

Using a Raspberry Pi as an Information Radiator - herval
http://pivotallabs.com/using-a-raspberry-pi-as-an-information-radiator/

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networked
>At ~$60 (Raspberry Pi, USB WiFi, enclosure), it’s 90% cheaper than using a
$600 Mac mini.

Laptops and especially netbooks with broken screens also work great for this
if you need a little more computing power and can double as HTPCs and Wi-Fi
hotspots [1]. You can often get one for less than the price of a RasPi or
free. Remove the upper lid completely to get a ZX Spectrum/C64 style keyboard
computer [2] for easy on-the-spot administration. The built-in battery acts as
a UPS, which is also nice.

The downside is that, unlike the Pi, they can make noise. Still, that can be
remedied.

[1] If you can find wireless drivers that support host mode. No small feat
under FreeBSD.

[2] Here's mine: <http://imgur.com/u9i9fUx>. It's an Asus Eee PC 1001PX.
Currently out of commission because it got replaced by a self-built AMD E-350
Mini-ITX system with a PicoPSU.

~~~
tjoff
"The built-in battery acts as a UPS, which is also nice."

Using an old laptop with a old and depleted or soon to be depleted (especially
when charged 100% constantly) wouldn't make me feel that comfortable, hardly
something it was made for either.

The laptop itself is can be kind of neat as a home server, it usually has
decent power consumption and if the screen works you don't have to dig out a
keyboard and screen in case of an emergency. But you might want to leave the
battery out, and this assuming that is is sensible to use the power brick
24/7. Which I wouldn't assume.

A more performant alternative is the Intel NUC, the coming i5 version also has
hardware support for VNC alleviating the need for a screen/keyboard even for
the most severe emergencies.

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ubercow13
What is it about being charged constantly that makes it worse?

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NotUncivil
The battery may be a fire hazard.

~~~
ubercow13
But the charger won't actually charge constantly, surely it's perfectly safe?

~~~
tjoff
To my knowledge the current still goes through the battery in laptops. But I
could be wrong. And I wouldn't know if that by itself wears more on the
battery (other than the heat, if only for being just next to the hot laptop).

Regardless batteries found in laptops don't like being 100% charged for
prolonged periods, just as they suffer if you leave them at 0% for prolonged
periods. Also, you need to condition them.

And added to that an old battery. Typically I'd say that a laptop is
considered old at the earliest about 2 years after its purchase, that's when
the battery wear typically (although greatly dependent on usage) starts to
really show and the deterioration starts to excel.

You really shouldn't trust even a new consumer laptop battery, but an old
borderline to depleted battery that runs 24/7? In a home?

------
gsiener
FYI the software behind the "information radiator" is actually something we
wrote at Pivotal, Project Monitor. We open sourced it, so you can check out
the repo here to get started: <https://github.com/pivotal/projectmonitor/>

I'm the PM so feel free to shoot any questions/complaints/feedback my way.

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GarethX
Here's how to do it with Geckoboard for those wanting to put the info in to
the radiator - [http://www.geckoboard.com/geckopi-run-geckoboard-on-a-
raspbe...](http://www.geckoboard.com/geckopi-run-geckoboard-on-a-raspberry-
pi/)

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Sunlis
I love my Pi. I just got it a week ago and it's already handling wireless
backups from my laptop, syncing my Fitbit, and hosting all of my media
(external drive with its own power supply and minidlna on the pi). I also plan
on using it to host a central git repo for my personal projects, and I'll
probably end up using apache to run a simple in-house website for various pi-
related tasks (my girlfriend isn't as tech-savvy, but it would be nice for her
to be able to easily restart services and such).

These things are fantastically useful, all we need now are cheap monitors and
you could definitely set up a (albeit somewhat weak) computer for the change
in your piggy bank!

~~~
davidroberts
I love mine too. I have it set up so I can ssh into it from anywhere using my
cell phone. I use it to write python code for an edx class I'm taking on
artificial intelligence while I'm commuting by train or bus, and to remotely
play music hosted on my desktop through the speakers in my living room. It's a
lot of fun.

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kalleboo
For a simpler and more out-of-the-box device, I've seen these things all over
Hong Kong recently <http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=android+hdmi>

$30-40 for an Android 4.1 device with Wifi that plugs straight into your TV,
and can be controlled with a USB mouse/keyboard. Storage on microSD. They
claim to have dual-core ~1.2 GHz ARM processors and ~1 GB of RAM (but with
stuff coming out of there you can never be sure if the specs are real)

