Teken Posted February 28, 2017 Posted February 28, 2017 The Raspberry Pi Zero now comes with WiFi & Blue Tooth all for $10.XX. Every year this incredible company finds a way to offer more value and capability to this fantastic little product. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/02/new-10-raspberry-pi-zero-comes-with-wi-fi-and-bluetooth/
kck Posted February 28, 2017 Posted February 28, 2017 Beat me to posting this. This should make building the in wall box version of my softconsole slightly simpler since you won't need to manipulate a wifi adapter into the mix. Also slightly cheaper since the lowest cost wifi adapter is more than $5. I put myself on the list to get a notification when one is available so I can try it and verify that all my scripts etc. work on this version (really no reason that they shouldn't since the network is handled by the OS). Kevin
Michel Kohanim Posted February 28, 2017 Posted February 28, 2017 Incredible. Now, just add node servers to these and automate! With kind regards,Michel
Teken Posted February 28, 2017 Author Posted February 28, 2017 Beat me to posting this. This should make building the in wall box version of my softconsole slightly simpler since you won't need to manipulate a wifi adapter into the mix. Also slightly cheaper since the lowest cost wifi adapter is more than $5. I put myself on the list to get a notification when one is available so I can try it and verify that all my scripts etc. work on this version (really no reason that they shouldn't since the network is handled by the OS). Kevin Absolutely on the same page as I - was thinking this would be perfect for your KPL project! Incredible. Now, just add node servers to these and automate! With kind regards, Michel Michel, Exactly, your reading my mind as this offers almost anyone a low cost computer to host such a resource.
kck Posted February 28, 2017 Posted February 28, 2017 Actually, given the computing needs of the console this would probably work well in the console version and drive down the cost. You'd just need to alter the case design a bit. I had contemplated doing this with the old Pi0 but with this you'd be looking at taking about $25 out of the cost and it should perform just fine. Michel - I think in the long term using your node server structure for this would be better than the current version since it would make the ISY actually know about the console and avoid some of the scene proxying that I currently do. I haven't looked at the v5 stuff yet because I didn't want to risk the instabilities of an alpha in the house (could seriously drop the WAF scores!). At some point I'll probably tackle that though. Kevin
Teken Posted February 28, 2017 Author Posted February 28, 2017 Actually, given the computing needs of the console this would probably work well in the console version and drive down the cost. You'd just need to alter the case design a bit. I had contemplated doing this with the old Pi0 but with this you'd be looking at taking about $25 out of the cost and it should perform just fine. Michel - I think in the long term using your node server structure for this would be better than the current version since it would make the ISY actually know about the console and avoid some of the scene proxying that I currently do. I haven't looked at the v5 stuff yet because I didn't want to risk the instabilities of an alpha in the house (could seriously drop the WAF scores!). At some point I'll probably tackle that though. Kevin Hello Kevin, I look forward to reading about future iterations of the KPL console using this new hardware. On a related tangent am I correct in understanding the older Pi Zero had no Ethernet RJ45 jack? If so how did anyone connect to the device with out any other add on like a USB WiFi dongle?
kck Posted February 28, 2017 Posted February 28, 2017 Correct - the old Pi0 only has a USB port so you needed to attach some network adapter there. Since I was using it in a wall box that had no Ethernet near it the obvious thing for me to do was to use a WiFi dongle.
Michel Kohanim Posted March 1, 2017 Posted March 1, 2017 Hi Kevin, I agree! With kind regards, Michel
kck Posted March 3, 2017 Posted March 3, 2017 Well - Adafruit got some in stock earlier today and I managed to order one. They were out of stock again within 15-20 minutes. It was actually mildly humorous to refresh the browser and watch their number in stock drop avery few seconds.
Teken Posted March 3, 2017 Author Posted March 3, 2017 Well - Adafruit got some in stock earlier today and I managed to order one. They were out of stock again within 15-20 minutes. It was actually mildly humorous to refresh the browser and watch their number in stock drop avery few seconds. You probably were on the same time I was and - Poof it was all gone! I shall need to wait for the next batch.
kck Posted March 21, 2017 Posted March 21, 2017 So some news regarding the Pi Zero W. I got mine and tried to get it up with various images of Raspbian. It turns out that it seems to require the version from the Raspberry Pi foundation that is their current latest version to download. Works just fine with that. However, if you try to install the Adafruit pitft support from the Adafruit site using their suggested scripts, the screen installs ok but when you reboot the on-board WLAN of the Pi0W is gone. I dug into that and it appears that the Adafruit scripts manage to destroy the specific version of the device tree stuff that the WLAN needs. I figured out how to work around that and got a Pi0W with a 2.8" capacitive PiTFT working ok. It isn't hard but it also isn't for the neophyte at the moment. I posted in the Adafruit forums a short note on how to do it should anyone here be interested in that. What I actually hope is that the Adafruit folks grab the issue and fix their scripts. It actually turns out that they do a bunch of stuff that isn't needed anyway since support for their displays is now in the standard Raspbian release. I would guess that shortly (given what I've seen from the Adafruit guys that might mean a couple of months though) you should be able to put a $35 display with a $10 card and build, for example, one of my soft consoles. Now if you are really frugal and really adventurous there are some displays available from China that should also work that can be had for well under $20 (I think I got one for $11). I haven't managed to get that combo to work yet but it should ultimately which would mean that a soft console could be put together for $25-$30 including its power supply. I'm sure that this is all much more than most of you want to know but figured I'd share it for any fellow masochists on the board. Kevin
Teken Posted March 21, 2017 Author Posted March 21, 2017 Hello Kevin, As always thank you for your continued insight, development, and hard work in this fantastic project.
larryllix Posted March 21, 2017 Posted March 21, 2017 I offered them $10 but they wouldn't go for the deal.
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