SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Adafruit has released step by step instructions to build your own 10" Raspberry Pi 2 based computer.
From the article:
This project takes a DIY approach with no compromises in cost. The cost of this build easily goes over low budget DIY projects, but it's [meant] to be [a] premium build. It will be used for monitoring and wirelessly controlling a farm of printers. A dedicated linux box with a decent sized screen could cost about the same amount, but when the process of building a project is more meaningful than getting the cheapest deal, this sorta thing becomes a trophy item as well as a functioning utility. Also, we can mount it to anything and design custom brackets to adjust it in any configuration, and that's pretty darn cool.
A PDF of the instructions is also available.
(Score: 2, Informative) by jmorris on Thursday August 27 2015, @10:00PM
Why? This thing is a poor substitute for a tablet. Go buy a tablet with a 10.1 display with an unlocked/unlockable boot loader, several already have Linux ports available even. That gets you a touch screen and good wireless connectivity. Lets compare this unit to such a tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Tablet Pros:
Already assembled and tested. Includes touchscreen AND pen digitizer, WiFi, BT, GPS. Early Google hit posted in 2013 says a Debian port exists and supports basic hardware at least, by now perhaps more.
Tablet Cons: None.
This project Pros:
DIY cred. So long as you aren't an idiot like the guys who built this one and do stupid things like solder directly to the pins on the Pi instead of building up a proper connector... that kind of thing will get you laughed at. You do get an Ethernet port, several USB ports (on an internal USB hub though with known reliability issues on the network port) and if you mod the project to make use of it you get more GPIO.
Cons:
No touchscreen or in fact no input device at all other than an external USB keyboard/mouse. Larger and heavier as well.
The cost of both are within the same ballpark and depend more on how well one shops and what sort of deals can be found so I ignore that here. Bottom line, get a tablet, stick in in a case with a BT keyboard and call the hardware side good and get on to loading a Linux distro on the thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by joshuajon on Friday August 28 2015, @01:46PM
Some people do stuff for reasons other than to impress others. Making things yourself can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. I guess what I mean to say is it's not just the final product that one is after in an endeavor like this, it's the process. I might make an analogy to Lego. When you build a Lego model you end up with something crude, fragile, and ultimately less useful than an injection molded plastic toy in the shape of whatever model you just built. And yet, the Lego version, despite costing more, taking considerably more time etc is still a worthwhile endeavor.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday August 30 2015, @06:59PM
Yes, there are many things I do not because I wanted to buy something that was made commercially, but because I wanted to see if I could do it myself.
Just because my first results are half-assed doesn't make it worth less (or worthless), and the goal usually includes something that a retail product usually can never provide me -- experience. There's a lot to be said for failure, and not all failures are without some success.
I don't know where the success is in running the new hardware startup wizard after buying a tablet, but it's probably located at the store it was purchased, somewhere in their profit margin.