Ideas for Raspberry Pi Zero Projects

For the Nigerian library project (already mentioned somewhere in some post) this will be perfect to experiment beyond the proof of concept. Not only but ... I think that with a little help of some great developer crew (two guys) and their sources I can make a wireless HDMI screen not only for the PI but for almost any OS... Someone knows synergy ?

Cheers 

Enrico

Glad you asked. Since the Pi Zero has the power consumption down to less than 200mA, I imagine something on the lines of a wearable which does not need Wifi. I have the need for a simple attendance system which will use a PiFaceCAD to display the date and then Student roll No with the option to quickly mark [present] and [absent] and move the information to a csv with the date stamp. Since there are no "Extra peripherals", we can run it off a small LiPo Battery system and use it on a daily basis.

The CAD has 5 buttons that can be configured for

1. Previous

2. Main Menu

3. Shutdown

4. Absent

5. Present/Enter

The whole app can be written in Python and I know there can be solutions in Android or iOS but this will just be so much more fun.

Cheers,

IP

Wearables that run Linux - how the times are changing.

The 200mA isn't insignificant though - but I guess it won't take long for single board computers to reach a power level that allows them to run long on battery power.

That's going to be a game changer...

Yep. The Intel Edison is really fantastic but its still expensive and I cannot use practically. My only problem with all the SBCs was power consumption and power management. Luckily I am working my own little power management solution for wearable and the Pi Zero fits in perfectly with everything. 

I could see the new PI for the user interface to a lot of projects.

Sometimes you need a lot of power to support the graphics where the rest of the processing is fairly trivial.

So I could see pairing this device with a lot of other MCU's for a distributed processing network with considerable power.

DAB

There are already solutions available drawing less than 100mA. For such a low-power project I have used the Olimex iMX233 Nano board. The average current drawn from the power supply was in my case ~65mA.

As for what to do with RPi zero ... maybe use it as a surveillance system.

I hope someone designs a tiny display for the 'zero, since there are very smart OLED displays with a similar size. Combined with a few zones of touch, it could make a quick user interface.

Also, I notice that Pimoroni is intending to release a DAC for £12 or so, but it could be built for less than that - I used the same Texas Instruments DAC that they are intending to use,

here: BBB - Building a DAC It would be nice to see open source DAC with CAD files design for the 'zero, but with a small audio amplifier too, for portable media player projects. And it is more

in the learning spirit than just buying one ready-made.

A LiPo charger board would also be a good idea - something that the Odroid people had the foresight to install in their Odroid-W (which the 'zero seems to be a clone of!).

Plus I'd like to see power consumption with the HDMI switched off, and underclocked (if possible).

Also I would love to see USB OTG implemented, but I wonder if it really is possible or not.

Okay Spanner

What\s the deal with element14 Australia.

I ordered a Pi Zero, and it was due on 21 Dec, now I get a message saying it's no longer stocked It has been discontinued.

Searching the site kept coming back to the same two codes.

Is there some other magical code.??

What is even more annoying is that I'll be at the back of a queue now the order has been discontinued.

Thanks

Mark

Okay

It looks like the Farnell UK site has also discontinued it.

http://uk.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?catalogId=15001&langId=44&storeId=10151&gs=true&st=pi%20zero

Maybe it was April 1st and we got the dates wrong.

Mark