I saw this complaint in another post online (paraphrased):
The screen and use of a Pi seem at odds with each other. The screen is ultra-low power, but there are of course huge drawbacks for usability. Meanwhile the CPU is very powerful, but chews through, comparatively, a lot of power quickly.
They argued that it would be better to either pair the Pi with a better screen for a more powerful/usable handheld, or go all in on longevity and use some kind of low-power chip to pair with the screen for a terminal that could last for days.
… I’ve got to say, it’s a fair point. A low power hand-held that could run Linux and run for days would be pretty cool, even if it was underpowered compared to a Pi. No idea what you could use for such a thing though.
Total newb question – don’t these CPUs support multiple clock speeds? You could set it high on install in preparation for compiling a bunch of software, then once you’re done, knock it down to 50% or less of the maximum to add longevity?
Not an expert myself, but I think chips that truly sip power not only have a much lower floor but take even more aggressive actions to reduce power when idle.
Certainly with the right software tuning you could aggressively throttle the CPU to save power - I’m just not sure how much power it would actually save.
I did find this really good article on reducing the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W power consumption: https://www.cnx-software.com/2021/12/09/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-power-consumption/
These old Blackberry keyboards are amazing for stuff like that. They are cheap, avaliable and super well documented.
Here’s what I made with them: https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry
It’s like a very early version of those “cyber decks” used in cyberpunk media. How long before we are using things like this to cut through Black ICE, trying not to fry our brains? 🤔
I don’t need a fucking playground Steven I’m not a little kid and you’re not my dad stop coming to my house
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I’m toying with the idea of pairing this through the gpio pins on the pi to an A9G 4G/GPS module and a battery. With voice, text, data and location, you could do anything. Bulky as heck by the time you encase it but it could be cool.
Can we even get zeros?
Adafruit was rolling through runs of ~70 per day for a while. First come first served. Dunno if they still are. I’d suggest setting up a stock alert with them.
I snagged one for my Beepy. They were so strict about scalpers they made me set up 2fa so they could verify my account.
Glad they’re doing something to verify you’re not a scalper.
That’s what I was thinking. I don’t think I’ve seen them available in the last 3 months.
If you’re near a microcenter they usually keep them hidden and you have to ask for them. But even when they’re hidden they sell out the day the shipment gets there.
Online will probably be a shit show forever thanks to scalpers.
I’m heading to England in September. I’ll pick up a few for you guys
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What isn’t it? You could wardrive, emulate, run Linux or Windows even make a HackMac. Etc
oh shit you mean like you could do with a 10 year old laptop
You can fit a 10 year old laptop in your front pocket, hold it and type with one hand, and read the display perfectly in broad daylight?
oh shit you mean like a $100 Android phone
Warmer … Got any of those with a hardware keyboard with eink display?
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