Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

ck2

Wow it's only a $9 device (see below)

Definitely trying this out.

I wonder what the power draw is?

Shame they didn't use microusb connector.

No idea about the trustworthiness of this seller but use the page for general info and lots of photos:

http://www.gearbest.com/memory-cards/pp_246125.html

update: only $9.13 with coupon code GBJANRT and use paypal checkout for safety

There is also a source on aliexpress that is $1 cheaper if you are buying bulk.

I wonder if openWRT gives it wifi-N ability, factory firmware only does wifi-G

View on HN

It's currently £5 inc. delivery on Amazon.co.uk. This puts it into Raspberry Pi Zero and NodeMCU/ESP8266 territory.

Add to the fact that internally it's not very different to the venerable TP-Link WR-703N and it's possibly a great OpenWRT device to tinker with.

I've used Gearbest in the past. They're ok to order from generally, but their unsubscribe mailing list email link doesn't work and I had trouble ordering from them initially due to delivery address issues at my end.

Except the pi zero has a 1ghz quad core processor and 512mb ram. This has 64mb and a terrible 400mhz single core processor (i think). So not really that comparable.

Also not forgetting that without modifying the chip it gives the Chinese company that makes it complete access to any files that go near it if it gets internet access.

pi zero has 700mhz single core, same as raspberry A/B/B+. Also, zsun has built in WiFi

It's the same chip, clocked at 1Ghz. https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/

Do you have a link on Amazon? I see it for £5.99 + £3.99 shipping

Same. Can't spot anything cheaper on Amazon.co.uk. Note that it is dispatched from China...

This is £4.99 for me, but I'm a Prime subscriber: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00Y1Z9S8A

Unavailable...

Another similar device is the gl.inet AR-150

$24 but you get 2xEthernet, USB host, stable openwrt, a button + 2 state switch (handy for triggering scripts) and the option of an external antenna.

https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/gl-inet/gl-ar150

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/GL-iNet-GL-AR150-150Mbps-WiFi...

I'm so tempted to order this for $9 but I don't really have a use for it!

I have zero use for it also but playing with and learning this chipset for $9 is something I cannot passup.

I am sure I'll use it as a repeater or remote storage device at some point.

Now if I could justify the two dozen smartphones I have...

+1 for the gl.inet. I use a 6416 for prototyping my devices and it's a really great device to mess around with.

Both this and the still to be delivered "Black-Swift" are minimal single board computers using the AR9331. It should be similar to the Black-Swift's power specs,

"Power consumption: 120 mA typical (400 MHz CPU frequency, Wi-Fi enabled), 60 mA in energy-saving mode (200 MHz, Wi-Fi disabled), 300 mA max"

This is at 5v so ~1.5w max. If you wanted to use even moderate power USB2 peripherals instead of the SD card reader you'd have to inject external 5v power.

If you don't need sdcard reader, but want RJ45 for wired Ethernet and USB host port connectors out-of-the-box (as opposed to soldering to test-points on Zsun), ~ $7 will get you this:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/unbranded/a5-v11

Just a heads up, the device you mention uses an RT5350-based SOC. There's nothing wrong with it, but support can sometimes be a little flaky.

However, the built-in wifi chipset doesn't do channel hopping properly while the AR9331 does, meaning that for people doing 802.11 security stuff this is not the chipset for you.

If on the other hand you're not doing 802.11 or anything funky with the hardware, it's a nice little box. I have one using a CDC ether USB gadget to inject rickrolls into web pages.

> I have one using a CDC ether USB gadget to inject rickrolls into web pages.

Interesting. Did you do much hardware-wise for that - like rewire USB D+/D- signals and add/remove some obscure resistor that enables USB gadget mode?

No, I'm using a HooToo TripMate Mini (HT-TM03) which uses the same SoC and seems to work fine out of the box, but I had to build my own OpenWRT image based on a hodgepodge of current trunk and Wingspinner's HT-TM02 work.

EDIT: Actually there are quite a few boxes out there that do have CDC support built in. The ASUS WL-330NUL uses a stripped down ASUSWRT and has CDC support built-in. You can get the firmware source and build your own version if you like. It's not as friendly as OpenWRT (which is saying something) but is workable if you persevere.

But there's no wifi on that device right?

Also only 4mb for rom.

edit: okay they mention wireless range so it is wifi device

Given that it can apparently act as a USB card reader if plugged into a bog standard PC, i suspect no more than your typical USB device. So something like 0.5A at 5V.

And why would you want microUSB?

microUSB, so that he can use a standard OTG adapter for host mode... (which the SoC supports)

Ah, i was not thinking in terms of having a micro socket on the dongle. Silly me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com