
Upcylce Old Speakers with C.H.I.P - dcschelt
http://blog.nextthing.co/ntc-project-upcycle-your-old-speakers-with-c-h-i-p/
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kieranhunt
I was one of the C.H.I.P. kickstarter backers. I actually have two. I've been
quite pleased with them. Apart from the issue with early C.H.I.P.s not
booting[1], I've been had very few issues with mine.

I really like the idea of these small, cheap, hackable and ubiquitous
computers that we can assign to a project and not worry about the cost. One
issue with the multitude of different companies making these things (Raspberry
Pi, Beagleboard, Next Thing, etc.) is that some systems garner large
communities (and subsequently lots of support) whilst others seem to remain
small. Most of my endeavours with these computers has been software related
but I imagine that the size of the community comes into effect when it comes
to hardware support. Is there something that can be done do try to minimize
this difference?

[1] [https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/c-h-i-p-boot-repair-tool-for-
mac/...](https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/c-h-i-p-boot-repair-tool-for-mac/2780)
(that site was having issues with its CSS at the time of posting)

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jdietrich
Open drivers, open documentation. Trying to work with these cheap SoCs is like
pulling teeth, because their manufacturers are completely indifferent to the
open source community. Video drivers are a particular sticking point.

~~~
makomk
They're working on it. The company behind C.H.I.P seems to be paying someone
to develop drivers for it and get them into upstream Linux, including non-
accelerated video drivers. A lot of the hardware on this era of Allwinner SoC
actually already has support thanks to community efforts, too.

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toomanybeersies
> veneer, plastics, and MDF rule the day when it comes to speaker materials

There's a reason for this. It's because MDF gives far more consistent sound
properties, not only between speakers, but within parts of the speaker box.
MDF is about as uniform as you can get timber.

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Timethy
Sounds like the CHIP guys are desperate for use cases. That LePai amp already
plays MP3 off USB and SD card.

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aceperry
Since the CHIP is similar to other single chip SOC platforms like the
Raspberry Pi, beagle bone, etc, the use cases are very similar. The CHIP has
the advantage of being smaller in size than the other small cpu's but also
much cheaper.

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manyxcxi
It's only much cheaper if you get it without any of the adapters. I
Kickstarted it and paid $24 for one w/ an HDMI adapter and $19 for one w/ a
VGA. That being said, now that I have both adapters, any proceeding purchases
go back to being much cheaper if I don't need the display adapters full time.

The thing that really got me was their aim of being entirely open source. I
like the Pi, but there's a lot of stuff closed off.

~~~
Nexxxeh
It's also cheap to go from HDMI to VGA now, a "Ugreen" HDMI to VGA converter
(with 3.5mm audio out) is about $8.50.

I think the popularity of the Pi has helped there.

(The adapters are great, but depending on what you're plugging in, you may
need to supply power as well. A microUSB cable is included in the box. If what
you want to display has HDCP, that needs to be removed before the adapter.)

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agumonkey
Some mod could fix the upcylce / upcycle typo.

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Hydraulix989
Upcylce?

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dspillett
A common portmanteau of upgrade and recycle:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upcycling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upcycling)

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unwind
I'm pretty sure the grandparent was pointing out the typo in the title. It
seems we're low on moderating power at the moment. :)

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dspillett
Ah. I'd not noticed the type either time. Dyslexia rules KO!

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Hydraulix989
You mean typo?

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dspillett
Yes. I fail at both reading and writing. I'm not going to try 'rithmetic, I'll
only embarrass myself.

