[HN Gopher] Pockit: A tiny, powerful, modular computer [video]
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Pockit: A tiny, powerful, modular computer [video]
Author : rayrag
Score : 1219 points
Date : 2022-03-09 16:04 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| rayrag wrote:
| Discussion/AMA on Reddit:
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ta85ql/my_small_modu...
|
| Shorter demo (7:30) submitted to Reddit:
|
| https://v.redd.it/3wfbkleb4dm81
| beckman466 wrote:
| very first Reddit post about this project from the creator from
| 2 years ago:
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/dj7ilc/so_ive_been...
|
| all posts about this project (around 30):
|
| https://www.reddit.com/user/Solder_Man/posts/
| matlo wrote:
| Really impressive work
| motohagiography wrote:
| When you struggle to think of what _can 't_ be composed in this
| architecture, it's a whole new way of building. It's clearly the
| expression of an incredibly elegant mind. Watching that demo was
| a moment that reminded me of a now famous comp.os.minix usenet
| post from the early 90s.
| marcodiego wrote:
| Looks like Project Ara done right.
| jack_riminton wrote:
| I can't believe this is just one guy. Get him a MacArthur genius
| grant, quickly
| joezydeco wrote:
| There are loads of embedded systems hackers doing great things
| by themselves. They just get lost on Hacker News.
|
| Bunnie is probably one exception to that rule, though.
| debdut wrote:
| True example what an individual can achieve! Blown away
| bbayer wrote:
| Such modular design is tricky. Some parts require close distance
| to specific components like clocks. OP did a good job by solving
| such problems.
| wnolens wrote:
| What a beautiful labour of love. Thank you, I'm inspired.
| th0ma5 wrote:
| The hardware is very cool. The start of the integration with the
| dashboard is neat, but I'm not entirely sure how useful it would
| be other than making a video like this. Perhaps something like
| OSC or something could help keep it modular from a software
| standpoint and not so toy seeming. I also think a lot of software
| has whole knows what layers expecting hardware to not just
| suddenly disappear. Appear is maybe less a thing.
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| Yep, looks great as a toy, but seems not-that-ok for any
| serious use, because for static setups, all the alternatives
| are a lot cheaper, because they don't have to be modular (eg.
| touchscreen display for controlling home automation).
|
| But I like the concept for areas such as schools etc., because
| it makes it possible to try a bunch of different things very
| fast.
| Tade0 wrote:
| As a third generation hoarder I have to say that the number
| one thing preventing me from doing projects such as home
| automation is that since I struggle with throwing stuff out,
| failed/deprecated devices would just pile up and I don't want
| that.
| XorNot wrote:
| I feel like the power of this could be in something like
| building industrial control panels quickly? Being able to
| rapidly setup control boards, and equally rapidly configure
| them into something else would have a lot of utility in that
| application.
|
| EDIT: Though that does make a key weakness the fact that
| there doesn't appear to be any provisioning for locking down
| the blocks more aggressively to the board.
| unfocussed_mike wrote:
| Yeah. Fairly obvious applications in teaching/education
| devices. Though I think it should be noted that a lot of what
| schools want to teach with devices like this is precisely the
| pin connections and circuits this thing elides.
|
| But I am not sure about the rest.
|
| And what you don't see in demos like this are the practical
| limitations that the demo avoids. I didn't watch all the way
| to the end but I had questions about how the device
| communicates its limitations and handles situations where,
| for example, it cannot supply enough power.
| vidarh wrote:
| The alternatives may be cheaper _if you can find one that
| does what you want_. But in terms of the ability to quickly
| throw something together where existing stuff doesn 't quite
| do what you want or is locked down, it looks amazing.
|
| In terms of "serious use" I think that depends on what you
| mean by "serious". E.g. my hone automation setup is not
| static, because I keep finding new little things I want to
| tweak, and often the ready-made solution lack options I'd
| like to have unless I'm willing to spend time tracking down
| very specific modules. My time is valuable to me - I'd
| happily pay extra for a modular system where I know if
| something is lacking a button for something I want I can
| literally just plug one in instead of having to search all
| over for a different model of something.
|
| Of course this will not replace mass market "close enough"
| solutions.
|
| But I think there are still more than enough people who want
| to tinker but don't want to have to whip out a soldering
| iron.
