Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer

Pretty sure there's no Networking, but maybe it's the winter we get another round of $5 computers like the Pogos last spring!

"
Processor: 1GHz Broadcomm BCM2835
Memory: 512MB of RAM
Storage: a user-supplied microSD
GPIO: 26/40 unpopulated through-holes
USB ports: USB On-the-Go...Micro USB
Vido Output: Composite video is available from 2 unpopulated pins...HDMI video is available from a mini HDMI port.
…
Smaller than any previous Raspberry Pi...the new form factor designed by Pi Foundation engineer Mike Stimson is in part due to the reduction of components.
…
Upton...estimates that the...open-source-software community...has given around 1,000 years of software development time.
"

Source: computerworld.com

-update- This computer is included for free in MagPi magazine, and I couldn't find it at the local magazine rack. I'd planned to dive right in and try to make a torrent machine that could plug into any router that didn't have address reservation.

But today I'm toying around in theory land, and think this might be the perfect marriage for Pogoplug Pro/Debian because it could have a video display in HDMI/composite and add badly needed RAM. The Pogo Pro having an mpcie slot and I'm not sure what the fastest port out of the Pi Zero, but if the two could be combined, again that would take care of 90% of what I run computers for, the unattended 24/7 apps like torrents and even check a couple web sites.

I have one of those Belkin USB > USB lines used for file sharing in the XP/Vista days, and don't know if that could bridge the two computers, but again if there's a fast bridge of some kind between a PogoPro and Pi Zero, it's a perfect fit. Gigabit and low wattage, probably run the Pi off pogo's unused USB ports, 512 MB extra RAM, a tinkerer's fantasy.

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2015 11:55AM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Thanks for sharing Joey, although I can't actually find where to buy one at $5 !

Cheers

Don

Don Charisma ... because anything is possible with Charisma

My blog - http://DonCharisma.org
Our commercial site - http://DonCharisma.com

Up above i edited the MagPi availability map. They claim to add a cable bundle with subscription! Wow I'm a kid again.
Other uses I conjure up are:
1. Head. A video USB plugin with video output for headless units. They sell those for what, $40 and Gravelrash noticed those for Pogoplug
2. Array. Why not a foot-long strip of slots to accommodate 4-25 of these and make a hefty computer in its own right?
I suppose, then you need 4-25 USB microSDs or a harness of plugs attached to a USB switch... unless the pinouts suggest those could be bypassed.

And the price, when widely available they'll be stocking stuffers for people with electrostatic-shielded stockings

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-

I have a RaspI 2 and after toying with it, i gained more respect for my 'Plugs. Sure, if IOT is your thing, the Raspi is hard to beat. y But in particular my Pro''s have a lot of capabilities and good speed which in terms of its age (introduced like 5 years ago?), it really performs spectacularly. And you cant beat the price here in the States as you can still get any flavor of Pogoplug NIB for less than $20 delivered.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2015 02:37PM by LeggoMyEggo.

-edited-
Leggo you've been most inspirational kind of soaring up there knowing to use everything that I do the hard way. For instance the route you went with eSata compared to USB 3.0. I had no idea at the time that eSata is smart and USB 3.0 is (in all honestly, a practical specification lie). Gravelrash, bodhi, Grayman, Charisma, really everyone inspirational except me lol

Pogoplugs and you guys showed me the power of Debian, and for that the effort was worth it. Originally I wanted a Zyxel with two hard drives, backup to one and they sync. I almost got the Zyxel and fate stepped in.

So here, yes another E02 when I can swing it, but the two Pros i have here will probably dust-up until the day I find a good deal on a SATA port multiplier - then it will be my poor man's Zyxel after all.

For me there's Samba tasks, Torrents, backups and syncs, these things are somewhat timeless. If it takes me a year to perfect a great method, and with backup pogolugs can say for sure it'll last 10 years, definitely worth it.
It's just too bad there's not apparently a 12v tap on the Pogoplug or I'd make a SATA dock (yes I know no hot plugging) for 3.5" here and be happy until affording some 2.5" again.

