Flutterby™! : Qi Hardware Ben NanoNote 2010-03-18 15:58:38.567847+00

Qi Hardware Ben NanoNote

2010-03-18 15:58:38.567847+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Linux for Devices talks about the $99 Qi Hardware Ben NanoNote. 3.89 x 2.95 x 0.69-inch (99 x 75 x 17.5mm), 3" screen, a thumbable QWERTY keyboard, 366MHz MIPS compatible CPU, 32MB RAM, 2Gb flash, mini-USB master, microSD slot (which can take a WiFi card).

#Comment Re: made: 2010-03-20 19:36:07.330697+00 by: TheSHAD0W [edit history]

I was actually going to buy a couple from sharism.cc, but the shipping price was too high. Guess I'll have to wait for a regular US retailer to start selling them.

#Comment Re: made: 2010-03-18 21:08:01.49531+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]

Jim, I'm holding off on ordering one 'til I see that there's a "buildroot" (or one of the similar cross-compilation tools) config for it. I want something where I can cd into a directory, type a few commands, and rebuild the whole thing from scratch. Then the "openwrt" or whatever issue becomes less: I can see the Linux kernel and its config, I can see the init system (presumably BusyBox), I have source for everything running on it, life is useful.

My openwrt aversion isn't because I think it causes failures, that is probably just the life span of the electrolytic capacitor farm in the DC-DC converter on the board.

My openwrt aversion is because I have a couple of custom programs running on them and getting those built and installed is always painful. And for the wrtsl54gs it involves rebuilding the whole distribution to include a patch to make the wan port work, that patch sat in their inqueue for years. I think it is finally integrated. My favorite bug is the badly implemented system call that hangs the kernel if you try to use a floating point instruction, without a message. Instead of fixing the call (i.e. return the write error code) they added a line in the boot that warns you not to use floating point instructions. I'd just use something else, but they aren't terribly good about getting their kernel patches upstream, so their kernel is still the best available for the platform.

For a second, I thought this Ben was what Sean Leather was talking about. My Dutch is, well, non-existent. But I can tell from Sean's link to this site that he's talking about a different Ben.

Why do you think OpenWRT is causing the routers to fail? I can see how OpenWRT would shorten the lifespan if you over-powered the amplifiers but that's hardly the fault of the OS.

I wish they'd show a picture of it with an object for size reference. I had to cut out a paper rectangle to get a feel for it. While they are at it they could have documented its power consumption with the display on and off.

I'm on the fence about ordering one for a remote telemetry server. I've been using WRTSL54GS boxes with OpenWRT, but one failed last summer and I appear to have lost another this winter (can't get to the location until some ice breaks up completely), so I presume they are reaching the end of their electrolytic capacitor service life. Honestly if they used ANYTHING but OpenWRT I'd be more excited. I suppose I could put a small Debian on it, I've done that with the WRTSL54GS boxes for development.