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Good things come in small packages

Subscribe to Good things come in small packages 15 posts, 12 voices

 
Apr 19, 2018 3:41pm
Avatar Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1350 posts

We’ll have something new for you to see at the Wakefield show this weekend.
As you can tell from the title of this thread, it is small. But don’t let
that deceive you, it packs quite a punch.

Think a “Lord of the Rings” dwarf – small, powerful and shiny. And fully ARM’d.

 
Apr 19, 2018 3:53pm
Avatar Rick Murray (539) 12369 posts

But don’t let that deceive you, it packs quite a punch.

A good example of this must surely be the Pi Zero. Costs about the same as a Happy Meal, looks laughably tiny, but has some grunt inside, as this demonstrates: https://www.heyrick.co.uk/blog/index.php?diary=20180411

Larger isn’t always better. ;-)

 
Apr 20, 2018 7:39am
Avatar Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1350 posts

Completely agree, Rick :)

But I promise, this absolutely, definitely, isn’t a Pi of any kind :)

 
Apr 20, 2018 12:16pm
Avatar Steffen Huber (91) 1828 posts

Is the new i.MX8-based Wandboard already available…WAND-PI-8M-DELUXE it is called. Certainly a small package, classic Pi form factor. No S-ATA anymore, but this could be compensated via USB3 support of course :-)

 
Apr 23, 2018 5:10am
Avatar David Feugey (2125) 2626 posts

No SATA, but eMMC.

 
Apr 23, 2018 7:15am
Avatar Colin (478) 2315 posts

Andrew was using what looked like one of these at the show – very dinky it looked too. Liked that all the wires were coming out of one side. Got me thinking about how you never get exactly what you want. I’d have preferred an internal HDD to the external esata connector and a box with the footprint of a HDD

 
Apr 28, 2018 8:40pm
Avatar Kees Grinwis (3528) 18 posts

Although it seems to be that Colin’s guess is correct after watching Andrew’s Wakefield presentation on Youtube it would be nice to have a proper product page and announcement so that people who didn’t go to Wakefield have a change to see whether this is an interesting product for them.

 
Apr 29, 2018 3:19am
Avatar Ross McGuinness (1739) 62 posts

Living in the southern hemisphere detailed reports keep us in touch. So far the only information has been very scarce to say the least.
Updating websites at least gives us some idea of what is on offer.
Whilst not being a great web designer I’d be willing to assist Andrew to keep his pages up to date or add new ones – realising that he is fully committed to development, production and customer service and hasn’t the time to do everything.
I’m sure there would be others willing to do the same.

 
Apr 29, 2018 8:41am
Avatar Steve Pampling (1551) 7398 posts

Updating websites at least gives us some idea of what is on offer.
Whilst not being a great web designer I’d be willing to assist Andrew to keep his pages up to date or add new ones – realising that he is fully committed to development, production and customer service and hasn’t the time to do everything.

I would agree that R-Comp are a prime example of people who are better at developing a product1 than publicisiing it. It might improve things if someone could take on the task of ensuring all information is complete and up to date. I dare say sales might improve a bit too.

1 While the hardware might well be an existing item, in this case, simply dropping a copy of the iMX6 build on it probably doesn’t give you that much of a working RO product so there has been development.

 
Apr 29, 2018 9:34am
Avatar GavinWraith (26) 1438 posts

Larger isn’t always better. ;-)

I have just bought a Wimaxit portable 11" monitor for my RISC OS machine (Rpi3) to replace the 23" LG monitor that had become too unreliable – unpredictable periods of blank screen. A shame, because the LG had a really good picture. But the Wimaxit has an excellent clear picture too. I begin to appreciate the attractions of smallness. On the same theme, I am using a compact Maplin wireless keyboard and mouse. In consequence I can now use the computer in bed.

Only one disadvantage – the “blue” key seems to have disappeared. The “red” key is still there in the form of a Windows key.

 
Apr 29, 2018 9:48am
Avatar Frederick Bambrough (1372) 792 posts

I’m convinced that R-Comp could have made a fair bit from the Mac market with Messenger Pro. Complaints a plenty about the demise of usenet readers, especially now that Apple is going 64 bit only. Pointing people in the direction of R-Comp & Intelligit’s web sites gets negative responses about dead products/companies. Probably too late now.

 
Apr 29, 2018 9:57am
Avatar Andrew Rawnsley (492) 1350 posts

We’ll be doing a formal announcement of mini.m (the little box) shortly. There’s still a little more dev work required, and we’ve had to move programmer resources off that project onto 5.24-ish for our various systems. Once those are out (next week or so) we’ll be finishing off the mini.m work, and then adverts will go up.

In the meantime, I may put up the show literature. Time is not a plentiful resource, esp when you only have one fully working arm/shoulder!

Thanks to those who offer to help with website. I certainly need help, although in the past the scale of the job has always proven a deterrent.

 
Apr 29, 2018 10:56am
Avatar Rick Murray (539) 12369 posts

better at developing a product than publicisiing it.

Remarkably commonplace in the RISC OS market. Indeed, one might suggest that Acorn themselves were the trope codifiers…

 
Aug 17, 2018 6:38pm
Avatar patric aristide (434) 418 posts

Worth the wait though…

 
Aug 24, 2018 4:05pm
Avatar Steve Drain (222) 1620 posts

Worth the wait though…

Yes, it was. Here’s my desktop:

The mini.m is on the left with a USB hub and Vonets WiFi.

In the middle is a Hanspree stick with Windows 10.

On the right is a Pi Zero with a USB hub and hidden WiFi.

The fourth KVM slot links the the shoebox ARMX6 looming off to the right.

Underneath is an ageing Windows XP laptop with a duff screen linked with a VGA cable.

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  • Andrew Rawnsley (492)
  • Rick Murray (539)
  • Steffen Huber (91)
  • David Feugey (2125)
  • Colin (478)
  • Kees Grinwis (3528)
  • Ross McGuinness (1739)
  • Steve Pampling (1551)
  • GavinWraith (26)
  • Frederick Bambrough (1372)
  • patric aristide (434)
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