Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
The results are in: The Raspberry Pi 3 is the most desired maker SBC by a 4-to-1 margin. In other trends: x86 SBCs and Linux/Arduino hybrids get a boost.
More than ever, it's a Raspberry Pi world, and other Linux hacker boards are just living in it. Our 2017 hacker board survey gives the Raspberry Pi 3 a total of 2,583 votes — four times the number of the second-ranked board, the Raspberry Pi Zero W.
[...] Note that by "votes" we are referring to Borda rankings that combine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice rankings [...]
So, which if any credit-card-sized computers are you lot playing around with?
Source: http://linuxgizmos.com/2017-hacker-board-survey-raspberry-pi-still-rules-but-x86-sbcs-make-gains/
(Score: 2) by jdccdevel on Thursday June 22 2017, @05:27PM
Does the ESP-12S have a built in filtering voltage regulator and resistors to keep the thing stable?
I'm using a ESP-01 module (uses the same chip) in a project and I'm having a heck of a time getting it to run with any sort of stability. The majority of the information out there doesn't talk about the supporting circuitry (pull down resistors, power smoothing caps, etc) that I needed to use to get it to run even the most basic sketches. (The chip is apparently really sensitive to floating GPIO Pins and power fluctuations.) I ended up scouring the documentation for a couple of days to find out WTF was going on. (Wifi network scanning is particularly unstable. I can't get the thing to run wifi scans for more than a minute without restarting.) I'm waiting on some small caps to see if they finally fix the last of my stability issues.
Apparently the ESP-01 module is one of the trickier ones to work with because the board is so minimalistic. This is the first time I've used a ESP8266 for anything though, so baptism by fire I guess. That said, I would recommend buying a ESP8266 module without at least some power filtering built in.
There's also the ESP-32 [espressif.com] based boards from the same manufacturer. Dual core, built-in Wifi/Bluetooth, 12 Analog inputs, SD card support and many other goodies. It looks to be targeting the market between the Arduino and something like a Raspberry Pi.