back to article A challenger appears: Taiwanese devs' answer to Gemini PDA wraps a Raspberry Pi in a tablet

A team of Taiwanese engineers is planning to release an eight-inch tablet based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+. The CutiePi, as it's called, has a MIPI DSI (Display Serial Interface) 1,280x800 pixel touch-enabled display, a gyroscope and temperature sensor, 4,800mAh battery, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a single USB port, an …

  1. MrWibble

    CutiePi using QT on a Pi? I suppose it's easier to google that than QTPi.

  2. Mystic Megabyte

    Interesting

    What I'm looking for is a device that will talk to a *Hantek 'scope. It seems that there are only a couple of models supported on Linux. I definitely won't buy a Kindle (ugh!) so any advice will be welcome. Thanks

    *Think car diagnostics

    1. DCFusor

      Re: Interesting

      Most modern scopes use an ascii protocol more or less swiped from tektronix. I have code talking to and controlling some GW Instek scopes here - and it seems to be the same protocol (it's fairly dumb...) used by other brands as well. It will easily run on a pi (I do so here).

      You might get some good out of looking at the stuff at this link (my site) http://www.coultersmithing.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=989&start=0&hilit=scope+control+code

      Or in general, downloading this and that programming manual for the various brands - most have them online, but it takes some fishing...in the GW Instek case it's done by series, so looking for your model doesn't find it...

      If that's not enough, my email is also my handle here at gmail.com

      Good luck! You're not going to find anything free out of the can, nor fully as you want and pre packaged. Some assembly required (unless you're simply wealthy enough to buy a Tek and their software).

      1. Trollslayer

        Re: Interesting

        You may find it is SCPI commands with extensions.

    2. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: Interesting

      I have Hantek. 100 MHz digital storage scope £180 delivered from Banggood. More than good enough, amazing thing. I’ll have a play with the interface.

  3. Arthur the cat Silver badge

    Blast from the past

    It looks rather like a Sinclair Z88. Back in the day journalists loved the Z88. I wonder what the battery life of the new device is.

    1. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

      Re: Blast from the past

      It was the first thing I thought of too, but it's just the photo that makes it look like that. It's the on-screen keyboard that creates the effect.

    2. AJ MacLeod

      Re: Blast from the past

      I bet it's not as good as a Z88 in terms of battery life or typing accuracy... That thing was way ahead of its time in many ways. I personally would be happy to sacrifice screen size for a real keyboard - I just won't buy a device of this type (including phones) that doesn't have physical buttons.

      1. Stoneshop

        Re: Blast from the past

        Might be hard to find a graphical screen with the dimensions to fit in a Z88 (or the Tandy 100), but the Compute Module supports 2 DSI ports so with two smaller screens (5" or so?) side by side you could have sufficient screen real estate.

        You would also want to fit a trackpoint, touchpad or trackball somewhere.

  4. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Not enough bandwidth, and given me a proper keyboard

    The Gemini's form factor is a winner: it does fit into a pocket and a real keyboard is a real advantage. Planet is struggling with the software but the package all in all is compelling. All the Pi's struggle with being limited to USB 2's meagre bandwidth. In many situations this doesn't seem like a problem, but once you starting doing real stuff IO quickly becomes an issue. Going with the Pi 4 would let them use the relatively open platform that Broadcom provides, but it's also difficult to see what this brings over an Android with a soft keyboard.

    1. timrowledge

      Re: Not enough bandwidth, and given me a proper keyboard

      A) Pi 4 has usb3.

      B) meagre usb 2 bandwidth hasn’t stopped quite a few of us doing interesting things with prior models.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Not enough bandwidth, and given me a proper keyboard

        This device is using the Compute module rather than the standard form factor Pi. This allows them to package the device according to their requirement, but there is no date for a Pi 4 Compute module.

        But I've never worried about USB 2 and I would buy one of these things without hesitation, and a small bluetooth keyboard to go with it.

        The advantage of this over Android is that it is not Android. Android is absolutely no 'kin way José for me.