| ajsnigrutin wrote:
| You can always get the same components that this kit uses,
| solder them together and do it cheaper. Want a dimmer for
| your smart lights? esp8266 + one of many potentiometers
| available + maybe an adc if you need more than one. You'll
| never use this whole kit just for one potentiometer, with
| the rest of the components in a drawer somewhere, because
| this would make it too expensive. Cramming multiple modules
| just not to "waste" them, makes you build a tool around
| what you have, instead of using just what you really need.
| nsb1 wrote:
| I don't know that I'd go so far as to call it a toy, but I do
| think that this device is more likely to be used in education
| or prototyping than anything else - which is still great!
| Just having a platform that will autoconfigure the array of
| devices that he's demonstrated is amazing. Being able to snap
| on two cameras and a TPU and have everything 'just work' so
| you can focus on your vision processing software is
| incredible.
|
| I'm betting that it will be cost-prohibitive to have this
| device as a permanent fixture for any one application outside
| outside of the sorts of things an rPi4 already does (Home
| Assistant server, etc). I don't think anyone is going to use
| it to control an LED with a slider, but for prototyping that
| sort of thing it has endless possibilities.
|
| Hats off to Anil for the huge amount of work he put into this
| project.
| goodpoint wrote:
| The magnetic connectors is what makes it an expensive toy. The
| pluggable grid layout is nice but it could be achieved with a
| daughter board with pins sitting on top of any cheap SBC.
| rpmisms wrote:
| It would be trivial to modify the design to allow some form
| of locking blocks in place, whether through a sliding tile
| system, a lever lock, or a pin design. You could even do it
| yourself with 3d printing. Really depends if there's a
| professional environment that could use something like this.
| Maybe a lab or machine shop?
| jsmcgd wrote:
| I think a lego compatible version could be popular.
| noneeeed wrote:
| It's like a grown-up version of the Little Bits kits. How very
| impressive.
| tomlin wrote:
| This is the stuff of future design. I love it.
| dusted wrote:
| it's super cool, but I have some difficulty finding a "not just
| playing around" use case for it, not because it's useless, but
| because I can't come up with a use case that would be dynamic..
| I'd not want to pay for the modularity overhead for using them
| as, for instance, light switches around the house.. Anyone got
| some cool ideas for what to do with them?
| antattack wrote:
| Learning programming will be much more fun since input and
| output are more then just keyboard and monitor.
| philote wrote:
| I think it's a good prototyping tool, and also makes it easy to
| do smaller, temporary projects. For myself, I'd like to set up
| that motion-sensing camera feature to check when my dog sneaks
| down into the basement to pee. Or set up a display next to my
| kids' computers to alert them to go to sleep at a reasonable
| hour. Or set it outside to see when my neighbor's dog (or deer
| or other wildlife) comes into my yard. You could also use it to
| track who drives by your house and whether they're speeding. Or
| set it at your desk at work for a week and track how many times
| someone interrupts you. Or pull an elaborate April Fool's joke.
| account_created wrote:
| Mind blowing.
|
| My reaction was: "Ok, that's cool, but he can not have X module"
| a minute later "X" appears, and it went throughout the video.
| baalimago wrote:
| I'm much more interested in the person than in the product, in
| this particular case
| ehnto wrote:
| What impresses me the most is how holistic the project is, they
| are clearly using this device and thinking carefully about how to
| make it useful, and how it will be used.
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| I'm sure this will be killed off just like the CHIP computer
| netspider wrote:
| I would like to know the person behind this project?
| hathym wrote:
| very nice project, it reminds me of the LG G5
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4GZQyJMoyo)
| throwaway5486nv wrote:
| This is mind blowing
| squarefoot wrote:
| Very beautiful, seems the ideal toy to teach kids how to play
| with technology in creative ways. It could be completed by kits
| with real pcbs and parts to turn the modular device into an
| useable functioning board. All software and firmware should also
| be 100% open. Schools should seriously consider adopting it,
| although I fear the amount of engineering and design will
| probably keep the price very high.
