Pi vs BeagleBone-Black

Mark Beckett wrote:

 

Also can someone please explain the fascination with Antoids tins.

The KL25z apears to also fit, although I'm not sure why you'd use a metal tin to house a bare pcb that needs external connections in order to function, and generally will have a display or leds that somehow need to get through to the outside world.

I'll have a go.  Developer boards (almost) never have cases.  This is probably because while it's very cheap to manufacture cases in quantity, the tooling for the first one is expensive.  Plus, if your target audience is makers, those makers are perfectly capable of making their own cases.  Makers like to take objects they already have and re-purpose them.  Creative use of things that would be otherwise thrown out scores Karma points, or something like that.

RasPi is frustrating because while its rectangular dimensions are the same as a credit card, its square corners prevent it from fitting in an Altoids tin.  Plus, even if you could fit it in, having connectors on five sides (if you include GPIO) makes an Altoids tin problematic.  RasPi only has two "mounting" holes (zero on the rev 1.0 board), which makes a metal case problematic.  BBone has rounded corners so it fits nicely in the case and the four mounting holes make sure you don't short to the metal case.  Having standard I/O jacks only on the ends is very nice.  OTOH, as soon as you plug in a cape it no longer fits.

I far prefer a metal case to plastic.   While EMI shouldn't be a problem with well-designed boards, plastic is a thermal insulator and I'd rather have something that conducts heat and acts as a radiator.  The RasPi model B rev 1.0 sometimes ran quite hot before rev 2.0 fixed an electrical problem and improved the thermal design for the LAN9512.  IMO rev 1.0 is not something that you want to put in a closed plastic or wood case, and rev 2.0 still generates the same amount of heat overall and would get hot in a closed case.  It will work for a while, but excessive heat shortens the lifetime of any electronic device, particularly if you thermal cycle it.

Now for BBone, one should use a YipYap box instead of Altoids.  I think they're the same size.

Mark Beckett wrote:

 

Also can someone please explain the fascination with Antoids tins.

Peergroup reinforcement among techies.

Mark Beckett wrote:

 

This is a much better debate ...well done.

Thanks for the responses re the comparisons/features.

 

A new user looking to compare them still has to read through lots of discussions in order to draw a list.

Epigram #48 from Epigrams in Programming by Alan J. Perlis is:

The best book on programming for the layman is Alice in Wonderland; but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.

Let's see what Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has to say on the topic.

"Cheshire Puss," [Alice] began, rather timidly... "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

 

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

 

"I don't much care where--" said Alice.

 

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

Same with RasPi and BBone.  It does depend on what you want to do with it, though as Morgaine pointed out the difference has narrowed with BBone Black.

One thing I would strongly recommend to anyone considering either board -- or any community-supported development board -- is to first spend some time at the forums available for that board.  See how active the forum is, and whether people are getting helpful responses to problems or are being told to RTFM (without providing link to said manual), or worse, "Google it" as if a newbie can tell which few of the 1000 Google results are actually useful.  If you have questions, these are the people who are going to help you -- or not.  Find out if people are having issues with the board and whether you want to face those same issues.  Also, check out the wiki for the board.  It will tell you if people are interested enough in the board to build up a good wiki and are therefore more likely to be interested in helping you when you get in trouble.

Morgaine

Yes thanks for explaining the KL25z wasn't part of the discussion of Pi v BB.

It was just the size.

John

You have some good reasons ...obviously the Antoid tins are a household item on the other side of the world, hence the inital reason.

I also like your advice on the forums/support.

Morgaine

I think your answer is probably what I expected.

I had to ask though.

Yay, more boards with rounded corners! And cheap too!

Not on topic though, except for the rounded corners and the Element 14 angle.

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

Yay, more boards with rounded corners! And cheap too!

 

Not on topic though, except for the rounded corners and the Element 14 angle.

I like the way the Farnell site shows availability as "Awaiting Delivery" -- sounds like we're expecting a "bundle of joy" .  The USA Newark site just says "Availability: 0" -- no poetry at all.

John Beetem wrote:

 

I like the way the Farnell site shows availability as "Awaiting Delivery" -- sounds like we're expecting a "bundle of joy" .

Better not give Marketing ideas, I really don't want to have my boards delivered with nappies and baby powder.

Here in NZ its 4 times the price of KL25z, but with less features.

Maybe nappies and baby powder will help sell it.

Mark

Hehe.

I don't know PSoC4, but a quick glance at Element 14's linked summary suggests that it's along the lines of PSoC5, which John has often described here (in CPLD/FPGA threads) as being a microcontroller SoC with partially documented programmable logic features.

That makes this board rather eclectic and somewhat alienating to those who prefer traditional CPU software programming.  Perhaps the manufacturer is trying to dispell that image by releasing the board at prices that fall below the worry radar ... except in NZ, that is.

The knode thread at http://www.element14.com/community/thread/22258?tstart=0 is interesting in the way that the community pieced together snippets of pre-release information and accidental leaks into an early picture of what BeagleBone Black would be like, even before the name was known.  And Jason Kridner's informed remarks from the horse's mouth are always interesting to read, as is his strong interest in and clarity about BB[B] openess.

Perhaps the time has come at last for BeagleBone to get its own Element 14 group, to focus discussions about these two highly compatible boards better than occasional ad hoc knode threads can provide.  Sagar's thread would make a fine initial entry, given its historical perspective.

Once BBB is in the hands of 5-figure numbers of people, I suspect there is going to be quite a feeding frenzy around it, and large numbers of related discussion threads.  Indeed, this has already begun.  Price really is king.

Morgaine.