- Mon May 25, 2009 12:08 am
#73473
I honestly have no idea if something like this would be popular, practical or even possible, but since ideas never mentioned are worse than ideas that suck, I thought I'd get this concept out there anyway.
Note that this isn't a product - it's a concept. You can't buy one yet. But if you like the idea of owning something like this you could reply to this thread
Also, please be aware of the fact that I am an absolute noob when it comes to microcontrollers and such - the amount of knowledge I have on the subject could probably fill a 15-20 page pamphlet. That said, I think that what I want is still possible.
A year or so ago I got the idea for an extremely simple to program handheld computer-type thing, where instead of an OS, "killer application" and so on, you'd instead get full specs and demo code showing how the thing worked, a programming cable, and the words "do your worst".
Something like that, anyway.
I don't think for one second that this is a unique idea. It's probably been dreamed up thousands of times, and it already exists to some extent in the form of PDAs and more recently things like smartphones and MIDs - but these devices have operating systems, apps and actually do something specific, instead of not having any given task in particular. And "hackable" stuff already exists - the OpenMoko mobile phone has deliberately places tie points on its mainboard so you can poke it in various ways.
Instead, this thread asks the question "should a hobbyist device like what I describe exist?" Reply if you agree.
So, what would my conception of this device be like? Well, for starters, the primary concern and focus would be size. Not only would I want mine as small as possible but also as thin as possible - say, 5mm. Since the Qualcomm TG01 smartphone has come out which uses the 1GHz ARM Snapdragon CPU and yet is 9.9mm thick, I completely believe a thin device is possible, even for hobbyists.
Secondly, I'd want my device to look "finished", or capable of passing as a "consumer product", if you know what I mean - most DIY hobbyist electronics projects look half naked most of the time, and even when they are finished they're in relatively gigantic project boxes and such. It's true!
CPU
My device probably wouldn't use a Snapdragon - at least not initially
- but nonetheless I would want a relatively fast CPU on it... say, 100MHz. It would also need graphics (required) and audio acceleration (if possible).
RAM
In addition to that I'd want a decent amount of RAM: 8MB at least, more if possible. 32MB sounds nice.
Screen
I'd want a color touchscreen that filled as much of the device's footprint as possible, or, in other words, means the bezel would be really thin. The TG01 has a touchscreen and it's thin, so I believe this is possible. At the very least I'd want 64k colors, however 16bpp would be very nice.
Communication
After that, I'd probably want some kind of communication - so a wireless module would be in the works. I don't know if production-grade wi-fi or bluetooth modules are smaller than XBee modules; whatever's smallest and eats the least amount of power is what I'd want here. The idea is that the unit communicates with a small USB-powerable "base" that's not far away, which can from there communicate with the 'net, local devices, and so on.
Storage
Something simple and flexible like a microSD card slot would probably be a good idea here. In addition to that, 16MB of onboard flash could hide amongst the other stuff on the board for bootloading and/or programs you wanted to keep on the device.
Sound
Like I hinted in the CPU section, sound would also be a component part of a device like this - at the very least I'd want audio out, but a line/speaker input wouldn't go astray. However, if sound isn't possible, then I guess it could be omitted.
To summarize:
- 100MHz CPU or close to that (I wouldn't want less than 80MHz) with graphics and audio acceleration
- 8MB RAM at the least
- Some kind of thin, color touchscreen
- microSD card slot and 16MB or so of onboard flash memory
- Audio support, if possible
- This would be something of a "finished-looking" equivalent to an Arduino which you could carry around with you and wouldn't attract "that looks like a detonator
" (or similar) stares from people 8)
I have no idea if something like this is even possible...
I wrote a similar post to this a while ago - here it is. For some reason, nobody responded, which is why I doubted my idea but mentioned it here anyway, since I think it does actually have a bit of potential - even if just a bit...
-dav7
Note that this isn't a product - it's a concept. You can't buy one yet. But if you like the idea of owning something like this you could reply to this thread
Also, please be aware of the fact that I am an absolute noob when it comes to microcontrollers and such - the amount of knowledge I have on the subject could probably fill a 15-20 page pamphlet. That said, I think that what I want is still possible.
A year or so ago I got the idea for an extremely simple to program handheld computer-type thing, where instead of an OS, "killer application" and so on, you'd instead get full specs and demo code showing how the thing worked, a programming cable, and the words "do your worst".
Something like that, anyway.
I don't think for one second that this is a unique idea. It's probably been dreamed up thousands of times, and it already exists to some extent in the form of PDAs and more recently things like smartphones and MIDs - but these devices have operating systems, apps and actually do something specific, instead of not having any given task in particular. And "hackable" stuff already exists - the OpenMoko mobile phone has deliberately places tie points on its mainboard so you can poke it in various ways.
Instead, this thread asks the question "should a hobbyist device like what I describe exist?" Reply if you agree.
So, what would my conception of this device be like? Well, for starters, the primary concern and focus would be size. Not only would I want mine as small as possible but also as thin as possible - say, 5mm. Since the Qualcomm TG01 smartphone has come out which uses the 1GHz ARM Snapdragon CPU and yet is 9.9mm thick, I completely believe a thin device is possible, even for hobbyists.
Secondly, I'd want my device to look "finished", or capable of passing as a "consumer product", if you know what I mean - most DIY hobbyist electronics projects look half naked most of the time, and even when they are finished they're in relatively gigantic project boxes and such. It's true!
CPU
My device probably wouldn't use a Snapdragon - at least not initially
- but nonetheless I would want a relatively fast CPU on it... say, 100MHz. It would also need graphics (required) and audio acceleration (if possible).RAM
In addition to that I'd want a decent amount of RAM: 8MB at least, more if possible. 32MB sounds nice.
Screen
I'd want a color touchscreen that filled as much of the device's footprint as possible, or, in other words, means the bezel would be really thin. The TG01 has a touchscreen and it's thin, so I believe this is possible. At the very least I'd want 64k colors, however 16bpp would be very nice.
Communication
After that, I'd probably want some kind of communication - so a wireless module would be in the works. I don't know if production-grade wi-fi or bluetooth modules are smaller than XBee modules; whatever's smallest and eats the least amount of power is what I'd want here. The idea is that the unit communicates with a small USB-powerable "base" that's not far away, which can from there communicate with the 'net, local devices, and so on.
Storage
Something simple and flexible like a microSD card slot would probably be a good idea here. In addition to that, 16MB of onboard flash could hide amongst the other stuff on the board for bootloading and/or programs you wanted to keep on the device.
Sound
Like I hinted in the CPU section, sound would also be a component part of a device like this - at the very least I'd want audio out, but a line/speaker input wouldn't go astray. However, if sound isn't possible, then I guess it could be omitted.
To summarize:
- 100MHz CPU or close to that (I wouldn't want less than 80MHz) with graphics and audio acceleration
- 8MB RAM at the least
- Some kind of thin, color touchscreen
- microSD card slot and 16MB or so of onboard flash memory
- Audio support, if possible
- This would be something of a "finished-looking" equivalent to an Arduino which you could carry around with you and wouldn't attract "that looks like a detonator
" (or similar) stares from people 8)I have no idea if something like this is even possible...
I wrote a similar post to this a while ago - here it is. For some reason, nobody responded, which is why I doubted my idea but mentioned it here anyway, since I think it does actually have a bit of potential - even if just a bit...
-dav7