| TamDenholm wrote:
| This reminds me of LittleBits [1] many years ago i bought a kit
| from them that was really very expensive and had some fun. The
| only problem is i never touched them again after the first couple
| of weeks of playing with them. However, they're certainly an
| excellent learning tool for kids and beginners.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LittleBits
| prmoustache wrote:
| That's the problem with this kind of things. They mostly
| attract people interested in tech, but those kind of people are
| usuallt already working in tech. As much as I love those
| things, the last thing I want when I lock my laptop is start
| coding and fiddling with electronic devices. I either have to
| take care of the kids or go for a bicycle ride, spend time with
| my partner, have a beer or the sea/beach or all of the above
| and in no particular order. I need so much to be outdoor when I
| finish my work day I barely find time to make music although I
| love doing that.
|
| The people who could do that are the people who have time to
| spend hours watching Netflix series but usually they are the
| lazy type and not interested in that kind of things.
|
| Unless it is used by a school most of those things end up in
| drawer not to be used again.
| Koshkin wrote:
| Indeed, people have reported having drawers full of Raspberry
| Pi's, never to be touched again.
| erwincoumans wrote:
| Yes, we had several kits too, including SynthKit (LittleBits
| with Korg). The magnetic connectors of LittleBits became
| unreliable after a while, making it frustrating instead of
| enjoyable. Wish one could fix that properly.
| duxup wrote:
| I've stared playing with an Arduino recently and thought "it
| would be handy if the various sensors and add ons just snapped
| on"....
|
| This appears to be that, but with a Pi (and of course a lot of
| impressive finish / software ).
|
| A Pi for the masses / convince sounds amazing.
| beal wrote:
| I did a similar thing with the air gradient diy kit. That these
| are pi based run full Linux and allow changes over time is is
| really compelling.
| allisdust wrote:
| At the minimum this should win a design award of some kind. Looks
| like it quickly becomes complex when we combine software to the
| hardware but the way it seem to work with so many connectors
| feels just so intuitive.
| aqibgatoo wrote:
| Wohoo! I am blown away!
| vivegi wrote:
| This is a great design and I absolutely love it. How does one
| build apps / custom behaviors for the hardware components?
| ktpsns wrote:
| https://pockit.ai/ - for those who prefer text/images instead of
| video.
| FR10 wrote:
| TBH the linked demo video is really good, I was really amazed
| after each module. I feel the website is a bit empty in
| comparison.
| [deleted]
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| I prefer text and images but in this case I regret not watching
| the video sooner. Absolutely amazing demonstration.
| freedomben wrote:
| yeah likewise. I almost _never_ watch the video. If I even
| start it, if it doesn 't get immediately to the point I shut
| it off.
|
| With this video my jaw kept dropping every couple of minutes.
| idiotsecant wrote:
| This reminds me a little of the philosophy of the "frame.work"
| laptop. While it approaches the problem from the 'let's make a
| modular,repairable laptop' side and this approaches it from the
| 'let's make a powerful and easily extendable embedded device'
| side. immensely ambitious and cool projects, both!
| cs702 wrote:
| Wow. I've rarely come a cross a demo in which things keep getting
| better and better and better and better.
|
| I find it hard to believe that one individual plus a small
| community of hackers have built all of it. Amazing, amazing work.
|
| The one question I kept asking myself as I was watching the demo:
|
| Is there a _mass market_ for such a beautiful, elegant, modular
| computing device?
| roughly wrote:
| If you're asking aspirationally, I agree - I'd prefer a world
| in which this was what people expected and wanted from their
| technology. I think the ongoing success of Lego gives me some
| hope here for a mass market for tinkering.
|
| If you're asking more practically - the success of Raspberry
| Pi, Arduino, Seeed, and others suggests there's at least
| potentially a market here sufficient to sustain a moderately
| sized business for long enough to be worthwhile.
|
| Agree about the demo, too - there's some serious wizardry on
| display there. I think it's one of the projects that just gets
| more impressive the more time you've spent trying to do what
| they're showing off.
| mindfulplay wrote:
| Quite amazing! Regardless of the profitability or scaling this
| up, it's refreshing seeing the modularity where the sum is much
| larger than the parts. Well, here the sum likely is larger than
| the product!
| therein wrote:
| Amazing demo. Simply floored.
| hemloc_io wrote:
| Woah this is massively cool!
|
| I've always wanted little bits and bobs of hardware to mess
| around with, but actually getting into the EE required for it is
| fun but time consuming.
|
| This really fits right into what I'd want for something that
| allows for quick POCs, prototypes and just trying new stuff out.
