Hacker News Reader

Comment by samatman | Hacker News Reader

My first instinct was also to wince when the Pi Zero came out, since this is a very simple application, perfect for, say, Sparkfun's Arduino Pro Mini.

Which is ten bucks. A Raspi Zero is five bucks. Sure, there's... something elegant about using less computer for more money but... what?

I'm sure someone has a link to an Alibaba ripoff for like fifteen cents (might even be why I'm saying this) but like: five bucks and you already know Linux?

Really, why not?

View on HN

Here's a few of my reasons:

* Patching/attack surface. I don't want to maintain a full Linux OS, and I expect (hope) that the network stack on something like an Arduino or ESP is both secure by obscurity (I know...) and by lack of functionality.

* Some things are much easier on a simpler chip as well, like bit-banging access to a NeoPixel, due to the lack of a multitasking OS.

* Bootup times on simpler chips are mostly imperceptible. They power up and begin running your code. (Arduino includes a short pause you can remove, or you can bypass the Arduino boot loader entirely and program the AVR directly.) Even the slimmest of Linux distros can't beat it.

Ok, those are all good reasons to choose Arduino, for some other applications of which this isn't one.

I would also just use an Arduino here, I've got a box of tiny ones (Adafruit feather) which would be plenty for this application, and I'm already familiar with the platform. From bit-banging Neopixels, as it happens.

But for running an incredibly simple cron job on a standing desk, none of these are compelling. It makes perfect sense for someone who knows Linux, and doesn't want to learn Arduino, to just break out a Raspi Zero and do what he did here.

It's air-gapped, so the risk of it getting pwned to mine Monero or whatever is pretty minimal. There are no real-time considerations for an action which happens once an hour +/- a few minutes, and boot-time for an application where the first action is around an hour from power-on is also not decisive.

The SD card is another one, the Pi will be logging and constanly reading and writing to the SD card until it eventually fails.

It's 3 characters to switch it to read only mode, and just a few more to save the system clock across boots.

Surely the raspi linux distro has that disabled by default?

It does not.

Realistically the attack surface of a Linux running almost nothing, in a local network, is also very small.

Pi Zero isn't really 5 bucks. At least not anywhere i have ever found. All official dealers who sell it charge a minimum of $6-7 shipping and also limit you to a single unit per order.

The best deal I have found is ordering from adafruit where you can get 1x with headers and 1x without headers. Then you end up paying only $8-9 each. And that's for the zero. The zero W (wifi) is $10.

If you are lucky enough to live near a micro center, they sell them at the correct price "over the counter", in person only. They limit you to one per transaction to avoid reselling.

My parents live near one of the stores, and I will always stop in to grab one.

I think the real value is the Pi Zero W. Stick them in appliances wall over the house. SSH into them if you like. Send them over the air updates. Program them with the same Linux tools you know and love.

Also, as far as I know there aren't a ton of Pi clones, since it's not fully open hardware. I believe the Broadcom chips in there are pretty closed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com