pcDuino3 on promotion for $49

NeverDie

NeverDie

Senior Member
It seems to have a good feature set for the money.  I ordered one yesterday, together with a matching 5 volt logic shifting shield to maximize arduino accessory compatibility, and shipping was free:
 
http://www.cutedigi.com/blog/pcduino-competition-2014/
 
It packs more CPU power (1ghz dual core A7) than a Pi.  Among other differentiators, it also sports built-in wi-fi, 1gb DDR3, 1gbps ethernet,  4gb built-in flash, a SATA interface, a LiPo battery interface, an openGL dualcore GPU, and can run both Ubuntu and Android.
 
Checked it out relating to using the device benchmarking it running XBMC.  Some folks said it was slow and doing software compression.  Moderators on the forum there said it was a kernel issue and updated the kernel to utilize the hardware video acceleration.  Some folks on the board though continue to state that it jittery at HD 1080 stuff and state that the openGL isn't working right.  The guys there did build a custom XBMC OS for the device.
 
Here now using Ubuntu XBMC Buntu 14.04 running at 64bits for the Digital Engines.  They are doing well streaming from the internet and nas boxes and live tv stuff.  Simple set up.  Issues for me related originally to what was the remote control to use; it was the MS one that worked the best and was plug n play for me.
 
Relating to Homeseer; needed to overclock the RPi to run HS3 pro and shift the GPU memory to little use as I don't have a monitor connected to it anyways.  Working well at 900Mhz.  Doesn't seem to get too warm.  Just added an RTC battery backed up clock to the RPi; works well.
 
Reminds me of the Intel / AMD races to rip a DVD and how fast one CPU could do it over another CPU (old benchmarking).
 
tangent about this video stuff....
 
I did purchase a portable VCD player from Japan when they first came out.  It was a PITA to put one movie on two CDs; but they were CDs and cheap.  My first generation Panasonic Technics CD player had video outputs on it. Picture quality was really not that good but better than VHS and it was a very portable media.  Well for travel though switched from the portable panasonic VCD player over to the Sony little mini 8mm video player (also very neato stuff).  Geez nowadays just use my motorola stereo blue tooth head set and watch the tiny video on the telephone; easier for me.
 
I am very impressed with the specifications and the price.  I almost purchased a SATA port DOM the other day.  I didn't even know they made them.
 
Might get one of these to play around with.  Waiting on the settling as they are continously tweaking the base kernel stuff.
 
Thanks for the link, I went ahead and picked one up. Not sure what I'll do with it yet, but I'm sure I'll find a home for it.
 
Terry
 
If you all like the pcduino3, you'll probably also like the pcduino3 Nano.  As near as I can tell it has all the same features as the pcduino3, except for wi-fi, but it's in a smaller form factor:
http://www.pcduino.com/pcduino3nano/
 
Best of all, the pcduino3 nano's regular "everyday" price is just $39.  If it weren't for the sale price on the pcduino3, I would have gotten a  pcduino3 nano.
 
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has said they won't come out with any new hardware until 2017.  However,  technology and cost reductions are improving at such a rapid rate that I don't think the market is going to wait.  Some other SBC is going to usurp the pi before 2017, and there seems to be a growing mob  of would be contenders, with more popping up all the time, to take-on the pi's mantle.  I do like that the PcDuino is HQ'd in Colorado.  For us in the US, it keeps the shipping costs and the delivery times low.  That said, the proof of the pudding will be in the taste (or, in this case, in whether it's both powerful and easy to use).
 
That nano is very interesting!  At roughly the price of the pi with a lot more features it seems like an easy choice over the pi for most things.  It does carry on the stupid Arduino odd offset connector thing though.  Anyone that can comment on how easy it is to use the GPIO?  On the BBB it seems like there are some hoops to jump through to set up the GPIO.
 
pete_c said:
.  I almost purchased a SATA port DOM the other day.  I didn't even know they made them.
 
