News Overpowered Ornament Contains Tiny Raspberry Pi Cluster

[Admin]

Maker Chris Bensen has packed dual Raspberry Pi Zeros into his 3D-printed Tardis ornament.

Overpowered Ornament Contains Tiny Raspberry Pi Cluster : Read more

 

[bit_user]

I really don't understand why two Pi's, when it seems like he can barely find a use for one.

Of the top of my head, the most sensible application for it would be to control the tree lights. I'm not exactly sure the mechanics of controlling them, but the pi could potentially add time-based control, remote control (if wi-fi dongle is added), and maybe even use a microphone for voice control?

 

[HideOut]

I have to agree with the first poster, why all the pi crap? They dont do much of nothing, cant be found and generally a waste of silicon.

 

[Hooda Thunkett]

If it had wifi and a fair amount of storage it could act like a server for a bunch of ornaments with little screens on them showing vintage commercials, holiday specials, or playing games from the past in some sort of coordinated fashion, but as is it really seems like a blue blinking LED would have been the better option.

 

[bit_user]

I have to agree with the first poster, why all the pi crap?

I actually wasn't complaining about why it had any Pi's, just why it had two.

I think the answer to your question is that Tom's has decided to make a niche for itself by covering the Raspberry Pi & its community. There's some overlap with PCs, but obviously a lot of people building & upgrading their PCs aren't interested in Pi's. In that case, I'm afraid you'll just have to ignore their Pi coverage.

They dont do much of nothing,

It still sometimes amazes me to think they're more powerful than high-end PC's of the Pentium 3 or early Pentium 4 era and run a full multi-user operating system that used to require a machine the size of a refrigerator.

cant be found

The Pi Foundation has been saying the supply issues will be sorted by about the middle of 2023. It was covered on this site, not surprisingly.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-adds-100000-units-to-supply-chain-back-to-pre-pandemic-levels-in-2023

generally a waste of silicon.

A lot of people use them for things like low-powered streaming boxes, etc. At ~7 Watts, it's not easy to build a PC that efficient. And if you need a machine to drive some USB or I2C peripheral, it'd be a colossal waste to use an entire PC for that (although a lot of Pi projects could instead be done with even cheaper, lower-powered Arduino devices).

 

[digitalgriffin]

If it's a pi zero w they will have wifi.

Supply issues only apply to the full size pi. Zeros are plentiful.

There are tons of applications for these small chips.

That said esp32 which is a far weaker chip can serve up synchronous web pages. To give you an idea, they are used for controlling modern refrigerators (detecting humidity, compressor/evap status to prolong life, temp history, signs of mold, how long a door was open), AC, robotic vacuums, factory sensors, safety systems, drones, pet litter cleaners...on and on. Now imagine what the pi can do with camera sensors and video output.

Serving up Christmas web pages is easy. I would have swapped out the sides of the TARDIS with a oled that plays movies of Dr Who at various Christmas settings.

Ironically I get more job request for embedded software engineers than I do .NET core, and Azure. IOT is a huge field with growing demand.

 

[bit_user]

Ironically I get more job request for embedded software engineers than I do .NET core, and Azure. IOT is a huge field with growing demand.

Are you a recruiter? What are the key job qualifications people want from embedded developers?

 

[digitalgriffin]

Are you a recruiter? What are the key job qualifications people want from embedded developers?

No. I'm not a recruiter.

They prefer you know Linux, c, c++, rtos, python, and basic circuits, sockets. Gpio protocols are easy. (SPI/i2c) Knowing how to run a digital signal generator or logic analyzer is a big plus.

The three biggest platforms are arduinos atmel, esp32 series, and raspberry Pi's arm chips.

They are used a lot in the defense industry. But tons of applications for them.

 

[bit_user]

No. I'm not a recruiter.

Oh, you mean solicitations by recruiters, for more embedded jobs than others. Thanks.

I've done some asm programming, but that's as low-level as I've gone. Nothing with actual hardware, but I can solder and breadboard some extremely basic stuff.

 

[digitalgriffin]

Oh, you mean solicitations by recruiters, for more embedded jobs than others. Thanks.

I've done some asm programming, but that's as low-level as I've gone. Nothing with actual hardware, but I can solder and breadboard some extremely basic stuff.

Wrote you a message.

 

[KyaraM]

A lot of people use them for things like low-powered streaming boxes, etc. At ~7 Watts, it's not easy to build a PC that efficient. And if you need a machine to drive some USB or I2C peripheral, it'd be a colossal waste to use an entire PC for that (although a lot of Pi projects could instead be done with even cheaper, lower-powered Arduino devices).

Regular Pi's also make for pretty nice and cheap NAS and if browsing is all you do on your computer, as is the case for many peopleI know, a Pi400 is not too bad, either. I quite like those little things.

 

[bit_user]

Regular Pi's also make for pretty nice and cheap NAS and if browsing is all you do on your computer, as is the case for many peopleI know, a Pi400 is not too bad, either. I quite like those little things.

If you want a cheap, low-powered PC alternative, there's much better hardware out there. The Orange Pi 5 just launched - I just hope it has good driver support.

My main beef with the Raspberry Pi is that its GPU is terrible. Otherwise, the Pi 4 (or 400) probably performs similar to using a Core 2 Quad from 15 years ago. A lot more power-efficient, for sure.