Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => Other architectures => Topic started by: bmarkus on July 14, 2016, 01:24:44 AM

Title: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on July 14, 2016, 01:24:44 AM
Does anyone have CHIP, the $9 computer or waiting for a delivery?
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on July 14, 2016, 10:48:36 AM
Waiting for my  >:( :(. seen on the blog that they Shipping the chips
Pre-order shipments are scheduled to begin on June 25th!.
http://blog.nextthing.co/all-that-good-pre-order-shipping-info/

But i hope that core linux will be easy to install.
But can Allwinner R8 processor be easy to compile the kernel.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on July 14, 2016, 11:14:11 PM
Thanks. The old tracking link in the order confdirmation is not valid. It is reporting automatically the current month. After some posts at their Forum learned that they want you to confirm the shipping address. Use the new link

http://track.getchip.com/

and check your address. Now I got the message that in few weeks they will deliver but to be honest do not trust them too much. Anyhow, will see and if I will ever get the board see whether it is worth to play with or better to sell :(

I pre-ordered it in November 30, 2015 and since that time did not receive any mail from them.

It is not unique, I have bad experience with Kickstarter projects.

BTW if you are just ordering one online they are saying July shipping.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on July 23, 2016, 01:26:41 PM
New message on there site:

https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/pre-order-shipping-updates-scaling-up-c-h-i-p-production/
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on July 23, 2016, 08:56:44 PM
Patrik,

thanks. In my case:

Quote
Pre-orders placed before April 30th, estimated to ship by Aug 31st (4961 pre-orders)

One month shift again, no delivery in July. They can't be Trusted. Forget them.




Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on July 26, 2016, 10:09:13 PM
These guys at NEXT looks crazy. They shipping out orders randomly. Forum members just confirming they got board already ordered in January or December. They have no idea about logistic and how to manage customers.

Main issue is that even if you get the board how can you trust to get another board(s) within reasonable time frame, or within their confirmed time? What if you have a project and want to make few units of your robot, sensor, etc?

Now it looks like porting piCore would be just a wasted time.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on August 06, 2016, 03:30:34 AM
Now i get a mail that says that my chip are shipping from Hong Kong. :)
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on August 06, 2016, 03:50:56 AM
Now i get a mail that says that my chip are shipping from Hong Kong. :)

chip or pocket chip?
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on August 06, 2016, 06:29:13 AM
4pcs chip.
4pcs back-cases.

Hope that tcl team can port tcl to the chip.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on August 06, 2016, 08:58:41 AM
Hope that tcl team can port tcl to the chip.

I'm not sure I will port, all depends on available time and other projects. There are several ARM boards, like nanopi series or orangepi, odoid, etc. Also $5 board looks interesting as it is a MIPS CPU where we have nothing to offer. We will see. Of course if someone want to make the port, just do :)

But I would like to spend more time for uPython ports as well.


Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on August 18, 2016, 02:30:22 PM
I got my 4 plastic cases today...but not any chip's :(
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on August 18, 2016, 09:30:52 PM
You can sell on eBay
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on August 31, 2016, 10:48:24 PM
Now it is September 1st. I got email, that my order placed in November 2015 will be shipped in mid October due to issues with long term stability of Toshiba NAND flash. I was curious what reason they will invent not to meet their own commitment to ship it by August 31 ( which was first May, then June, etc., always shifted). Clever. One year delay.

For sure there will be something is October, like sourcing issues due to high demand to manufacture smart phones for XMAS, etc.

But they are getting better. At least they sent an email.

So I gave up. If it will arrive ever, I will sell it, no reason to deal with.

Why not ask refund? Simple. Do not trust it will be payed back.

