Banana Pi UMPC, anyone?

[ArchiMark]

Here's a little Banana Pi UMPC, to tide me over, while waiting for a Pyra to come along someday....

Check out this little pocket size Banana Pi Zero with WiFi/BT, USB, 5" Display, backlit keyboard....

Similar size to Pyra, but thinner....runs Debian or Ubuntu based on images from Armbian.com


https://www.instagram.com/puterpi/

And here's some progress photos of the one being built for me now....almost done...

Think I'll have it next week....

The maker, Chris has been great to deal with.

 

[benoitb]

Looks tidy and well made for a handmade device. I would worry about the battery life with the size of the included battery. Does he give figures about this ?

 

[sm0kew0n]

Very nice, be sure to come back and give your impressions when you receive it. Also, how much? I couldn't find any mention of price.

 

[kaprikawn]

What's the current situation with accelerated 3D with those things? Are we talking works fine with a binary blob, works but you can't use the upstream kernel or what?

 

[ArchiMark]

Looks tidy and well made for a handmade device. I would worry about the battery life with the size of the included battery. Does he give figures about this ?

Thanks, yes, he does very nice careful work.

I don't remember estimated battery life now, but will try to check info and report back.

Very nice, be sure to come back and give your impressions when you receive it. Also, how much? I couldn't find any mention of price.

Thanks, will report back with my impressions...

He does mention price and other info in text description below his YouTube video. Check it out...also, has his contact info.

* Please note he has some already assembled available now. One is in white and another is pink.

Think they have the Raspberry Pi Zero W board instead of the Banana Pi like mine. They might go for a bit less, you would need to ask Chris.

Think his price is very reasonable for the quality of his work and complete package he provides including OS on microSD card, and charger.

What's the current situation with accelerated 3D with those things? Are we talking works fine with a binary blob, works but you can't use the upstream kernel or what?

As I recall, the Banana Pi Has accelerated 3D working with some OS images available.

As for your second question, I don't know. You would need to check this with Chris or on either the Banana Pi forum or the Armbian forum.

 

[PowerGod]

clicky clicky !!

 

[ArchiMark]

clicky clicky !!

Oh yeah!.....

 

[Grench]

Very cool. I like what he did with embedding a touchpad in between the controller pads. The keyboard looks good - so much easier to map with 5 rows instead of 4.

 

[ArchiMark]

Very cool. I like what he did with embedding a touchpad in between the controller pads. The keyboard looks good - so much easier to map with 5 rows instead of 4.

Yes, very nice design, with backlight too.....

Think the keyboard/touchpad/controller pads is a whole manufactured unit that he purchases and then installs into case he makes.

 

[Grench]

Yes, very nice design, with backlight too.....

Think the keyboard/touchpad/controller pads is a whole manufactured unit that he purchases and then installs into case he makes.

I wonder what it's other application(s) is/are then.

 

[ArchiMark]

I wonder what it's other application(s) is/are then.

Check it out here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074RH938Y/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[kaprikawn]

Just got home and now have been able to see the video.

Looks nice, there's some good, some bad.

The trackpad looks very cool indeed, that's a standout feature for me.

The bad parts are I don't like the clickyness of the keyboard, and it looks harder than it should be to press the keyboard buttons. And I don't like the dpad and button configuration, I'd much prefer a standard dpad and button layout.

And there were a couple of things that grated about the video, I wish he pronounced Mate properly, and I didn't like that he said ARM-based to refer to the Banana Pi one as if the Raspberry Pi one isn't ARM-based which of course it is.

But overall I'm impressed. I've got no interest in anything other than the Pyra, but I wish him well and hope that it finds success.

 

[levi]

Looks tidy and well made for a handmade device. I would worry about the battery life with the size of the included battery. Does he give figures about this ?

He does say in the video it's a 2000mAH battery (presumably at 3.7V or something), but how long that lasts depends on how much current the display, the CPU and other bits might use. That screen looks kind of low resolution, unless he's fiddled with the menu sizes and so on, but maybe it's got about the same number of lines as the Pandora (480).

I'd be interested to know how how that keyboard's put together. Some kind of hard plastic (polystyrene perhaps?) domes?

 

[ArchiMark]

Keep in mind a few things about this little guy....

1. It costs about 1/3 of a Pyra.

2. The maker is doing this more as a hobbyist 'labor of love', than a full time business. He's really not making any money for making these. He only plans to make a few of these a week.

3. Given the relatively low cost, the specifications are quite different than a Pyra. The maker is 3D printing the case parts himself and using 'off the shelf' parts for the rest, making this cost-effective, possibly upgradeable, and available now.

4. The Banana Pi Zero W board has a quad core chip, while the Raspberry Pi has a single core.

5. This UMPC is available now and Pyra is available in '2 Months' (TM)......


I figured at the price he's charging and that I can have it next week (he's shipping it Monday...), it's worth it to me to have a little pocket computer to play with.

One day, when the Pyra is available, I will evaluate situation then and possibly get a Pyra. In meantime, hope to have some fun playing around with this little UMPC.
[doublepost=1521745320,1521745241][/doublepost]

He does say in the video it's a 2000mAH battery (presumably at 3.7V or something), but how long that lasts depends on how much current the display, the CPU and other bits might use. That screen looks kind of low resolution, unless he's fiddled with the menu sizes and so on, but maybe it's got about the same number of lines as the Pandora (480).

I'd be interested to know how how that keyboard's put together. Some kind of hard plastic (polystyrene perhaps?) domes?

Think he has pics of the keyboard on his Instagram page I provided link to above.

 

[levi]

Yes, I think this might be the entirety of the keyboard.


I don't really understand how it works, but there you go.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfcTz7-lcxj/

That same URL again, as I'm half expecting the forum software to mangle it.

Edit: Dunno if this will work, but I managed to see the image at full resolution by pulling the url out of the generated page source:

 

[ArchiMark]

Thanks, Levi, that's it.. and it is from the keyboard unit I linked to in post #11 above...

 

[Grench]

I think this is actually a pretty ideal way to 'play with a pi'. I particularly like how he has the GPIO exposed through the back of the case. It is not a Pyra competitor, but a lower effort point of entry to get up and running with a Pi.

He took a collection of off the shelf parts, combined them in a 3D printed case and is sharing it out. Kudos to the builder!

I'm going to order up one of those wireless USB keyboards. Wish they were simply Bluetooth.

 

[sm0kew0n]

I have just watched all his build videos, and hats off, he's made a nice job with the plastics and the fit and finish, I almost want to give him the 250 just for that. Knowing it's a pi zero though just makes me look at the pandora and think 'nah, got one like that, but better'. Now I just want the pyra even more, more more, more betterer. I really hope he doesn't make one with gaming controls on in the next two months.

 

[ArchiMark]

I have just watched all his build videos, and hats off, he's made a nice job with the plastics and the fit and finish, I almost want to give him the 250 just for that. Knowing it's a pi zero though just makes me look at the pandora and think 'nah, got one like that, but better'. Now I just want the pyra even more, more more, more betterer. I really hope he doesn't make one with gaming controls on in the next two months.

Just to be clear, it is a Banana Pi Zero W (quad core), not the Raspberry Pi Zero W (single core)....so, much better....but understand your points about Pyra....

 

[levi]

Yeah, he got a little confused in thinking that the Raspberry Pi wasn't ARM powered (probably due to that unit using raspian but his new one using armbian for their debian flavours), which made the video a little confusing to watch, but yeah the new unit is BananaPi W based.

Thanks, Levi, that's it.. and it is from the keyboard unit I linked to in post #11 above...

FWIW, the link you put in post #11 is borked for me at present.