|
| I'd love to make things like a hacked together OP1!
| https://teenage.engineering/products/op-1
| bodge5000 wrote:
| was hooked as soon as I saw the MIDI out module, for musical
| applications alone this could be a gamechanger (to my knowledge
| theres nothing else truly like it out there, outside of complete
| DIY)
| adrianthedev wrote:
| Wow. This is like a low-code arduino. Amazing!
| wnolens wrote:
| yes, cool way to think of it: low/no-code hardware.
| izzydata wrote:
| Maybe I am being over critical, but this is not what I imagine
| when I think of a modular computer. It's cool being able to swap
| in and out all kinds of peripherals like that in any position and
| orientation, but the computer itself does not seem modular.
| Unless you could connect multiples of them together and increase
| their performance and space for more peripherals without causing
| additional overhead.
| bityard wrote:
| The "computer" is not really the interesting part here. In
| fact, this product seems to exclusively rely on cheap devices
| that anyone can already buy (current supply chain
| notwithstanding) linked together by very well-standardized
| buses.
|
| The magic here is the overall flexibility and modularity of the
| system taken to a nearly absurd level. Kickstarter is lousy
| with smaller-scale attempts at what Anil has achieved. But
| where this really shines is in the software: You plug in some
| components and the system can automatically figure out what you
| want to do with them, and configure an application to use them
| instantly, at least for many simple but common cases.
|
| I really hope that when this is available, it ends up being a
| largely open ecosystem like the Framework laptop.
| bee_rider wrote:
| He has a TPU tile.
|
| Automagically plugging in more compute would, I guess, require
| OS or application level support.
| shabier wrote:
| This is really incredible. I can't wait to get my hands on the
| device and tinker around with it. It is giving me the same vibe
| as project Ara[0], and I'm here for it.
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ara
| severak_cz wrote:
| Ok. I am subscribed.
|
| If this goes for reasonable price and has some kind of soundcard
| block I am going to buy this and made synth out of it.
| danShumway wrote:
| I can't think of why I'd practically need or want this. I know on
| some level it's a toy, and there are better ways to implement all
| of this stuff if you're trying to make cost-effective hardware
| projects.
|
| However, wow do I want one. This is so cool, I heckin love this.
| I love everything about this. The whole thing just looks
| delightful from the blocks, to the configuration/programming, to
| how real-time and responsive the feedback is when moving blocks
| around and hooking stuff up.
|
| Amazing presentation too, this video is really well made.
| davesque wrote:
| Seems to me like the creator of this project really went the
| distance in sticking to their initial vision of what was
| possible. I think sometimes visionary projects fail because the
| creators eventually compromise on the vision when the devils
| emerge from the details. But, if they can muster enough technical
| competence and determination to push through that difficulty, we
| get something like pockit. The video really makes me want to hear
| from the creator about the process of developing pockit and how
| different challenges were overcome.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Quite impressive demo.
| Koshkin wrote:
| Impressive, but let's not forget that we live in an age of
| miracles. A terabyte in a chip the size of your pinky's
| fingernail? You've got it! A supercomputer in your pocket? Sure!
| u2077 wrote:
| Truly impressive. Reminds me of Google's (failed) attempt at
| modular devices.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Ara
| moffkalast wrote:
| Was about to say, yep.
|
| "Oh, look! Here's Ara. Back from the dead. It's a miracle."
| nonrandomstring wrote:
| Sometimes the point of a technology is not its direct utility but
| to carry forth or promote an idea.
|
| Because of what's happening with climate, pollution and e-waste,
| the future is modular. Modular phones, computers, cars and even
| nuclear reactors.
|
| Having this kind of thing in schools helps kids get used to the
| idea that technology is configurable at the physical level
| without electronics skills.
|
| Strong interoperability legislation should be a part of
| technology going forward. Industry will welcome and adapt to it
| because it's ultimately a better compromise than tougher
| regulation and export controls.
| snek_case wrote:
| > Because of what's happening with climate, pollution and
| e-waste, the future is modular. Modular phones, computers, cars
| and even nuclear reactors.
|
| Sounds cool, but the reality is that in order to get the best
| efficiency, you often want a purpose-built, specialized design.
