Anyone want to team up on a little fun hardware project? a 2xl tinypc toy

[mouser]

Some of you may know my 2xl simulator page: https://www.donation...ouser/2XL/index.html

It's a flash-based recreation I made of an amazing little toy that i grew up with, which used 8 track tapes to create the illusion of a sentient little robot that told jokes and gave you quizes etc.  It was a brilliant little toy.

Just for fun, I was thinking of recreating it on one of those tiny-pc devices like a rasberry pi, arduino, etc.

I'm not much of a hardware person though, and i am hoping to find a hardware person who might put together the hardware and leave me to do the software.

I don't really have a preference for one kit or another, raspberry pi, arduino, whatever. But there are some requirements:
The device needs to have (at least) 4 buttons in a line , a speaker loud enough to hear the words, and a small lcd so that the user can scroll through carts to select.  ideally the lcd will be over the buttons so that it can be used to show button labels.

Ideally i'd like to rewrite the code in python or java -- and there has to be an mp3 playing library for the device (this is important).
And i has to be able to support a memory card with a few hundred mb of data files.

Ideally the less power the better, as it would be fun to make this battery operated.  But that's not a show stopper.

This is purely a for-fun project, no money to be made or fame to be hard.  If anyone is interested let me know?

[Ath]

I'd just head over to Adafruit.com (no affiliation) and get me a kit of a Raspberry Pi 2, LCD display piggyback board and a prototyping/button set:

• RPi 2 Coder pack: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1538
• Display: http://www.adafruit.com/products/2097
• Buttons: http://www.adafruit.com/product/1775
• Keyboard/mouse: (anything you have laying around with an USB connection)
• Speakers: Just plug 'm into the 3.5mm audio out of the RPi

Most of it is to be programmed in Python, I think you can handle that

[ewemoa]

Have worked a bit with both an Arduino and a couple of Raspberry Pis, and at least from that background, what Ath says makes sense to me.

[Ath]

Well, I've considered starting something using Arduino (years ago), but the 'you have to do everything yourself, including an OS' and the rather steep prices have kept me away.
Now there's the RPi family, that brings a complete PC with a complete OS and easy to add hardware interfaces for an affordable price, and I'm hooked

[mouser]

I've underlined the important bit in my original message. 

[Ath]

Well, if you pay for the travel expenses, I'll help you out... (From Europe/NL to USA and back )

[Deozaan]

Here is some info I've collected for some alternative hardware:

Base Computer:

Odroid C1: $35
USB Power Cable (5 Volts 2 Amps): $2

Plus a screen:

C1 3.2inch TFT+Touchscreen Shield (320x240): $25
Or
Odroid-VU (9-inch 1280x800 touch screen with speakers): $120

You could use virtual buttons on the touch screen. The VU is larger and has a higher resolution which would allow more room for the virtual buttons on the touch screen. It also has speakers for audio.

If you want physical buttons or external speakers:
C Tinkering Kit (has buttons): $16
USB Audio Adapter: $4

Misc. other stuff needed at some point:
Cat5/6 cable for internet (unless you want WiFi)
MicroHDMI->HDMI cable/adapter
Keyboard/Mouse for initial set up
MicroSD or eMMC for storage: ~$5-$20 from NewEgg or similar, depending on how much storage is necessary.


I'd be happy to build it. I don't have the budget to buy the parts, but I did buy a C1 earlier this year and didn't really know what I was getting into, so I got a few extras "just in case" that I realize now I don't need that could slightly reduce the cost of this project.

IMO a touch screen would be sufficient. No need for physical buttons and extra wires/kit required for that. The 3.2 inch screen would probably be sufficient, but then you'd need external speakers (and an audio adapter). The VU screen would allow plenty of room for Cartridge art (or something) and make it easy to scroll through a (large) list of carts with as much relevant info as needed.

It would run Linux (Ubuntu) so pretty much anything you can code there you can code with this stuff.

In fact, you could probably just make a Linux VM and code it up and have me test it on my C1 (allowing the buttons to be either touched or clicked with the mouse) and once it's ready and confirmed working we can order the parts and build the machine it will run on. Your VM would either need to be of an ARM device, or you'd need to somehow have your VM compile it to be run on my C1 (I know this is possible, but can't recall what it's called).

[mouser]

It was my intent to pay for the hardware and shipping charges.. But I have realized that I really can't afford to spend money on non-essentials at the moment, so let's table the idea for now, and return to it when the grass is greener.

[4wd]

Something to keep in mind then for the future: C.H.I.P. + Pocket CHIP

Kickstarter is over but you can pre-order the C.H.I.P. for $9 and the Pocket CHIP will probably be available again at some point.

[Deozaan]

It was my intent to pay for the hardware and shipping charges.. But I have realized that I really can't afford to spend money on non-essentials at the moment, so let's table the idea for now, and return to it when the grass is greener.

-mouser (August 07, 2015, 04:17 AM)

Well, like I said:

In fact, you could probably just make a Linux VM and code it up and have me test it on my C1 (allowing the [on screen] buttons to be either touched or clicked with the mouse) and once it's ready and confirmed working we can order the parts and build the machine it will run on. Your VM would either need to be of an ARM device, or you'd need to somehow have your VM compile it to be run on my C1 (I know this is possible, but can't recall what it's called).

-Deozaan (August 06, 2015, 03:17 PM)

Once it's working on my hardware, we could order out the actual hardware and build it.

[ewemoa]

Just came across this:

  http://linuxgizmos.c...t-based-touchscreen/