RaspberryPi = Game Changer

I just saw this thing. Holy smokes! At only $35 you can program it to do anything you want!

Right now Linux only, but an Android OS is on the way. 512M RAM, dual USB ports, ethernet. Touchscreen compatible. Will run off of most phone chargers or even AA batts. Has analog or HDMI display leads. On-board soundcard (great for alarms). It's designed and built by a non-profit specifically to provide computing education to children. So it's designed for people that aren't programmers and has a very robust support/educational component. I'll be getting at least one!

RPi

An attempt to do exactly what you are suggesting:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/teensypi-networked-temperature-controller-375635/

There's actually a pretty big leap between owning the hardware and doing anything useful with it...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

There's actually a pretty big leap between owning the hardware and doing anything useful with it...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Yup. If I bought one of those things my hopes and dreams would need to hook it up because no way in hell I could

Definitely some truth to that. I don't have much in the way of technical skills but at this price you can afford to take your time, learn and draft off folks who do. As I posted, there are others who are probably doing the same thing and open source provides an opportuntity to learn from the successes and failures of others.

If it's the end result that excites you, then you're better off waiting for an off the shelf solution.

The DIY Tech blog Make is holding a RaspPi design contest next week.

Some pretty cool applications have already been submitted, so it will likely be easier to use once all these ideas flood the web.

Personally, I'm more drawn to the UdOO board for the same purposes. Partly because I'm lazy with soldering, and feel like the freescale iMX6 will have more longevity, given a roughly 4-fold increase in cpu power.