what? As a router or small server for running DNS, PiHole, and related services I'd recommend one of the Rk3588 systems, I bought a NanoPi R6S. The 8gb flavor is $120, $140 with a nice metal case. It's pretty fast, I compared compiling rust and it was 6-7 times faster than a RPi4 8GB. Even has two 2.5gbe interfaces.
  - sillystuff 4y ago
    Are you able to run a mainline kernel, or are you stuck with the vendor patched BSP kernel?
    - sliken 4y ago
      Not yet, all NanoPi images use the same not upstreamed 5.10.110 kernel. However progress has been made, various reports of it working, some progress, some accepted patches, some rejected. More info at: https://forum.radxa.com/t/any-progress-with-mainline-linux-kernel/10923/24 https://forum.radxa.com/t/any-progress-with-mainline-linux-k... Also: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/5bec43fe-ff81-bc68-7b62-9e605b7e1f42@omnom.net/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-arm-kernel/5bec43fe-ff81-bc68-...
      - sillystuff 4y ago
        Thanks. If pcie support in 6.3 pans out, that isn't long to wait at all.
- hackcasual 4y ago
  Odroid is my go to low cost SBC. If you just need something like a WiFi connected display/sensor/switch, esp32. I really like the M5stick. Other than that specific projects usually have a list of alternatives which can help. There's a multi board build for Octoprint for example
  - rhinoceraptor 4y ago
    I had a pretty bad experience with Odroid. I purchased a home assistant blue, which uses the Odroid N2+ and the USB ports died on it, which is a non-starter since I use Zigbee and Zwave USB sticks. Apparently this issue is not uncommon, and there was no way to get it warrantied or do an RMA.
    - csdvrx 4y ago
      I had a pretty bad experience with a Sandisk branded "Industrial" SD I purchased directly from Odroid (they put their sticker on it, partitioned it then added the payloads) as died within 1 year of very very low use. I'm wondering if it was a real Sandisk. Since I got about 10 at the same time it sucks: I'd have to individually test them before entrusting any of these with any data.
    - hackcasual 4y ago
      That's good to know. I've used them in the past for embedded vision for FIRST robotics. I was actually thinking about getting the N2+ to replace my Rpi4 for HA, but might just go with a NUC.
- brk 4y ago
  I've been using these with overall good results: Le Potato https://libre.computer/products/aml-s905x-cc/ https://libre.computer/products/aml-s905x-cc/
teruakohatu 4y ago
Not sure there have been any in New Zealand for a couple of years. It is something of a cruel joke each time new hardware is announced knowing there is no chance I am getting my hands in it.
sho_hn 4y ago
For the most part I've found that RaspPis are over-dimensioned for many projects I'm inclined to do, for example around the house, and have switched to much more readily-available and cheaper ESP32 and STM32 boards. I do have a RasPi in use that runs some heavier software like a Hue bridge emulator written in Python (diyHue), and for some of my projects I now have that Pi do more intensive computation centrally and then just dispatch results to esp32s. I'm currently building one of those refresh-once-a-day framed e-ink "newspaper on the wall" projects. In the picture frame I just have the panel, an IT8951 display controller and an esp32, all running off a LiPo pouch, mostly in deep sleep. The RSS scraping and pdflatex+ghostscript pipeline to produce the image is running on the central Pi in this. A single Pi may be all you need if your projects live on a network!
- knodi123 4y ago
  How much time can you get off a lipo pouch? If it's "on the wall", why isn't it powered by an ac adapter?
  - sho_hn 4y ago
    > How much time can you get off a lipo pouch? Time will tell, but I'm hoping for at least a couple of months on a 1100 mAh. Napkin calculations had me at 6-7 months. It's e-ink, so I can shut down the entire display and controller after the refresh, and the ESP32 is in deep sleep until it wakes up on timer and performs a network fetch and display update, then back to sleep. > If it's "on the wall", why isn't it powered by an ac adapter? Effort :-) It's a picture frame on a wall, I don't want to have an externally visible cable going into it and burying a cable in the wall is more work than all the rest of it.
    - knodi123 4y ago
      Wow, I'm not used to thinking of batteries in those terms. If you hit 3 months, you deserve to crack a bottle of champagne, that's a really impressive bit of engineering. Although now that I think about it, smoke detectors have been lasting a year on a 9-volt for all my life, so maybe I'm just short-sighted. :-)
yokoprime 4y ago
Agreed. I’ve used refurbished thinkcentres recently. They are more power hungry (and powerful), but within the realm of an 8GB rPI+power adapter+housing+SD card. Upside: x86-64!

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]