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2015 12:52AM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

> It's just too bad there's not apparently a 12v
> tap on the Pogoplug or I'd make a SATA dock (yes I
> know no hot plugging) for 3.5" here and be happy
> until affording some 2.5" again.

You could step up to 12V for a few bucks (eBay from China) using a USB 5V stepup converter, but I don't know how long those converters will last. I had bought one just in case I want to plug the Dockstar or Pogoplug V4 power jack to my laptop. But I have not have time to start the experiment yet!

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2015 12:42AM by bodhi.

Wow the price is right! As low as 75 cents, and even $5 in the States (at least eBay) which isn't bad. The ones I see listed push .75 A @ 12v.
Not sure if that's pushing it, but I'd try it in an emergency situation. I noticed Seagate's 12v adapter for one of the Dock Stars is 12v 2.5A, probably to accommodate the additional power loss with the 5v tap further downstream, but it got me thinking. If we took the 5v off a Pogoplug USB port and combined with an efficient 1-2 A 12 volt supply and wired that to the SATA-type power plug, if it worked that'd be worth the extra 12v line and adapter.

Man, must have been a year ago or more, I was in Wal Mart and they had a Seagate product that strongly resembles a Dockstar or thereabouts, in the Clearance section for under $10 and maybe way below that. A bunch of them. And I passed on them OUCH! But since then I'll go to Goodwill and buy a Thin Client based on the jacks even if I don't know what it is. Mostly been good policy. But you always need aftermarket RAM and that jacks the price way up in the end.

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2015 10:07PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey,

I think you'd better off with a real 3.5" enclosure, or a 3.5" toaster, or a power brick+cable. Those 3.5" HDD draw a lot of power.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the two Pros i have here will probably dust-up
> until the day I find a good deal on a SATA port
> multiplier

At one point I had done extensive research on whether the Pro supported port multiplication on its SATA port and I found out it did not because the hardware does not support it. The V4-A3 Pogoplug does however support PMP so if you want to play around with that find one of them or a Dreamplug which also supports it.

Wow those ideas sound right on an there's no reason not to pursue most of them.
I'd do the Pogo 4 just for the adapter junction right in one place, although to be fair it's a slower chipset than other dockstars, there's a chart around somehwere and it was the worst LOL. Still, if/when I obtain 2.5" HDDs that'll be fun.

I need a toaster in the meantime though. I've got some sata plug/power jacks and for the time being could run them to any motherboard around here and have that for the time being. In fact my main motherboard is being relocated to an older Antec Sonata II case, nice big breather with big case fan, and I've already decided it's a great idea to run wires out anyway.. so I'm thinking kangaroo pouch for the front of that Antec.

Any suggestions what fits a 3.5" bare hard drive pretty well? I assume all responsibility of course. just looking around here for common materials, make sure they're electrically sound and no fire risk, and be the epoxy master.

Plan B is an extension of A, to use one of those 10-watt power supplies with all the power taps, adapter to two hard drives, and voila, run bi-weekly backups and live like a king. So either way I've got to find a blank toaster or make one. I feel like making one. Go ahead and brainstorm, we can distill this.

-update and lastly- with all known Pi Zeros unobtainium for the time being, now I have a moment of clarity to realize I'm better off spending time elsewhere than Pi-Zero land. Sure, it's a cute little computer and I can only imagine the power you can program into it for a lot of functions, with the skill of you guys, but I remember being a kid reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics! The Altair! Six years later I was programming simple animations on a monochrome Mac. Could i have ever imagined back then, I'd want a toaster later in life? LOL And a couple slices of Hitachi bread in there!

