mini PC

[entropie]

I am having for some time now the idea to port linux onto a µC based board and am searching all the internetz for layouts. I was thinking to build the circuitry so far with an avr but mustnt be, could be another processor aswell.

If you happen to know by chance of a site where someone build a very tiny PC that is able to port at least "damn small linux", I'd be happy if you could tell me. I have a very good idea where to search for that on german sites but I lack the experience with american hobby model builder or equal sites, tho maybe you know of one. Americans tend to be the better electrical engineers imo and they often try out stuff thats not directly useful, while on german sites its always very pragmatic and boring.

I've found this board and like it so far. It's already ready built but I'd like to acquire it nevertheless. It's just a little bit to expensive, I am still looking if I can get something even cheaper.

http://beagleboard.org/

I always thought if you could carry your own pc around in a pocket and no matter where you are just need a monitor ( maybe even have that in the pocket aswell ) and a keyboard .

Regarding performance I virtually need nothing. Think damn small linux runs with 16 mb ram at least.

So if you by chance no of a board lemme now. Every board more expensive tho than the board above with about $130 I wouldnt want.

 

[entropie]

Think one day I really have to move to the States, that's just awesome:

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-ujHf0RFM"][/YOUTUBE]

 

[entropie]

Awesome ! I have found the pandaboard . It costs 133 Euro not as cheap as I wanted but, here's an idea:

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= a mini laptop in a pokercase . Prolly roughly around 275 Euro -> $390

Aint that cool ? Battery supply could be a bit sucky, especially with an usb lcd that would need some testing.

 

[Little Linguist]

OMG that is so amazing! You should totally do it!

 

[spirilis]

lol fwiw, I bought an HP Mini-210 series netbook (Intel Atom proc, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 250GB internal HDD, VGA output can drive very high res displays) for like $280 when it was on clearance one time... at some point the economy of scale for mini laptops becomes enticing (and my netbook is small, has a nice case, lasts a long time on battery; claims 9-10 hours but I've seen at least 6-7+ so far)

my interest has been with custom arduino (AVR) stuff these days, but with Android's Accessory dev kit coming out (based on arduino) I think the combination of android phone/tablet/etc. + Arduino-based boards gives you all the tinker-hardware you need

 

[Qlip]

I kind of remember it as being expensive, there's a product called gumstix that I always wanted. Linux on a stick of gum. I know there are several ARM dev boards that have the omph to run Linux. If I weren't constrained by my phone Id do some research.

I hate to say it, but you might be best off getting an unlocked android phone.

 

[entropie]

Ya buying a min-pc I did not want. Want the fun of building it myself. Still I originally had the same idea to build a mini PC on an AVR, but I cant find too much ressources on that on the internet and doing it all myself for that the project aint intresting enough. Its most probably the best thing to do that on an android phone.

I basically like the projects page on pandaboard, lots and lots of intresting projects to rebuild and the price for the board is ok to have it as a gimmick. Do you happen to know by chance a good source for displays ? You could port android on the arm-board and develop your own phone but I'd like to try ubuntu first. Tho ubuntu will prolly look kinda stupid on an oLED display, there will be prolly only the terminal

 

[Qlip]

Yup, I get it. And, no I don't know of any sources for useful sized OLED displays. Sparkfun has tiny 128x128 displays. I wonder if you could reclaim something from a discarded modern cell. Interfacing would be a pain.

The Avr32 can run linux. But I have not really researched it much. Im guessing that you already know about avrfreaks.net. I've always wanted to make a 8bit avr based system with a custom OS. No time, too many projects.

 

[Little_Sticks]

This would be cool. I would probably design it with two forms. With and without a dock.

That way you could use low-power arm processors and maybe integrate some kind of small battery and small screen and keep it portable. The mobile side would use a different set of software like a phone since you're on the go. You could implement an SSD into it and use some kind of mobile internet to utilize some kind of service like Google's cloud service so that you wouldn't need to store everything on the device, but still have quick access to your files.

And then with the dock, you could integrate like a solar panel into it (would be good in poorer countries). It could have a bigger screen and a keyboard and an interface to output to a projector or computer monitor if you want, and maybe even a more powerful upgrade-able openGL-compliant GPU.

Hah, you could probably even make the dock component into different variants. So somebody could purchase a robotic body that the mobile device could operate and turn into a toy that you could configure and program with the device. Maybe you could have lots of different interfaces that are controlled and sync up to the device. Like you operate the lights in your house from 100 miles away or something.

I guess there's still a lot people haven't done yet.

 

[Qlip]

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yflCLOy6l34"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yflCLOy6l34[/YOUTUBE]

 

[entropie]

hahahahaha, you won the thread

 

[Qlip]

hahahahaha, you won the thread

hah, I'm pretty sure it's fake. I wanna see a real one.

 

[CzeCze]

You guys totally lost me with the tech specific talk but on an entrepreneurial note, could you make money making custom mini pc's for people? Or is a trad net book which is around $300 or less still a better deal for the casual computer user?

 

[entropie]

Every netbook without an ARM processor would be better yes. Personal computers would be no real market for small ARM-boards. But their are other applications, like smartphones (what has been done already), home automation or machine controllers in industry. An integration into cars would be a market as well, as far as I know nobody yet has concerned himself with computers in cars.

It could be used everywhere you need something more smart than a mikrokontroller but less performance than a netbook

 

[Fluffywolf]

Think one day I really have to move to the States, that's just awesome:

[YOUTUBE="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-ujHf0RFM"][/YOUTUBE]

I had a 5 screen multibox set up for world of warcraft using 1 pc on one screen and 2 pc's on 2 screens and had the keyboard/mouse partially software of partially hardware synchronized for all screens/pc's. Pretty cool stuff, but after I quit multiboxing I really had no use for it anymore.

Good luck on making your minipc, but personally I'd go for an already existing pad that has touchscreen. If you go mini, touchscreen > keyboard+mouse usage. Unless you want to game on it.

 

[Not_Me]

The HP touchpad was recently discounted to $100. The components cost HP $300.