Re:Raspberry Pi Zero: the $5 computer
by franciscop on Thursday November 26, 2015 @02:02PM
(#10634229)
For one I'm glad it doesn't have wifi since that'd add on size and cost. I hope that the ecosystem takes off and shields get created like wifi, bluetooth, gsm, etc. That would be really useful and give everyone flexibility.
From the differences amongst the Arduino, I see the hdmi as a necessary evil. Otherwise it'd be too cumbersome to debug.
I totally agree. One of the reasons I've started using an Onion Omega is because of this reason. IoT is pointless if you can't connect to the I easily, IMHO.
Yeah, I played with an Onion Omega for a while. The downside to it is the horribly limiting 16MB flash (with 64MB RAM, WTF?). When I first read it, I thought it was 16GB and a typo. (We have 128GB micro-SD cards already, and all they could put was 16MB onto it?)
That's where the Pi excels since it has a micro-SD slot (and a much faster CPU of course). But then, no Wi-Fi ...
The way it's designed now, it's kind of unusable for anything useful without making it a 3X larger package. Add a Wi-Fi dongle and the converter from regular to micro-USB is about the size of the board itself. And since it only has 1 USB port, you'll need a full-blown hub to connect any other stuff like sensors, keyboards, or whatnot.