There’s extra to cheap single-board computer systems than the Raspberry Pi. Some DIY initiatives are only for enjoyable, however others even have quick sensible worth – like a low-power, self-updating desk calendar.
Low-cost mass-market {hardware} is inflicting one thing of a golden age of experimental do-it-yourself laptop constructing. It should be mentioned, although, a number of the initiatives are cool however not a lot apparent use. There are solely so many Raspberry Pi-based weather stations one can use… which is why Stavros Korokithakis’s mission, Timeframe, stood out to us.
A Timeframe on Stavros Korokithakis’s desk … Credit score: Stavros himself
It would not use a Raspberry Pi, it is self-contained, and once we learn his great, modest write-up of how he made it, fairly than dazzling us with programming experience, he left us questioning if we may make one too. Which, for our cash, is how this kind of mission ought to work.
Korokithakis appears to be a really versatile chap: he is a reasonably good photographer and likewise has a method with phrases. As an illustration, whereas he may have written some C++ to parse Google Calendar and render the outcomes, that sounded exhausting (it does to us too). However…
The Reg FOSS desk finds this extremely relatable on a number of counts.
The Timeframe – it is a intelligent title too – is a 3D-printed plastic body holding a Lilygo T5, which is a 4.7-inch (11cm) e-paper touchscreen, along with an ESP32 processor, a bit of RAM and flash, and a holder for the standard 18650 rechargeable battery, which may be purchased on-line from the standard suspects.
We really feel very assured that we won’t beat his personal write-up of how he put all of it collectively. It is effectively price studying.
It is not the primary of its type we have seen. SystemSix is a genuinely lovely gadget, and “a sort of love-letter to my first Macintosh.” The Portal e-ink calendar can also be geekily cool. As Portal by itself represents a full 50 % of the video video games this vulture has purchased within the final decade, we’re not proof against its charms. It’s also possible to most likely guess what each of those gadgets are powered by.
We had solely beforehand encountered Lilygo within the context of the VGA32, a tiny self-contained laptop with PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports and a VGA output, which sells for a couple of tenner on the massive Chinese language websites. Utilizing the FabGL programming library, this will emulate varied 8-bit and even 16-bit computer systems, enabling it to run the now open source CP/M operating system. This explicit vulture feels no nice want, although, as he nonetheless owns an Amstrad PCW. ®
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