=========
-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2015 08:10PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

I saw this Rpi0 @MicroCenter for a US $5 over the last Black Friday and was tempted to get 4 units (2 units/purchase for the price of US $5 each). Fortunately, I did not buy any of the Rpi0 mainly because I found out later it doesn't have a built-in Ethernet port. Of course one can plug a good USBNET dongle to it, but that will jack up the price to probably a US $8+. Double the amount of that budget, I can get an Orange Pi PC (a 4-core system with 1 GB RAM). So, take your pick: a 1-core system with a 512 M RAM sans an Ethernet port for a US $5 or a 4-core system with a 1 GB RAM with a built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port for a US $15 + US $3.51 S/H = US $18.51. If a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port isn't enough, perhaps this Orange Pi+ (US $39.90 + US $3.85 S/H) will do. I just hope local BestBuy, Fry's, MicroCenter, etc., will soon carry either an OrangePi or an OrangePi+.

As with a SATA port multiplier, I was hoping this external 5-port SATA port multiplier will do the trick for a PogoPlug Pro. Unfortunately, it requires a SATA port that supports PM that the SATA port on a PogoPlug Pro doesn't, according to LeggoMyEggo.

habibie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As with a SATA port multiplier, I was hoping this
> external
> [url=http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-
> 2015-Hot-Sales-1-5-Sata-Port-Multiplier-Compatible
> -with-Sata-I-and-Sata/32270728198.html]5-port SATA
> port multiplier[/url] will do the trick for a
> PogoPlug Pro. Unfortunately, it requires a SATA
> port that supports PM that the SATA port on a
> PogoPlug Pro doesn't, according to
> [url=http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?8,24699,2473
> 0#msg-24730]LeggoMyEggo[/url].

How coincidental....................I just tried my Pro with a 4 bay ESATA enclosure (that is PMP compliant) and confirmed in person that it did not support port multiplication. When I connected it, only one drive appeared when I fdisked. When I tried it with a DreamPlug, all the drives appeared.

Can't have it all :(

Leggo,

> How coincidental....................I just tried
> my Pro with a 4 bay ESATA enclosure (that is PMP
> compliant) and confirmed in person that it did not
> support port multiplication. When I connected it,
> only one drive appeared when I fdisked. When I
> tried it with a DreamPlug, all the drives
> appeared.
>
> Can't have it all :(

Thanks for reporting the test! I'm guessing the SATA port must have been a product preplan by Oxnas to have a future plug with eSATA out. Too bad they discontinued this line of product.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Leggo,
> Thanks for reporting the test! I'm guessing the
> SATA port must have been a product preplan by
> Oxnas to have a future plug with eSATA out. Too
> bad they discontinued this line of product.

It's an absolute quirk that the Pro has the SATA port and even the internal wifi module. Neither one makes sense from a marketing prospective. Most people don't know what ESATA is anyway and would probably confuse it for USB.

Did you know Pogoplug sold a USB wifi module for the E02 Pogoplug Wifi Module? That makes more sense, up sell by modular upgrading.

> It's an absolute quirk that the Pro has the SATA
> port and even the internal wifi module. Neither
> one makes sense from a marketing prospective. Most
> people don't know what ESATA is anyway and would
> probably confuse it for USB.
>

The wifi does make sense. It made it more portable just like all other gadgets nowadays. I think Pogo V3 SATA is for testing pupose. That would come into play for their future products.

> Did you know Pogoplug sold a USB wifi module for
> the E02

This is interesting! I did not know this exists.

BTW, I think the most interesting plug for a small portable NAS in this group was the Iomega iConnect. Too bad they just overpriced the thing and couldn't sell this to consumers. iConnect has a generous NAND of 512MB so it is really a very good plug for openWRT or the old Emdebian. This box is small enough that you could carry it with you. However, this came out the time before RPi and other RPi clones exist.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> BTW, I think the most interesting plug for a small
> portable NAS in this group was the Iomega
> iConnect. Too bad they just overpriced the thing
> and couldn't sell this to consumers.

I would love to pick one up but like you say they're not cheap. From eBay searches I get the feeling they were popular in Germany, perhaps the Germans were the only ones that could afford them (even at a discount) LOL.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2015 05:42PM by LeggoMyEggo.