VoCore $20 computer: coin sized, openwrt, wifi, ethernet, usb, gpios


Granitehead

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https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vocore-a-coin-sized-linux-computer-with-wifi

I found the VoCore project on indiegogo and thought it might interest some others here too.

I've followed it for a while, and while the project creator doesn't speak English perfectly, he answers questions and posts updates often.

To quote:

VoCore is a coin-sized Linux computer with wifi. It is also able to work as a full functional router. It runs OpenWrt on top of Linux. It contains 32MB SDRAM, 8MB SPI Flash and using RT5350(360MHz MIPS) as its heart. It provides many interfaces such as 10/100M Ethernet [x2, note by T4b], USB, UART, I2C, I2S, PCM, JTAG and over 20 GPIOs but its size is less than one square inch(25mm x 25mm).
Open source hardware, I can't/won't check it (for now), but there are PCB files on the creators blog for download.

At the moment he seems to be experiencing problems with the alpha boards he shipped to people, they are really getting /alpha/ boards. But he is open about it and works on fixing the problem (for production boards). After all people were warned alpha board might be buggy, so I don't see that as a problem (just happy I didn't order an alpha board :) ).

Seems like a cheaper, less powerful Raspberry Pi to me, which for some uses could even be better than a Raspberry Pi (smaller, two Ethernet ports, etc.).
 
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well, it's more expensive roughly the same price and less powerfull than a raspberrypi but really smaller... different uses I'd say...
 
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well, it's more expensive and less powerfull than a raspberrypi but really smaller... different uses I'd say...
More expensive? Here around, the cheapest I can get a Raspberry Pi for is $50. Maybe if I bought them in quantities (>10) or found some obscure supplier they could be cheaper, but still not less than $20.$20 includes no ports or anything, sure, but for most uses (not as a media computer obviously, rather for embedded use, I know a lot of people using Raspberry Pis for that) you can buy those two or three you actually need for less than $1 and connect them.

It has a subset of the uses a Raspberry Pi has, but in those cases it's actually better than a Pi, I would say.
 
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VoCore is 45$ with minimal useable connector... it's hardly unfair to compare that to a raspberrypi which offer USB, analogue audio, ethernet and HDMI connector...

Including shipping I can get a VoCore for 45$ vs 44.99$ for a RaspberrPi B... hum I was hoping to get cheaper shipping on the pi... they are roughly the same price you are right.

but well the only advantages I can see over a pi is the size/weight (and maybe power consumtion?) and the possibility to use it "baseboard-less" (for cheaper in that case) and that advantage will be even more reduced once they release their raspberrypi com: http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-compute-module-new-product/

definitely an interesting niche product through...
 
I compared it that way because actually for a lot of projects, the connectors the Rasbperry Pi provides are 2/3 useless, you just use one or two of them, but the Raspberry Pi is still used for such projects. So the VoCore might be better for some of those projects, and for some of them the Rasbperry Pi (why did they have to choose such a long name? I'm going to call it Rasp from now on) compute module might be better.

It just depends on what you want to use it for, I think we actually agree on everything and just didn't write it down properly at first. :)
 
Yeah the pi is way overkill for some of the ADC projects I've wanted to put together. The size and this being wifi capable is very much a plus.
 
Mikrotik are already the masters on the networking scene. Their RouterOS can be installed on everything.

Nobody can beat the price/performance ratio of their products, and they make everything from small sized router boards up to a ISP grade and radio stuff.

NOBODY.

:)
 
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