New RasPi based toy...HDMIPI

[whitey]

Morning all, got a lil' present in the form of my ordered HDMIPI kit from across the pond. Took a few weeks to get me the B+ backing plate from pimoroni but she is sexy! Plan to use this for kiddos/road trips where I can easily put some media ona 32 gb usb stick and GO. For network connected setups when I travel will use rasplex connecting to my PLEX server and network-less setups use raspbmc/openelec w/ local media and swap out micro SD cards. Pretty easy build (took me an hour or so taking my dear sweet time making sure everything was 'dust free' as I assembled.)

 

[Chuckleb]

That's super nice. Now I need it, even though I didn't before.

 

[whitey]

That's super nice. Now I need it, even though I didn't before.

I'm glad 'the sickness' isn't just me It's a sweet lil' driverboard/pkg...I can even use it as an input to output a second screen from my laptop...wish it let me output to a TV though. Seems odd it doesn't. Maybe I am missing something.

 

[Entz]

Very nice!

 

[vikingboy]

are these forums sent to bankrupt us!? I have absolutely no need for that whatsoever but it sure looks like a fun project for a rainy weekend....

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Neat.

I'm wondering what's taking so long for the official RasPi display to be released. It was announced back with the B+. Only 7" though, IIRC.

Also hoping they come out with a v2 Compute Module. I don't personally have any current use for it, but I think the upgrade will help speed adoption of the form factor.

 

[whitey]

Performance seems good across the board other than wifi chokes on HD content at times. If't it local it's good so it's not a Pi B+ HW/GPU limitation. Hardwired all content plays good at a high level test.

Pi 2 may be fun to try out but I digress :-D

 

[whitey]

Just took the new rig out on a test run w/ my kiddo after getting 18" of snow here in Denver. Turned my phone on AP mode, associated the HDMIPI rasplex image to my phone, synced to my plex server, started a movie which played perfectly as we drove through town rounding up breakfast and coffee. :-D Really crisp/beautiful screen.

 

[rubylaser]

Although I love neat technology like this, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around buying a bulkier box like this with a screen vs. running Plex on an inexpensive Android tablet and use Plex sync. For example, I bought a used 32GB 2012 Nexus 7 for $42 about 4 months ago that working great for Plex sync and playback, and has a very nice screen too.

I have two kids and I love technology, so maybe I missed it other than this is a really neat project, and does create a flown blown Rasplex install.

 

[whitey]

Yeah it's certainly more of the nostalgia factor of 'making your own tablet' out of commodity/$35 credit card sized computer and not supporting the major manufacturers but rather a small novel startup. I am with you, I already have two Ipad Air's and a new gen Nexus 7 for the kiddos, this was just a 'compulsive tech gear purchase' and something to build w/ my 8 yr old son (we had a blast building it!). It fits my monster hand rather nicely and has a good weight ratio compared to the Ipad's for sure though, I'd rather pack this arnd than those, about the same as a nexus 7 weight/distribution wise. Lots of choice/flexibility of 'what I want it to do as well right...could be a media frontend like it is now via rasplex/openelec/raspbmc/etc, could be a full fledged light desktop w/ just raspbian loaded, could be a AP w/ the ralink wifi chipset that supports that AP operation mode, could be a PBX w/ incrediblepbx/freepbx and a free google voice motif trunk, surveillance cam/dashcam...the list goes on and on. I have images on microsd cards for all of these functions so a quick swap out makes it extremely versatile.

 

[rubylaser]

Yeah it's certainly more of the nostalgia factor of 'making your own tablet' out of commodity/$35 credit card sized computer and not supporting the major manufacturers but rather a small novel startup. I am with you, I already have two Ipad Air's and a new gen Nexus 7 for the kiddos, this was just a 'compulsive tech gear purchase' and something to build w/ my 8 yr old son (we had a blast building it!). It fits my monster hand rather nicely and has a good weight ratio compared to the Ipad's for sure though, I'd rather pack this arnd than those, about the same as a nexus 7 weight/distribution wise. Lots of choice/flexibility of 'what I want it to do as well right...could be a media frontend like it is now via rasplex/openelec/raspbmc/etc, could be a full fledged light desktop w/ just raspbian loaded, could be a AP w/ the ralink wifi chipset that supports that AP operation mode, could be a PBX w/ incrediblepbx/freepbx and a free google voice motif trunk, surveillance cam/dashcam...the list goes on and on. I have images on microsd cards for all of these functions so a quick swap out makes it extremely versatile.

I can completely understand this now. Obviously, the RasberryPi is super flexible and the opportunity to build something with one of your kids is totally worth the investment buy itself. Thanks for sharing!