Delighted with the N2

[XFer]

I'm using the N2 (2 GB variant) for an audio project.
I wanted to publicly congratulate the folks at Odroid for this nice board.
The more I use it, the more I like it.

For my project, the best things are:

Very fast, reasonable power draw, good thermals (all together!).
Good quality onboard audio.
Reasonably fast microSD interface (and very fast eMMC!).
Power button!! YESSSS!!!
And good software support. I may even say it's almost on par with RPI.
Good community support, too!

So congratulations Hardkernel/Odroid team, keep on the good work.

And please give me a newer C0, a bit faster and with even less power draw while you're at it!
Needed for another project.

[mad_ady]

Faster and less power draw will be difficult. Maybe they plan something around the C4 soc.

[XFer]

Faster and less power draw will be difficult.
Maybe they plan something around the C4 soc.

That would be sad.
I know that AmLogic S805 is obsolete and is going to be unavailable.
But S905X3, while way more powerful than S805, draws more power.
For certain projects, saving power is more important than (so much) faster speed...

Maybe they could release a "minimal" board based upon GO Advance (I know it's limited to 512 MB)?
Nice little RK3326 should be at least as fast as S805 and for sure draws less power. One can hope.

[mad_ady]

Oh, hadn't thought of that. Though - you can get just the GoA motherboard and use it like a C0! Though it has only few gpios exposed. With a bit of soldering you could probably reuse the gpios used for buttons.

[XFer]

I could, but it's a chore; my new device will be built in a small series: I would die soldering (odd form factor would be an issue, too)!

[rooted]

I mentioned it in another thread but I would love to see a C0 replacement using the OGA SoC with full GPIO breakout, it would be amazing if they could do that in something like the Pi Zero form factor.

[odroid]

At this moment, we have no plan to make such boards since ODROID-C0 and ODROID-W were not popular at all.
I think there are very limited users who can eagerly do some soldering jobs.

[rooted]

I don't think it's people can't solder, it's that Raspberry Pi has all the market share since there are so many how-to for that platform.

People are afraid to do things that haven't been done before I think.

[XFer]

That's so sad! I LOVE my C0!!

[mad_ady]

Hmm, you Love your C0, but you're just delighted with the N2... What did the N2 do to lose your affection?

[crashoverride]

I mentioned it in another thread but I would love to see a C0 replacement using the OGA SoC with full GPIO breakout, it would be amazing if they could do that in something like the Pi Zero form factor.

I had this exact same thought. I do not think a Pi Zero form factor would be practical though. The main reason being is that it uses PoP RAM which isn't available on modern SoCs. This likely means the C0 form factor would be required.

The sentiment seems to be that HardKernel needs an "IoT" board in their product line: something that is low cost, low power, and highly flexible (generic).

[mad_ady]

And they need someone to buy it too... That's why I was optimistic about the GoA mainboard as a standalone product.

[crashoverride]

And they need someone to buy it too..

Recently I have noticed a trend in the projects I want to do: de-clouded versions of consumer hardware!

I REALLY want to do an IP video camera/NVR/Ring Doorbell system. I would like an IoT board (w battery backup) that has a MIPI camera (and optional speaker/microphone) interface for the IP camera units and a C4/N2 for the NVR.

I also want to do a home automation system. Everything should use BT Mesh to communicate. This would be well suited to the ESP32 used in the original ODROID-GO and again using a C4/N2 for the controller.

The things both have in common are that GO and GO2 motherboards are well suited. However, neither is available in a project (IoT) form.

BONUS POINTS: I also want a router/switch board. Everything modern "phones home" and/or has backdoors (even Cisco).

[mad_ady]

You can flash normal home routers with open firmware - if you don't mind binary blobs/firmware.
A good home router needs to have (imho) a good cpu to terminate vpn traffic, an internal 4-8 port switch with vlan, port mirroring and management (counters accessible through snmp, ability to shut down port) and killer wifi with mimo and all bells and whistles.
A bit out of HK's usual builds, and competeing with bigger players in the market (I wouldn't mind being wrong, though)

[XFer]

I'm a bit surprised that many players (like HardKernel, but it's a general tendency) are apparently uninterested in battery-friendly boards, I mean with low power usage and accepting lower performances.

I occasionally work on small projects for customers who have a need for small battery powered (or solar powered) units.
For example, I did a number of specialty Youtube-friendly 3G cameras for wildlife conservation NGOs, powered by a small solar panel with battery backup.
I had to turn to Raspberry A+ and Zero, because of low power draw and (outstanding, let me say) camera support.

Now I'm building a small "rompler" (soundfont-based synthesizer) and turned to C0: it does an outstanding job and thanks to its (relatively) low power can run on a small powerbank for many hours.

But if the C0 replacement is going to be based upon C4, it will be relatively power hungry and thus unsuit for the task. Not everyone needs high performance.

[crashoverride]

Now I'm building a small "rompler" (soundfont-based synthesizer)

I have that on my "wishlist" of projects for the summer. The GO-Advance is perfectly suited to it as-is. During my research phase, I "feature creeped" it to add sequencer functionality. I now envision it similar to the "Pocket Operator" products from Teenage Engineering:
https://teenage.engineering/products/po

[XFer]

Indeed the GO Adv would be excellent; but I just can't pass on the awkward console shape.
A C0-sized board based upon that hardware would be very interesting!