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by rektide 1340 days ago
Hard days that those interested in trying to DIY with an RPi or RPi0 just can't, that there's no parts available.

There's some various other boards we could possibly use. Few are small. Many lack CSI interfaces for attaching cameras. And then, for your outdoor use, ruggedizing is another huge leap.
1 comments
maven29 1340 days ago
Surely you could get android phones and a type-c PoE adapter for cheaper?
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rektide 1340 days ago
I like the idea! There's some IP webcam apps. For some simpler needs, there's the Guardian Project's Haven[1].

Alas though, you'll still be stuck with a device that only lasts 3 years before it's insecure. I'm in the minority, but personally I'd rather a more open ended & flexible system like Linux, with more small-pieces-loosely-coupled possibilities in front of me, where-as with Android I'm going to have 2 or 3 different apps with pretty fixed/limited capabilities that I'll never be able to improve or adjust.

In some ways, the web is kind of the possible remedy here. If the phone runs a webpage that accesses the camera & webrtc & does the things, that'd kind of be ideal, because it's insta-deployable to any vaguely general-purpose hardware. Developing the webrtc chops though to be able to make use of this well though, that's a totally separate conversation.

[1] https://guardianproject.info/apps/org.havenapp.main/

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maven29 1340 days ago
There are phones that do run things like postmarketOS which aims to maximize as much mainline linux as possible. Some well-supported devices are pretty cheap on the secondary market, and for this use-case, things like broken screen etc do not matter in the least.

You'd still have binary blobs of HAL for some peripherals but that's not different from raspberry pi.

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franga2000 1340 days ago
Be careful with using (especially cheap) Android phones for 24/7 use-cases. The vast majority of them don't have power passthrough, meaning they will absolutely wreck the battery if left on a charger. I've had multiple swell up to the point of cracking the screen when I was using them for various IoT things (smart controllers, displays, cameras, trackers...).
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