Granted this is a gaming sub so that view makes sense, however for specialized applications where you need the GPIO pins or space/power is a large factor they’re still needed and this is gonna suck.
If space isn't the biggest factor, you can get the micro-pc and connect a microcontroller like a raspberry pi pico via USB or serial and write a driver to interface between the two systems (or use something like micro-ros). It's not the best in extremely space constrained situations or areas where the connectors could come apart though
Except a PCIe GPIO card is bigger the the entirety of a Pi, let alone the entire computer and still suffers from power draw issues. On the software side I don’t know how well that would work as there already are a lot of GPIO SDKs a libraries specifically targeted at the Pi.
There's already a price jump of $20 USD between the RPi 4B 1GB ($35) and 2GB ($55) versions in Micro Center. It's hard to do much with a GUI with that little memory nowadays.
8 Comments
Zen_Shinobi@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 194d
Not even worth it anymore. You can buy old used corperate PC or mini PC for around $100.
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 194d
Granted this is a gaming sub so that view makes sense, however for specialized applications where you need the GPIO pins or space/power is a large factor they’re still needed and this is gonna suck.
michael@piefed.chrisco.me · 3 pts · 194d
Yeah it sucks. I know there are alternatives like the orange pi that are cheaper but the software support just isnt as good.
End of an era.
ralakus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 194d
If space isn't the biggest factor, you can get the micro-pc and connect a microcontroller like a raspberry pi pico via USB or serial and write a driver to interface between the two systems (or use something like micro-ros). It's not the best in extremely space constrained situations or areas where the connectors could come apart though
rollerbang@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 194d
PCIe card with GPIO?
ramble81@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 194d
Except a PCIe GPIO card is bigger the the entirety of a Pi, let alone the entire computer and still suffers from power draw issues. On the software side I don’t know how well that would work as there already are a lot of GPIO SDKs a libraries specifically targeted at the Pi.
SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 194d
I'm normally really bad at timing the market but I really did get lucky for buying a Pi 5 8GB in September 2025.
Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 194d
There's already a price jump of $20 USD between the RPi 4B 1GB ($35) and 2GB ($55) versions in Micro Center. It's hard to do much with a GUI with that little memory nowadays.
Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 193d