HardwareHardware wise we have been looking at the
C.H.I.P. from
Next Thing, the main reason we liked it is due to all the things it has on board (meaning less we potentially have to do). Whilst waiting to find out about the future of the C.H.I.P. I've also been looking at (and in some cases buying) other things that might be a suitable alternative. For the majority of well designed and supported single board computers (SBC) there should be little effort moving between them.
I'll try and address some of the other SBCs I've considered in a second post (this one is already quite long)!
Having said I'd try and address some of the Single Board Computer Options here's a list of a few I've looked at for this and other projects
In general for all the options listed you also need to add in storage (usually in the form of a microSD card) and some sort of power supply (mains or solar).
NTC C.H.I.P.A $9 board that incorporates single core 1GHz CPU with 512MB ram, 4GB (8GB on some older models) NAND flash, Wireless, and Lipo Charging all on the small board. Steven and myself have both run wallets on this platform and for the most part it works well, the CPU and RAM can be a little limiting at times (particularly when downloading the blockchain for the first time).
Power draw tends to be in the 1-2W range.
This is the only option that doesn't currently require addition storage, although it's beneficial as onboard storage is limited.
Currently not in production but new versions are supposed to be in the pipeline.
Raspberry Pi Zero W (and non W)A $10 board that incorporates single core 1GHz CPU and 512MB ram along with wireless (the non W version is cheaper but doesn't include wireless). Uses an ARMv6 CPU core which can make building software harder (all other options are ARMv7 or higher and compatible with standard debian).
Power draw not tested but expected to be similar to C.H.I.P.
Not available in bulk so difficult (and expensive) to purchase in quantity. The
Pi1 B+ is similar in spec so could be an alternate option.
Raspberry Pi 3B (and 2B)A $35 board that includes 4CPU cores and 1GB ram as well as ethernet and wirless connectivity (the 2B is slightly cheaper but doesn't include wifi).
Power draw is in the 5-10W range.
Orange Pi ZeroThis board is small and has wireless and ethernet ports on board however there are issues with the drivers for both of these.
Like many of the similar boards from China the support from the manufacturer is minimal (or non existant) so any development on a working base operating system is dependant on community efforts.
There are suggestions that these boards are so cheap due to
state dumping where the private company selling the product has most of it's expenses paid for by the government. The maker of Orange Pi has been
quoted saying thisBanana PiOne of the original "Raspberry Pi Killer" boards from China, It's a dual core board with 1GB ram, At least some variations of these have the same power controller as the CHIP meaning Lipo charging may be possible. Some boards also have an RTC (meaning they keep time when shutdown - as long as some power is available)
OthersThere's quite a range of ARM boards mostly based around AllWinner SoC (System on CHIP). Of the above list the only option that doesn't use AllWinner is the Raspberry Pi series.
One commonly suggested talked about SBC the Pine64 (although I've not talked to any happy users of that yet). There are also a variety of other Chinese based makes including Nano Pi, LeMaker, SinoVoip.
Whilst I'd like to look at some of the others evaluating them is dependant on time and funds.
ConclusionIn terms of Cost, Features, and Support the CHIP really does seem like a good fit, and if a newer more powerful option comes out soon then it could be perfect. However supply issues are a cause for concern. Raspberry Pi might be the other decent option although whilst the Zero-W looks good initially the costs of actually using it might change that (needing adaptors, adding headers etc as well as limited purchasing)
