XBMC is running fine on Raspberry Pi

JosiahBradley said:
The touchscreens I have, both 15inch Elo, only have VGA inputs and use COM for the touch interface.
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Are you sure? I've installed hundreds of 15" ELO touchscreens and they all could be used with either USB or serial. Unless you have a really old model or something?
 
TheSmJ said:
Are you sure? I've installed hundreds of 15" ELO touchscreens and they all could be used with either USB or serial. Unless you have a really old model or something?
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The ones I have, I pulled from some really old Fuji image kiosk we threw away at work. I could try to find the model number again, but there is no USB cable attached to the overlay screen. It's got VGA from the panel and the touch interface is this giant piece of glass that sits on top that is pretty scratch proof and has a thin copper wire running around the edge and a small controller attached by a wire to it. The screens were free so I can't really complain about them.
 
TheSmJ said:
Are you sure? I've installed hundreds of 15" ELO touchscreens and they all could be used with either USB or serial. Unless you have a really old model or something?
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I've got a 15" ELO flatscreen with only VGA in and serial out. Not sure of date of manufacture, but probably pretty old since I bought it used in 2008. I use a serial -> USB converter that works just fine in Windows, not sure if there are any kind of drivers for the Raspberry Pi.
 
The first 10k batch of these will all be the Model Bs ($35.) I bet a lot of us won't have a chance to get one before they are sold out. I have a feeling demand will be pretty high for these.
 
Dr.Nut said:
The first 10k batch of these will all be the Model Bs ($35.) I bet a lot of us won't have a chance to get one before they are sold out. I have a feeling demand will be pretty high for these.
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It'll be a rush like the HP Touchpads. Anyone who happens to be looking at the site when it goes on sale will get one, but they will all be gone minutes after the word gets out. The best way to make sure you get one is to subscribe to their RSS feed, preferably with a service that gives instant notification. I would also make sure you have an account all set up on their online store so you are ready to pull the trigger as soon as you see them available for purchase.

The real tragedy, at least in my mind, is that the vast majority will probably end up on eBay within a couple hours as massively inflated prices.
 
CEpeep said:
The real tragedy, at least in my mind, is that the vast majority will probably end up on eBay within a couple hours as massively inflated prices.
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From what I've read on their website, they plan on selling a "significant number" of RaspberryPi's on eBay at the normal price in order to try and combat this kind or behavior. Although I doubt it will stop people from trying anyway... :(
 
once they all get bought up it will be ebay crazy out there, kinda like what happen to the wii when it came out, people where selling (and buying them) for upwards of $2000.
 
Can't wait to get one. I will try to order like 10 if I can and then resell to [H] members that weren't lucky enough to get it if I am able to :)
 
Not with the first batch, its one per address .

It should be any day now! :D
 
I want one as an XBMC front end for the TV upstairs (HTPC is on the plasma downstairs). But I'm OK with waiting for now until they get a version with a case of some sort...no rush.
 
i wonder.. if this can run XBMC on it, can it play xbox games also? i'd love to get one still just to have a really small device with emulators on it
 
Xbox games would defiantly be pushing it. for the most part anything ps2 and up probably wont run on it well.

There would also have to be an open source xbox emulator for linux or a linux on with the dev interested in ARM.
 
If it can play NES,SNES,N64 and Genesis... I would be happy. Will it be able to have a remote control and be able to use a controller?
 
asdf123 said:
i wonder.. if this can run XBMC on it, can it play xbox games also?
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Totally different things. XBMC is compiled for the target device, so it runs native on each platform.

No, the RPi can not run Xbox games. It is nowhere fast enough to emulate x86 (or PPC in 360) at any decent speed. The 3D hardware isn't too bad, but is held back significantly by lack of local video memory. It will be interesting to see what games are ported.

It's a bit sad to see people hyping up the 3D performance (faster than Tegra 2! faster than iPhone 4S!), looking at the shipping VideoCore IV products like devices running the BCM2763, and ignoring the fact that the BCM2763 comes with local dedicated video memory the RPi does not include. The "reduced cost" BCM2835 in the RPi has a single 32-bit memory device used by both CPU and graphics (the 128KB L2 is often used by the GPU, according to Broadcom docs). The faster VideoCore IV graphics equipped products ("4x-6x faster than VideoCore III") have dedicated on-package memory. Huge, huge difference.
 
asdf123 said:
i wonder.. if this can run XBMC on it, can it play xbox games also? i'd love to get one still just to have a really small device with emulators on it
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You're talking an ARM processor here. I expect NES/SNES era will be fine. Think whatever an Android phone can handle. I haven't tried n64/PS1 on such a device, but that might be within reach...? Anything above that is crazy unlikely.
 
N64/PS1 may work but also remember that the RPi has a armv6 cpu most smart phones are armv7 and up. most of these emulators will need a bit of optimization.
 
Poplap said:
N64/PS1 may work but also remember that the RPi has a armv6 cpu most smart phones are armv7 and up. most of these emulators will need a bit of optimization.
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So I am no pro at arm, but all the info says its arm11.. So whats this version thing you speak of.
 
hrm....just seeing this....15 minutes until they go live with the "announcement" according to my watch

i was tempted to get one, but I think I may wait until ones with cases are out, by then other community tweaks and improvements will be in the wild....
 
bastage said:
So I am no pro at arm, but all the info says its arm11.. So whats this version thing you speak of.
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The architecture and older model numbers use similar, but different conventions.