        1. werdsmith Silver badge

          Re: Not enough bandwidth, and given me a proper keyboard

          In fact, I think this could fill some of the the space left by Pii-Top.

          Pi-Top made a bad decision in my opinion, by changing their form factor to one any maker could knock up for themselves. It's harder for a home user to come up with a laptop housing, which Pi-Top seem to have abandoned. I see no need for PiTop 4.

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Not enough bandwidth, and given me a proper keyboard

        This is a Pi 3 and not a 4.

        I have frequently hit problems with IO on USB 2, happens quite quickly when you're trying to use the disk and the network. Maybe they've found a workaround but I thought it was an SoC restriction.

        1. Stoneshop
          WTF?

          Re: Not enough bandwidth, and given me a proper keyboard

          I have frequently hit problems with IO on USB 2, happens quite quickly when you're trying to use the disk and the network.

          It's a tablet. Why as well as how would you be using one for an IO-intensive application? It doesn't have a wired Ethernet port and not much in the way of USB connectivity either. It's something you take with you, as a portable screen that's a bit bigger than the average phone, with some input capabilities so that you can enter bits of data More than just occasional text input makes nearly all users reach for an auxiliary BT keyboard. This particular tablet runs Raspbian, so its use cases may be diverging somewhat from the average Android or iPad ones, but it's still a tablet form factor which skews heavily towards screen output, not, for instance, data logging and processing.

  5. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    As the Pi 4 is reported to run rather hotter than the 3 the latter is probably more appropriate to be wrapped up in a tablet quite apart from battery life considerations.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      You can control the temperature/power in software. But if these are a real consideration then an SoC with a better TDP would be the better choice.

      1. Stoneshop

        Aye. A pi3 with 2 or even 4 gig RAM would be ideal, IMO (haven't bothered to look whether the 3 actually supports more)

  6. Blane Bramble

    More interestingly, this could lead to an upgradeable tablet - year or two down the line, pop in a Pi-5 or Pi-6 compute model...

  7. karlkarl Silver badge

    I like it.

    Any reason they used the compute module rather than whacking in the bog standard (easy to replace) Pi 3?

    Once they release, if they ever get out of the "we are out of stock" stage, I will probably buy a couple.

    1. werdsmith Silver badge

      Any reason they used the compute module rather than whacking in the bog standard (easy to replace) Pi 3?

      Because the Compute module is on a DIMM format PCB, with no external connectors apart from its edge connector.

      This means they can lay out the connectors and external components as they wish, and produce a slimmer device, the CM is there for this kind of thing.

      Also, a DIMM is pretty easy to replace and the CM3+ costs £30 inc VAT at CPC.

  8. Trollslayer
    Flame

    Pi3 and heat

    I would like to see how the dissipate the heat from it.

    1. Warm Braw

      Re: Pi3 and heat

      Well, they have a temperature sensor, at least.

      I'm not sure the Pi is likely to be terribly useful as a handheld battery-powered device if these benchmarks are right.

      The Pi doesn't have a low power mode and the Pi 3 appears to draw 260mA when idle (and 20-30mA when halted unless the power is physically disconnected) before you add peripheral devices, so it's going to have a relatively modest standby time, I would have thought - or an enormous battery. And that's before you try to actually use it.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Pi3 and heat

        Pi-Top 3 runs 10 hour+ battery life.

        1. Warm Braw

          Re: Pi3 and heat

          The Pi-Top 3 has 4 2900mAh batteries which would give it roughly 2.4x the run time of this device, all other things being equal.

      2. Stoneshop

        Re: Pi3 and heat

        The Pi doesn't have a low power mode and the Pi 3 appears to draw 260mA when idle (and 20-30mA when halted unless the power is physically disconnected)

        This guy basically added a power/shutdown switch, with which you lose the instant-on of real tablets but given that it's a DIY project I could live with such a limitation.

  9. lowjik

    Interesting

    I will be following this with some interest - at last a worth successor to my N900 perhaps?

