• floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    101·
    2 months ago

    Pretty cool, but I’d just chop off the bottom half and use anything else as an input device.

  • perestroika@slrpnk.netEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    It’s a nice one.

    I have a Pocket Chip somewhere standing abandoned. It was sad to see them go out.

    Currently, my preferred kit originates from drone ground stations:

    • a widely supported (e.g. Waveshare or SpotPear or even official Raspberry Pi) screen with a Pi4 on the back, video via flat cable or short HDMI jumper, touch can be arranged via USB or I2C
    • if there needs to be a keyboard, I use an onscreen keyboard (benefit: as many languages as you can speak)
    • for radio comms, a ridiculously good USB WiFi card (criteria of good: can enter monitor / inject mode, can raise output power beyond 100 mW)
    • if that falls short, an RF amplifier (which means the output power can be raised to 10 watts and is blatantly illegal)
    • if that falls short, a directional antenna (which means that radiated power is focused into a narrow beam)

    The downsides:

    • price: Pi4: 38 €, screen 65 €, WiFi 50 €, amplifier (if needed) 40 €, 5 amp USB battery bank 10 €, a separate battery bank for the amp, cells for the banks 2 € each, microSD card, antenna… the total aproaches 250 euros or even 300 if you have high standards

    • weight and clumsiness: loose wires waiting to get pulled out, the kit weighs half a kilo, maybe more, you better buy an instrument case to house it

    But you can beam video across a bay or between mountains, just don’t get caught doing it. :) But not across a forest on flat ground.