It means, that I will never port piCore to this board nor any future? product? of NEXT.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on September 01, 2016, 11:29:12 AM
Yes i got this mail also, to bad.
But when i ordered the first raspberry pi, I had to wait for a long time.
Because of the ethernet port missing the magnet.
I received a t-shirt from Element14 as compensation for long waiting.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on September 01, 2016, 12:26:21 PM
Did you wait one year for the RPi?
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on October 12, 2016, 07:13:37 AM
Now a received the mail with confirmation of my post address.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: jgrulich on October 12, 2016, 10:26:54 PM
May be nice to play with when it will be on stock ??? But now it's only wasting time.
One board is for nothing, we need stock on them for the real applications, not sure?
There are other small and cheap boards which may replace this one and are on stock already.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on October 13, 2016, 12:02:36 AM
May be nice to play with when it will be on stock ??? But now it's only wasting time.
One board is for nothing, we need stock on them for the real applications, not sure?
There are other small and cheap boards which may replace this one and are on stock already.

Agree, forget it. My order from November last year is still pending. A single unit. Let's expect I will receive it and find useful. I can't buy another one, cant use it not in products but a hobby project. Useless shit.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on October 26, 2016, 02:14:33 PM
Today at least I received a tracking number from their logistic partner in Hong Kong.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on November 01, 2016, 08:18:30 AM
I just copy your message *lol*
"Today at least I received a tracking number from their logistic partner in Hong Kong".



Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on November 07, 2016, 08:04:29 AM
Arrived today.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: jgrulich on November 16, 2016, 12:42:59 AM
Any news? is it working with the piCore? How is the performance compared to the NanoPi Neo ($8 version)?
Title: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on November 16, 2016, 03:36:34 AM
Any news? is it working with the piCore? How is the performance compared to the NanoPi Neo ($8 version)?

No it is in a plastic bag as arrived did not switch on yet. There are more important projects.  I waited 11 months for it and lost confidence. Even if it found good for piCore do not see whether it is really available or not to reproduce a project for others.  There are many other more exciting opportunities.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: patrikg on November 16, 2016, 08:08:52 AM
Can also say that the chip os 4.4 has some obvious faults, has played with the unit some days now. And find two faults. One when i flashed the unit, that the apt database file be corrupt with just zeros. Have not find why.. but when i flashed the unit some more times with the same image file, the fault disappear. And when you tries to change the uboot settings for the display settings to change from ntsc to pal, the settings will be overwritten then it boots.   
Have not get the hole picture how the chip work.

Lets do some more investigation, but i hope that it's more funny, than doing the error correction for the NTC.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bernhard on November 16, 2016, 09:32:01 AM
mine arrived yesterday, ordered in March ... still fighting with WLAN access (eduroam)
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on November 16, 2016, 10:21:04 AM
I received a mail from another C.H.I.P. owner in Budapest warning me do not flash the device with a new OS. He tried and since it is not working.
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bernhard on November 18, 2016, 08:59:32 AM
here are some instructions http://www.chip-community.org/index.php/Chip9$_U-Boot:_how_to_test_a_new_kernel_(in_a_safe_way) (http://www.chip-community.org/index.php/Chip9$_U-Boot:_how_to_test_a_new_kernel_(in_a_safe_way)) about using a different kernel (apparently without completely flashing the whole device). And a little bit more info about the U-Boot is here: http://www.chip-community.org/index.php/U-Boot_Environment (http://www.chip-community.org/index.php/U-Boot_Environment)
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: Thndr on January 02, 2017, 03:17:31 PM
Is there any chance of looking at the CHIP again for a potential platform? It seems like it'd be easier to handle in the near future.

It looks like they're going to move from deboostrap to Debian live-image (https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/all-i-want-ed-for-xmas-is-an-easy-custom-distro/13598/2) for image generation and also included a preview

Some other folks have also made it easier to use the SDK by building Docker images that can build/flash a CHIP OS
https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/docker-image-for-the-chip-sdk/13650
https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/docker-image-to-compile-kernel/12923
Title: Re: CHIP, the $9 computer
Post by: bmarkus on January 02, 2017, 10:37:31 PM
Finally I cancelled porting piCore to C.H.I.P. and sold it.

However, if one is porting piCore it is welcome.