I finally bit the bullet and invested in some solar power for my off-grid home. The portable 200w panel just arrived. It was a lot heavier than I expected I guess thats a good thing feels really solid and durable. I wish it had a usb jack to charge my smaller power stations in the meantime while I wait on the real one to come in, oh well.

Was also looking into the pi zero 2w type computers as a super energy efficent means for basic things like email checking and light text based web searching, Ive heard it can even do media playback. But I cant seem to find a resonably priced one in stock from official vendors.

As it stands right now i don't think investing 30$ for a zero 2w style computer and 50$ for a energy efficent 6 inch lcd monitor would be worth it. My comuting wattage is currently about 15w average load time with a thinkpad laptop and maybe 3-5w for my phone and ereader, both of which are able to access the web. So yeah not really a worthwhile investment from an energy savings standpoint but I always wanted a SBC, the pis always called to me but my frugal ass cant justify one if I don't have a good excuse to pay up. Life goes on!

😎 Smokey

2023-10-11 · 7 months ago · 👍 aRubes · ❤ 1

6 Comments ↓

☀️ mike · 2023-10-11 at 20:43:

The only way I've gotten certain pi models at their official prices over the past year is using

— https://rpilocator.com/

A Pi Zero 2W should only be $15, and for $25 you should be able to get a 3A+ which has a bit more power. I'm not sure what the desktop experience will be like with either of those, but I have used a PI 4 and it worked pretty well as a basic workstation.

🚀 stack · 2023-10-11 at 23:01:

— FreeBSD on Pi Zero

😎 Smokey [OP] · 2023-10-12 at 01:55:

@stack are you a big fan of FreeBSD? If so mind selling me on why I should use it? Im not sure what it can offer that debian doesn't.

😎 Smokey [OP] · 2023-10-12 at 02:01:

@mike yeah thats what Ive heard apparently people have scripts to alert them and everything. Its BS that the pis are still so limited and scalped. I said 30$ since realistically im probably not going to be dedicated or fast enough to get a regular priced one.

I specifically wanted a zero 2w due to its energy efficency, a regular pi will draw 3 watts idle 5 watts max load while a zero 2w draws less than half a watt idle and 1 watt at max load which is just incredible. A zero would basically be able to run weeks on end off my power banks.

🚀 stack · 2023-10-12 at 20:16:

I am hardly an authority (about a week after switching to FreeBSD). But for what its worth - I've been a mostly XUbuntu user for over a decade. I am a minimalist, and I got tired of Linux constantly darting into random directions (like gnome), but always becoming bigger and stupider. With very little effort I set up FreeBSD on my ThinkPad and have a beautiflly solid, minimal but entirely usable system I can understand - I have about 35 processes running (unless a web browser is up), and I know what they do! It feels good -- the way I remember when I first dumped Windows and Mac for Linux.

NetBSD may be even more minimal and appropriate for a tiny machine. But most importantly I would recommend using dwm -- I am so happy not to rearrange floating windows all the time, and its footprint is close to nothing.

☀️ mike · 2023-10-16 at 20:43:

@Smokey yeah it's hard to beat that power consumption. It seems like pis have been more in stock these days. I think I remember hearing something about boosting the production of the zero 2w awhile ago. So it might not be that hard to find them in stock in the coming months.

I actually found a few in stock in the US today :)