Boredom-bred Tech Ideas

I've always wanted a "supercomputer" or rather the feel-good feeling of saying that "My computer has 20 cores and 5GB of RAM"     - Timothy And of course, "It's not about the RAM, it's the core count that counts"     - Timothy You might be wondering why I would want such a computer. Well, first off, you're not my mom, and secondly, wouldn't it be great to be able to use such a powerful computer to do awesome stuff? But hold up -- how am I going to go about building this cluster? Well, since buying 5 laptops is not a practical way of doing things (duh), we'll settle with something a less expensive and less space-consuming. Of course I'm talking about the ARM-based Single Board Computers. Specifically either Orange Pis, NanoPis, or ODROIDs. If we want to make full use of the computing power, we definitely need 64-bit CPUs, and fast RAM. Storage speed is usually not a problem in High Performance Compute Clusters (HPCC). Now your qu...

So while waiting for the board to arrive, I'll make a list of items that need to be fitted into the 10 by 5cm form factor. The SBC (duh) An expansion board A mic array Speakers Low profile heatsink LED strips (lower priority) Battery pack (highly unlikely) The price to pay for higher performance is higher CPU temperatures. So I will need to find a way to effectively cool the OPi. This could include the use of a low powered fan. Since we are using the OPi Zero 2 Plus, we are not able to take advantage of the 40 pin GPIO like on the RPi. And I couldn't find anything for the 26 pin GPIO that the OPi comes with. So cheating time~ With the expansion board, we now have a total of 3 USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm TRRS video and audio out, an IR Receiver, and an onboard microphone. An onboard microphone is less than ideal, as the assistant needs to be able to be used without it taped to side of your mouth. So I set off searching for a USB mic array. A mic array basically more than one mic wo...

Mycroft AI has been a project of interest to me. I recently got to thinking whether I am able to build a Mycroft AI assistant (like actually doing it instead of dreaming that it will come to life). So while day dreaming the other day, I remembered that Mycroft AI can be run either from the command line on Linux, or burnt onto an SD card and subsequently running it on a Raspberry Pi 3B or better. Android is also supported but I am lazy to try to learn how to use Android Studio. By now, I think I have made it quite clear that I will try everything in the world to avoid using a Raspberry Pi. And also when I was dreaming, the thought that came to me was "why not build the while thing in an Echo Dot or Home Mini form factor?" (about 10x5cm). I decided that I need to use smaller SBCs so I can have more freedom with the build. But small SBCs are not the most powerful in the market. So I set out to search for Small SBCs that have the tech specs to stand a chance against th...

So... I gathered resources before planning... And yes, the inevitable happened... My Banana Pi M2 Zero arrived some time ago, only for me to realise that there is no Composite output. The Banana Pi only supports HDMI out... Admittedly this is quite a dumb mistake hat can be avoided easily if I had done some prior research and planning. " What's the issue with HDMI out?" I hear. Well it would not be much of a problem until I remembered that I ordered a screen that only accepts Composite input. There is apparently no way to output a composite signal through the GPIO pins either. So bad planning on my part. So I gave in and brought out my trusty pencil and paper, and started to plan how the thing would turn out. I don't have a lot of time to spend on planning these projects, but here are some sketches I have drawn up so far. I am not a design or engineering student so don't expect too much :P Keep in mind also that these are estimates. F...

In Part 1 of the Pi-based Laptop, I have mentioned that I needed to look for an SBC that is more powerful than the Raspberry Pi 3B+ to power the laptop. Do refer back to that particular post to check out what I am looking for. Since there are so many SBCs in the market now, I have decided to be very strict in my elimination process. As long as the SBC does not hit one of the core criterias that will affect performance, it will be dropped. I will, however, make some leeway for criterias that should not affect the performance too much such as the WiFi not supporting 802.11ac. After searching around (admittedly it got boring very quickly), I have narrowed down my search a little by including major boards that run on the RockChip RK3399 (hexa-core, 4-cores @ 1.5GHz, 2- cores @ 2.0GHz). I have also included boards that seem powerful enough on paper. The budget I'm looking at? SG$180 for the SBC and its components (~US$140). So here are the final contenders: Rock64 RockPro64...

Phones are getting higher in price year by year, in the name of "better performances" or "better features". Are they really worth the premium? Are they worth the ever- hiking price tags? I mean personally, I won't spend my money on a S$2000 phone. I would already be complaining if the phone is exceeding the S$600 mark. But still, don't get me wrong - these phones are not bad per say, but for the price, they are not amazingly good either. Are they usable? Definitely. Are they going to knock my socks off? ... No. The last time a phone knocked my socks off was when I got myself a VKWorld T2 (a 3G Android Flip phone) back in 2016, but my socks were put back on quickly (ha!) When the phone broke down within months of me using it. Then again, considering its price of SG$150, nothing of value was lost. Nowadays, when I shop for phones, I keep my budget to SG$200. Xiaomi proved to be the reliable brand in this price range. Their phones are low in price, but are ...

Following up from a previous post, I have started to source out components to build a Pi-based laptop. As mentioned, using a Raspberry Pi 3B+ is out of the question, as I want a faster laptop that I am able to tolerate using as an everyday carry. I feel that the laptop needs to fulfill the following criteria physically for me to use it as an everyday carry:- Item Requirement Lightweight < 1.5kg Small form factor A4 paper (30cm * 21cm) Thickness < 1.8cm Connectivity Minimum 2 x USB Type A ports, Ethernet jack, HDMI output, Headphone Jack, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Battery Life Minimum 4 hours Thus far, I think the hardest requirement to meet is the 1.8cm thickness as I plan to integrate a keyboard and a trackpad into the main body itself. Neither of which are easy to fit into such a thin form factor. Additionally, I need the laptop to be operating smoothly (so that I won't throw the laptop on the floor after completing it, in rage). As such, I also...