-- Leo's gemini proxy
-- Connecting to gemini.tuxmachines.org:1965...
-- Connected
-- Sending request
-- Meta line: 20 text/gemini;lang=en-GB
Tux Machines
Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Aug 27, 2022
> Whilst the Raspberry Pi RP2040 is quite a capable little chip, on the whole it’s nothing really special compared to the big brand offerings. But, the PIO peripheral is a bit special, and its inclusion was clearly a masterstroke of foresight, because it has bestowed the platform all kinds of capabilities that would be really hard to do any other way, especially for the price.
> Many technology items are disposed of each year, either because they are broken, are no longer needed, or have been upgraded. Researchers from Germany have identified this as an opportunity to develop a scheme of work for Computing, while at the same time highlighting the importance of sustainability in hardware and software use. They hypothesised that by repairing defective devices, students would come to understand better how these devices work, and therefore meet some of the goals of their curriculum.
> In these days of 4K monitors (opens in new tab) and SSDs (opens in new tab) apparently capable of warp speed, peering at your desktop via a 9 inch mono screen may seem a little... quaint... even if it was endorsed by Steve Jobs. Maker and all-round retro computer enthusiast Dave Luna (opens in new tab), has taken the shell of the iconic Macintosh Classic II (the tiny beige all-in-one from 1991, also sold as the Performa 200) and replaced the insides with a Raspberry Pi to make something that merges the technology of today with that of the past.
> If you can’t find the device you want, there’s no reason you can’t make it yourself from scratch—at least, that seems to be the trend in the Raspberry Pi community. Today we’ve got a project to share from a maker named Anil, aka one_free_man_ as he’s known as over at Reddit, who’s created a portable handheld device known as the Octapod.
> The Octapod is built around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and runs DietPi, a low resource Linux operating system designed to create appliances. Backed up with a touchscreen interface, it works as a custom music player with the help of an application called Lollypop. Anil has programmed the Octapod so that it boots straight into the music-playing interface so no extra steps are necessary to load up your favorite songs.
> In addition to the touchscreen, there are also a few buttons that can be used to control settings. A power button is used to safely turn the Pi on and off while a sync button is included to wake up the device, launch services, and close the music application.
> Finding a stockist of Rockchip-powered boards just became a bit easier, as UK based (but worldwide-delivering) online store OKdo, part of the RS Group, has announced via eeNews Europe, a partnership with Chinese open source hardware specialist Radxa which will see Raspberry Pi alternative, Rockchip powered boards manufactured and distributed under the Rock (opens in new tab) moniker.
-- Response ended
-- Page fetched on Sat Jun 1 10:17:21 2024