    1. James 51
      Gimp

      Re: Interesting

      Are you talking about the pi tablet or the gemini/cosmo?

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Interesting

        There is no SIM/telephone in this new device. Unless there's another version in the pipeline.

      2. Stoneshop
        Headmaster

        Re: Interesting

        Yes.

  10. StuntMisanthrope

    Off the record.

    On the QT. #blanketyblankchequebookandpen

  11. Adrian 4

    weird units

    '4,800mAh battery'

    Any reason why you described the battery as having a capacity of 4 thousand eight hundred thousandths of an an amp-hour ?

    Wouldn't '4.8Ah' be more convenient ?

    1. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: weird units

      If you are shopping for batteries, mAh seems to be the standard. I guess it markets better.

    2. Stoneshop
      Boffin

      Re: weird units

      Phones, tablets and powerbanks list them as mAh because 1000mAh sounds so much larger than 1Ah.

      Expressing battery capacity for some device in amp-hours is rather silly though when they don't spec the battery output voltage. A 10Ah motorcycle battery is storing 120Wh, 432kJ, where a 10000mAh powerbank merely manages 37Wh, 133.2kJ

      The proper capacity unit would be hamsterfortnight at the standard LiPo voltage:

      $ units

      Currency exchange rates from www.timegenie.com on 2016-06-21

      2815 units, 92 prefixes, 86 nonlinear units

      You have: 4.8 * 3.7 watt * hour

      You want: hamster * fortnight

      * 2.8014286

      / 0.35696073

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: weird units

      If you are going to pedant about units for battery capacity, then let’s go straight to Joules and forget the amp-hour nonsense.

      Although I am waiting for current draw to be expressed as milli-amp-hours-per-hour :)

      1. Phil Endecott

        Re: weird units

        No, mAh is not Joules, it’s Coulombs.

        </evenmorepedantic>

        1. Stoneshop
          Boffin

          Big Numbers

          So this unit has a battery capacity of 17280 million million picocoulomb.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: weird units

          Ahem I did not say that mAh was dimensionally the same as joules, merely that the former is used to describe battery capacity (it is) and that joules would be better (imho).

          </doublepluspedantry>

  12. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Happy

    My inner nerd wants one!

    Not sure what for at the moment, but I hope to find an excuse.

  13. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

    It isn't open source

    Open source means open drivers, and the last time I looked the graphics chipset used a binary blob

    For a landscape phone, you may want to look at the Fxtec Pro1, which is scheduled to ship with Android, Lineage, and Sailfish.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It isn't open source

      Look again - there's been a lot of work on getting an open driver into the upstream kernel, and with Raspbian Buster you can now use this upstream driver if you want.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Trollface

    Oh, my sides!

    Or you could just stand in the street and tear-up $150-$250 in bills.

    1. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: Oh, my sides!

      Whatever floats it for you.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    personally I like the design

    for those that want a real keyboard and mouse there is always bluetooth and since these are standard for linux then everthing should work without problems unlike the gemini which will suffer the usual problems of keyboard and mouse not being stardard for android.

    Also since this is the previous generation of the PI then it isnt spectre vulernable so is safe for internet use.

  16. Scott Wheeler

    Gemini Linux

    Realistically, the Gemini does not support Linux. Yes, it's possible to install it, but some key features do not work and Planetcom's idea of "support" is that someone out there in the Linux community will get things running eventually. Very disappointing if you actually want a Linux device - it's really just an Android PDA.

  17. jelabarre59
    Joke

    Other colours?

    So if you had it in a honey-coloured case, would you have a...

    Cutie Honey ?????

  18. Dave Bell

    I'm not sure that I'd bother with this, but a reasonable screen size, powered by a Raspberry Pi, and using Bluetooth for keyboard and Mouse could be a quite powerful machine. The Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM is a solid base.

    What I would wait for is the ability to boot from a USB-attached SSD, which isn't a Pi 4 option yet. It's early days, several add-ons are appearing, and there are some very nice Pi 3 cases which would tempt me in a Pi 4 equivalent. All these things take time.

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