Might get one of these to play around with.  Waiting on the settling as they are continously tweaking the base kernel stuff.
Click to expand...
Did you find a SATA DOM that you like?  A SATA DOM would be a nice accessory for the PCDuino3, which conveniently has a SATA connector for it to hook into.   I tried searching for one to buy, but I didn't recognize any of the brands....
 
Did you find a SATA DOM that you like?  A SATA DOM would be a nice accessory for the PCDuino3, which conveniently has a SATA connector for it to hook into.   I tried searching for one to buy, but I didn't recognize any of the brands....
Click to expand...
 
I found a generic SATA DOM on Ebay.  That said it wouldn't have fit into the Homestroller S2 so went to using a 40 pin DOM instead. I have historically utilized Kingspec USB SSD's and they work way better for my Linux builds than the conventional USB 2.0 and newer 3.0's.  I don't remember if there was recognized name.  I just was looking for tiny and cheap.
 
I read a few things about the PCduino not being as good as the pi for xbmc - issues with hardware video acceleration, at least when running Ubuntu. Not sure if this has been resolved.
 
Reading the forums it seems that there still is issues with hardware video acceleration. Odd that its not been figured out yet.
 
Apparently the hardware is there to do it, the software just doesn't deal with the hardware properly.  FWIW, I read that the Android OS is able to do hardware acceleration.
 
Still quite a deal and am tempted to get one anyway.  But I am still fooling with getting a BBB all set up.  And the price vs. performance on these things just keeps getting better.  Guess I should wait until I am ready to put it to work...  Think I will try xbmc on the pi first since I have an extra board.
 
Thanks for the heads up.  Would you mind posting a few of the more damning links that describe the problem?  I tried looking for it on the pdcduino forum, but I don't see any lingering issues.  It does look like there may have been a video acceleration issue with the pcduino3 nano (which is a new product released only recently), but it seems to have been fixed:   http://pcduino.com/forum/index.php?topic=4835.0   I received my pcduino3 in the mail yesterday, so if there's a fatal flaw I'd like to find out while I'm still within the refund window.  Part of the reason I got the pcduino3 instead of the pcduino3nano is that I figured it was likely to be more stable on the theory that it's had more time to mature after release.
 
As an aside, I notice that now MCM has the pcduino3 on sale at $49.99 too, and their website is showing MCM's regular price is now $55.99 (not the $79 it was previously):  http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/83-16248?scode=HMP245  Because of the nano's price, I had a feeling that was gonna happen sooner or later, and now it already has.
 
I didn't save the links but may be able to find them in the history.  I will take a look tonight.  They may have been for the nano.  I was thinking they were pretty much the same with a few bits missing from the nano so they would both have the same issues but that may not be correct. 
 
I don't have suggestions for demanding video.  I have no experience benchmarking those sorts of things.  Perhaps others will have suggestions.
 
Yup; here just thinking it might have been a nice little XBMC device with a little bit more ooph than the RPi.
 
I am stuck on my Aopen Digital Engines for XBMC boxes (have 6 of these on line today).
 
I was looking for maybe configuring somthing tiny for the kitchen nook LCD TV (well it would have to mount behind the set which is almost flush to the wall).  I did run the wiring for doing this; just never got around to it.
 
I am currently running Homeseer 3 Pro on an RPi.  I am not using the video and have shifted the GPU use such that it'll run Homeseer 3 Pro (also initially overclocked it to 900Mhz).  Thinking though the utilization issues (gobble gobble pac man like) are related to Mono running.
 
That said its a great device with many features and the price is right from MCM.  Been purchasing a few things from them lately.  They have stuff too from the EU reasonably priced these days.  Can't find it anywhere else unless you ship directly from the EU here.
 
Its been a couple of years ago but the XBMC folks were able to configure those little wireless streaming sticks to run Linux using hardware acceleration before the vendors had figured out how to do it with Andoid.
 
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