| In the case of electric cars, you need your car to be very
| light and to have a very integrated design in order to maximize
| energy efficiency. I'm not sure what you mean by a modular car
| design, but you definitely can't fit any motors with any
| battery in any frame, that will just make for a car with
| terrible performance.
|
| That being said, we should be designing things to maximize
| lifetime, and we should probably ban certain materials or
| construction techniques that make recycling difficult. Maybe we
| need to ban or heavily tax non-recyclable materials. We could
| also do more to build a legal framework around right to repair.
|
| > Having this kind of thing in schools helps kids get used to
| the idea that technology is configurable at the physical level
| without electronics skills.
|
| Kids is probably the best use case. As someone who makes things
| I look at this product and I think it's necessarily going to be
| more expensive and less flexible compared to alternatives. For
| kids though, this can be a gateway to make electronics less
| scary.
|
| > Strong interoperability legislation should be a part of
| technology going forward. Industry will welcome and adapt to it
| because it's ultimately a better compromise than tougher
| regulation and export controls.
|
| I agree. We should be strongly promoting (and maybe legally
| mandating) open, documented standards for everything.
| toqy wrote:
| > I think it's necessarily going to be more expensive and
| less flexible compared to alternatives
|
| What are the alternatives? Is there something like this I can
| get my hands on now?
| kaishiro wrote:
| Man. You think you're doing alright and then something like this
| comes along and just screams your inadequacies at you.
|
| What a wild achievement. Well done.
| vishkk wrote:
| Whatever it was -- a lie, the truth, or, most likely, their
| mixture -- that caused me to make such a decision, I am
| immensely grateful to it for what appears to have been my first
| free act. It was an instinctive act, a walkout. Reason had very
| little to do with it. I know that, because I've been walking
| out ever since, with increasing frequency. And not necessarily
| on account of boredom or of feeling a trap gaping; I've been
| walking out of perfect setups no less often than out of
| dreadful ones. However modest the place you happen to occupy,
| if it has the slightest mark of decency, you can be sure that
| someday somebody will walk in and claim it for himself or, what
| is worse, suggest that you share it. Then you either have to
| fight for that place or leave it. I happened to prefer the
| latter. Not at all because I couldn't fight, but rather out of
| sheer disgust with myself: managing to pick something that
| attracts others denotes a certain vulgarity in your choice. It
| doesn't matter at all that you came across the place first. It
| is even worse to get somewhere first, for those who follow will
| always have a stronger appetite than your partially satisfied
| one.
|
| - Joseph Brodsky
| papandada wrote:
| I'm not very well read but this writing seemed extraordinary.
| Turns out he won a Nobel prize for literature.
| scoot wrote:
| Meanwhile I have no idea what he's talking about. Perhaps
| it's lack of context, or perhaps the writing is so
| "extraordinary" that it is unapproachable to mere mortals.
| hoosieree wrote:
| It reminded me of the Yogi Berra quote "nobody goes there
| anymore, it's too crowded".
| papandada wrote:
| There's plenty of "good writers" and "decorated poets"
| who do absolutely nothing for me. I clicked with this,
| the world is big enough for everyone and something more
| to your tastes is out there.
| bityard wrote:
| It's (at least partly) about trying something new and
| learning to be happy with whatever level of success you
| achieve rather than envious of or competitive against
| those who do the same thing but do it better.
|
| At least, that's the way I took it.
| vishkk wrote:
| I have read a poem or two by him before, but never essays.
| I literally picked this book earlier this week and really
| liking it -- generally essays are hard for me, but he has
| kind of clicked for me. If anyone is interested, the
| excerpt is from an essay titled Less Than One, and the name
| of the book is also Less Than One, Selected Essays by
| Joseph Brodsky.
| morelish wrote:
| some big company ought to buy him out right now...
| BirAdam wrote:
| I thought the same thing, but then I had a reality check. If
| this gets bought by a tech company it will likely be ruined or
| killed off, or first ruined and then killed off.
| RTFM_PLEASE wrote:
| "Been there, done that." - Google
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wwrIpv38nE
| vidarh wrote:
| It's been quite a few years since I was vowed by a hardware
| demonstration. This is amazing.
| Uptrenda wrote:
| What a truly beautiful and elegant design. This is so reminiscent
| of the hacker ethos in how it captures the potential and love of
| technology. How can a project this creative not be more famous? I
| have seen many of these kinds of 'small, powerful computer
| projects' before and I've never felt inspired by any of them. But
| this project really captures the imagination with the potential
| of modularity / expanding capabilities.
