arm-netbook

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1082 discussions

RGB/TTL interface
by Louis Pearson 28 Aug '16

28 Aug '16

I have been trying to figure out how exactly the RGB interface that the eoma-68 standard supplies works. Or, in other words, what you would need to be able to connect it to a screen. The info that I have managed to find makes me think this would connect directly to a LCD or TTF screen's ribbon cable. Is there a description of what is provided with this interface somewhere?

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Will EOMA68-A20 be sweatshop-free?
by Sam Pablo Kuper 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

Let me start by saying I realise that Luke (& undoubtedly others) have already put a *lot* of sweat into EOMA-68, and will likely be working some very long hours in the months ahead. I also realise that even with the tremendous success of the first CrowdSupply round, the volume of production is minuscule compared to Apple, Acer, Dell, etc, and hence also the risk of exploiting contracted workers will be lower - even if only because fewer workers will be assembling EOMA68 hardware. Nevertheless, low resource use; reusability; repairability; RYF compliance... these are necessary properties of an ethical computer, but not quite sufficient ones. Avoiding slavery, indentured labour, etc, and ensuring electronics supply chain workers are able to live decent lives, is surely an equally important part of building ethical computers. With that in mind, are there any plans for Rhombus Tech or other EOMA-68 producers/partners to work with organisations such as these? http://electronicswatch.org/en/ http://chinalaborwatch.org http://www.sacom.hk http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/lang--en/index.htm I suppose that the ideal thing would be for some sort of ethical sourcing requirement to be written into the EOMA-68 standard ;) - spk

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Wikipedia article
by Sam Pablo Kuper 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

Congratulations on exceeding the funding threshold! EOMA68 now has a stub-class article on the English Wikipedia. It could do with being expanded, with references to reliable sources as per Wikipedia policy. Probably Luke shouldn't do that, to avoid conflict of interest, but it would be great if others chipped in with the effort :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EOMA68

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WonderMedia SoCs
by Dima Krasner 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

Hi everyone, I'm Dima (more info about me at dimakrasner.com) and I'm new here, so ... hi. For years I've been following the ARM scene, since I'm very interested in libre hardware projects. Chinese ARM netbooks with WonerMedia chips (8850, 8880, etc') are very common in sites like AliExpress and Ebay and they're pretty darn cheap. Performance, RAM amount limit and decoder performance should be reasonable, compared to other cheap ARM boards. I see the WM8950 has been evaluated, but the wiki doesn't say what's wrong with it. As far as I can tell it's yet another Mali-400 board. Upstream kernel has partial support for newer WonderMedia chips, but there is a small community at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/vt8500-wm8505-linux-kernel and as far as I know older ones (like the 8650) should work to some degree with current upstream kernels, some rotten code floating around multiple kernel trees needs to be upstreamed (possibly, after refactoring) and there is an old, public U-boot fork, at least for the 8650. As far as I see, these are technical ecosystem issues that can be solved by a small group of volunteers with kernel, upstreaming and embedded development experience, even without any vendor support. Therefore, if the 8650 still under mass production, it could be an EOMA68 candidate. Although I understand while the A20 is preferred to WonderMedia chips (it makes life easier on the software front, probably more than any other non-x86 SoC), I wonder, what makes them unacceptable in RYF hardware? Is there any technical issue that I've missed? Cheers, Dima

2 1

99%
by Alexander .S.T. Ross 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

heh "we are the 99%" ...for now heh ;) Soon to be "We are the 101%+" :D Congratulations luke! Well done every one :D.

10 24

one hour left
by Nick Hardiman 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

One hour left, and the pledges keep on coming in. Congratulations to the crew who made all this possible. I know there are many good moral reasons for backing this project. ,The mail archive is full of excellent descriptions of the problems EOMA68 solves - security, e-waste, non-disclosure agreements, power consumption, and so on. I’ll say this successful campaign brings us a step closer towards a real free market for IT. The barrier to entry is so low all the electronic engineers out there can get busy making new products around these general purpose computers. Looking forward to a better - and cheaper - world of modular IT, Nick mail archive http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/pipermail/arm-netbook/

1 0

EOMA68 campaign: welcome to all the new members
by Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

btw one thing, very important: welcome to everyone who's joined in the past 2 months! without you we wouldn't be here. feel free to introduce yourselves, say hello. l. --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68

1 0

Future case idea: tamper-resistant desktop like ORWL
by Sam Pablo Kuper 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

I'd love to be able to put an EOMA68 card into something like this, instead of the Intel Skylake boards currently offered: https://www.crowdsupply.com/design-shift/orwl I contacted Design Shift, the company behind ORWL, to ask if they would do a case-only offering on their CrowdSupply page, noting that it would potentially work well with EOMA68. I also asked them to provide the design files under a Free Cultural Works license such as GPLv3 :) They haven't responded yet, but I'll try to remember to update this thread if they do. Is anyone working on a tamper-evident enclosure for the EOMA68?

2 1

Getting started making new housings?
by Louis Pearson 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

Hello! I am a student going into college for Computer Engineering and I am super excited about the possibilities of this project! I have backed and will be receiving a Libre Tea Computer Card and a breakout board. I have worked with Arduinos a few times and know how to use them on a basic level, though formal electronics stuff (math, mostly) and electronic design are somewhat of a mystery to me. With that in mind, I would like to start working on a new housing for myself (kind of answering the call in the most recent update). I'm unsure of exactly where to begin though. I'd like to make a custom PCB and case (probably 3D printed). What I fell that I am missing is resources for starting to work with EOMA-68 devices. KiCad libraries, FreeCad models, etc. Where would I find this?

2 2

Why Free hardware fails
by Robert Wilkinson 26 Aug '16

26 Aug '16

Hello "Such problems are difficult to handle by themselves. But in addition, any production run has fixed costs that, as Len Leighton, who is currently fundraising for the EOMA68 laptop, explained to me in a private email, remain very much the same regardless of how many units are built. As a result, units in a small run are more expensive, and have a hard time matching the specifications of leading manufacturers. This is a serious problem because, while idealists will buy free hardware for ethical reasons, others potential users will not consider free hardware unless its specs are competitive with the proprietary hardware sold in computer stores." from http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Off-the-Beat-Bruce-Byfield-s-B… Who is this Len person? Bob -- Civilization, as we know it, will end sometime this evening. See SYSNOTE tomorrow for more information.

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