stronger Raspberry Pi 3 Alternatives

ninjabreadman

@Mykle1 The b/g/n adapter is a further $7, and will also give you an antenna for better connectivity. The more robust (and likely excessive) b/g/n/ac dual-antenna is $22.

Has anyone tried running MM on an Intel Compute Stick? I’m not normally a fan, but it seems it would suit the form factor and be easily placed behind a mirror, and has more fulsome specs to accommodate advanced modules, media streaming, etc.

Mykle1

@ninjabreadman

No, but I’ve used, and am using, old laptop boards (and one netbook) with ubuntu. They can be gotten on the cheap and come with everything you need. :-)

cruunnerr

Well, i need to say that especially for me, the ability to use GPIOs is important. Unfortunately the power of the raspi’s & co is not as good as x86 systems.

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use MagicMirror on a x86 system and uses external GPIOs? I installed an MM instance on a virtual machine running Linux. When i add a module which uses GPIOs i get errors. Is there a possibility (maybe with server-client)

emlowe

You mean something like this:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264

I just did a google for “USB GPIO breakout board”

-Earle

cruunnerr

@emlowe said in stronger Raspberry Pi 3 Alternatives:

https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264

do you think its just that simple? that would be great.
The question is, if the program code or the configuration will be the same as on a RPi. Or are u need to do some complicated hacks to use the board with MM?

edit:
okay… i searched now, too.

Found this:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/gpio-expander/

what do u guys think about that?

emlowe

Well, adafruit has python sample code. You likely need the node FT232H module to use it from JS.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/FT232H

Does it actually work - I have no idea - that board is also apparently out of stock :-)

Sample python code below

# Import standard Python time library.
import time

# Import GPIO and FT232H modules.
import Adafruit_GPIO as GPIO
import Adafruit_GPIO.FT232H as FT232H

# Temporarily disable the built-in FTDI serial driver on Mac & Linux platforms.
FT232H.use_FT232H()

# Create an FT232H object that grabs the first available FT232H device found.
ft232h = FT232H.FT232H()

# Configure digital inputs and outputs using the setup function.
# Note that pin numbers 0 to 15 map to pins D0 to D7 then C0 to C7 on the board.
ft232h.setup(7, GPIO.IN)   # Make pin D7 a digital input.
ft232h.setup(8, GPIO.OUT)  # Make pin C0 a digital output.

# Loop turning the LED on and off and reading the input state.
print 'Press Ctrl-C to quit.'
while True:
	# Set pin C0 to a high level so the LED turns on.
	ft232h.output(8, GPIO.HIGH)
	# Sleep for 1 second.
	time.sleep(1)
	# Set pin C0 to a low level so the LED turns off.
	ft232h.output(8, GPIO.LOW)
	# Sleep for 1 second.
	time.sleep(1)
	# Read the input on pin D7 and print out if it's high or low.
	level = ft232h.input(7)
	if level == GPIO.LOW:
		print 'Pin D7 is LOW!'
	else:
		print 'Pin D7 is HIGH!'

Mykle1

@cruunnerr said in stronger Raspberry Pi 3 Alternatives:

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use MagicMirror on a x86 system and uses external GPIOs?

Well, it’s certainly possible to run MM on a x86 system. I haven’t a clue about external GPIO usage but it looks promising. For now, I use my mirror for some things and my Alexa for everything else.