ARM11 is based on the ARMv6 instruction set architecture, older than the Cortex ISA (ARMv7). The newer models don't seem to use ARM## conventions anymore and instead use Cortex (A8, A9, future A15) for ARMv7 and ARMv8 ISAs. The old convention seems to have caused confusion, so that's fixed now.

Stoly said:
http://alwaysinnovating.com/products/hdmidongle.htm

Its smaller, way more powerful and has integrated wifi
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If a model with 512MB and WiFi is around $60-$70, that looks to be an awesome alternative. A dual Cortex A9 and ability to run ICS trounces the cheaper RPi.
 
pxc said:
If a model with 512MB and WiFi is around $60-$70, that looks to be an awesome alternative. A dual Cortex A9 and ability to run ICS trounces the cheaper RPi.
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Definitly the case, but I have no faith in there speculated price since all they are doing is licensing the tech out & not making one themselves.
 
Stoly said:
I'm having 2nd thoughts on the Rpi

This will probably better fit my needs.

http://alwaysinnovating.com/products/hdmidongle.htm

Its smaller, way more powerful and has integrated wifi
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Also recognize the fact that the the RPi was never meant to be used for a HTPC, its just a nice side effect, its meant to teach computer science to high school students.

If you want power build a x86 based system or try out ARM systems like the Panda Board or the Beagle Board Mx.
 
Poplap said:
Also recognize the fact that the the RPi was never meant to be used for a HTPC, its just a nice side effect, its meant to teach computer science to high school students.

If you want power build a x86 based system or try out ARM systems like the Panda Board or the Beagle Board Mx.
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Indeed. That's why I said it would better fit my needs.

Still, if a 512mb hdmi dongle hit the sub $70 price point. then it could be a better deal than the Rpi, considering you get wifi, a remote and a built in OS and again a much more powerful cpu/gpu.

The price of the Rpi can easily double once you factor a wifi adapter, SD card, case, Power supply, KB, mouse, etc.
 
Stoly said:
Indeed. That's why I said it would better fit my needs.

Still, if a 512mb hdmi dongle hit the sub $70 price point. then it could be a better deal than the Rpi, considering you get wifi, a remote and a built in OS and again a much more powerful cpu/gpu.

The price of the Rpi can easily double once you factor a wifi adapter, SD card, case, Power supply, KB, mouse, etc.
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That's a specious argument. I remember people arguing the PS3 was cheaper because the Xbox needed $100 wi-fi adapter (it doesn't), etc.

Don't need wi-fi (have ethernet run). If I need wi-fi in the house to a static device like a TV I use a bridged router to give me 4 ethernet ports - I don't rely on each device on a TV having wi-fi. Never have. My PS3 20gb has never needed wi-fi either. Wi-fi chip would be waste of money/power/size for many.

I've got a couple of spare USB KB/mice laying around like most techies.

USB power? I've got probably at least 4 standard .5 amp USB power adapters laying around (a spare Nook/Kindle one, an old cellphone one, etc). I imagine that's pretty common for most of us these days - lots of devices use standard USB chargers. For that matter, I could plug into my plasma's USB port for power if I wanted (if I was using on my other TV) and not need it at all. My ancient FW900 CRT has a 4-port USB hub on the bottom if I was using it as a real computer. USB based power was a fantastic, ubiquitous choice.

I *might* need an SD card. That's about it. But I have some of those too (just not any bigger than 4-8GB I can really spare right now).
 
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Ya i have to agree with GreenMonkey on this, most of what i need i have in spare parts, exception of the Ethernet runs (cant do that in this house :( ) Hell i even have a few spare SD card that i could use, but they are older so i will probably still by new.

That being said i would still love to mess around with some of the other ARM systems like that Dongle, i love testing new things out, but man i can do so many more projects with the RPi for cheaper then any other systems i have seen. (although some of those projects would be a waste of potential performance of the RPi)
 
The RPi is fine for the market and price points it was designed to address.

But it's really not much of a consumer product, and CPU performance could be severely lacking for many applications (crummy low cost tablets with major performance issues typically run similar speed ARM11-based processors to give an idea). Geeks may find that a bare circuit board with some wires attached is acceptable, but others will want a more finished product. That's not a criticism. If the RPi works for you, great. I am looking forward to the HDMI dongle more than RPi now, and I just hope it's not vapor because it seems like a much superior product.
 
pxc said:
Geeks may find that a bare circuit board with some wires attached is acceptable, but others will want a more finished product.
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The forthcoming Model A is supposed to include a case.
 
CEpeep said:
The forthcoming Model A is supposed to include a case.
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It will be an extra cost option according to the FAQ:
Will it have a case?

Not for the first batch. We’ll be making and selling cases by the summer; you’ll be able to buy a unit with or without a case, or a case on its own. The education release later in 2012 will have a case by default. There are lots of homebrew case discussions on the forum.
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It doesn't really address the other few problems it has as a consumer oriented device, but like I wrote above, the way it's sold is fine for its intended (core) audience. It's still a pretty good device for hackers and an excellent value overall.
 
The RPi is the best for education and DIYers, for example i want to build a home automation setup with the RPi being used for control and even security cameras with built in encoding and motion detection at the source. not to mention XBMC on all but one TV.

That being said i can see why someone would want a better system.

I really cant wait for the A model, with its new found memory it would work just as well for XBMC and such, when you want to use wireless of course.
 
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