|
| This is honestly so creative. It makes me filled with that
| childish sense of wonder I initially had with coding. What things
| could you make if you had a whole box of snap-ins and a few
| Pockits? This is frigging insane. If you're an angel investor
| consider throwing this guy a bone!
| code_scrapping wrote:
| Blown away, by both the adaptiveness of the platform and
| software. It feels like the flexibility that I'd want for all of
| my prototyping experiments. Signed-up, and patiently cheering
| from the side-lines.
| afarviral wrote:
| So cool. Anyone criticizing the real utility of one of these
| (e.g. calling it a toy) is not thinking long term. Over time a
| single unit could be repurposed for any number of distinct and
| serious usecases (home automation being the most natural fit, but
| many others), and this and its software are important steps
| toward a more robust and useful devices and less waste.
| Minitirized, waterproofed, secure and many more modules and
| "apps", standardized and mass produced. This is huge. Keep going!
| bee_rider wrote:
| I kind of would like to call this a toy, but by that I mean --
| wow, on top of any other application he can think of, this
| would be an amazing educational toy for a kid who isn't quite
| ready for Arduino or Raspberry Pi (or who might never be, not
| everybody interested in STEM wants to do circuits).
| XorNot wrote:
| The problem with this idea is that it assumes we have to make
| trade offs: case in point, remember pre-smartphone? I had a PDA
| which didn't have a camera, didn't have wifi - just a hardwired
| connection.
|
| Now I have sitting next to me a smartphone which has 5 cameras,
| GPS, wifi, bluetooth, NFC, 128GB of storage and 4G.
|
| Basically on a mass production scale it is _always_ going to be
| cheaper just to put every feature in one device and build a
| billion of them.
|
| EDIT: Which is not to say the system doesn't have some
| possibilities - at the right price point I'd replace every
| light switch in my house with a plate of this, and have them
| remotely control relays so I could remap everything. For task-
| specific physical applications you might want to
| remap/customize to taste, there's a lot of potential.
| scoot wrote:
| > have them remotely control relays so I could remap
| everything
|
| No need for relays - you can replace the bulbs with smart
| lightbulbs that can be controlled via Zigbee. Ikea smart
| bulbs are high quality and good value.
| h0l0cube wrote:
| > Basically on a mass production scale it is always going to
| be cheaper just to put every feature in one device and build
| a billion of them.
|
| When it comes to physical widgets, there's a limit to how
| many you could practically have on one device. I think the
| real value here is that it could be open to market to allow a
| real diversity of physical augments allowing people to
| improvise devices that are unlikely to be manufactured into a
| single form factor, but might be perfect for their niche use
| case.
| snek_case wrote:
| Why can't the widgets connect to a Raspberry Pi using USB
| ports? Using plain old USB ports as a connector is a
| downgrade in terms of aesthetics, but it's a massive
| upgrade in terms of reusability and versatility. All of a
| sudden, you can connect your sensors to laptops, PCs and
| Raspberry Pis alike. You can already get a webcam on eBay
| for $6. You could design any sensor and actuator to have a
| USB interface.
|
| Don't get me wrong, like I said, USB devices would look
| less cute and tidy than the Pockit, and the Pockit is a
| great achievement, but USB devices truly are more simple
| and versatile.
| vidarh wrote:
| I'd be inclined to be looking for excuses to put these all
| over the house.... I don't _need_ them, but I _want_ them
| just from this video.
| whartung wrote:
| Honestly, it is a toy.
|
| A very cool toy, a very sophisticated toy, but a toy
| nonetheless. There were in the past, and I think still today,
| electronic sets that let you click together modules with
| magnets to make circuits. It was a very handsy, easy way to
| play with electronics. But, in the end, that's what it was --
| play and exploration.
|
| The beauty of the concept is the easy interchange of the parts
| and such, and that's it downfall when you desire to render
| something down in to a "production" item. And by production, I
| mean something you're going to handle with any frequency. The
| ease of composability is counter to the hardening necessity for
| everyday use.
|
| I supposed you could glue the parts together, but by that time
| whatever you made is now made of rather expensive components.
| Or they could offer an alternate mechanic to "realize" systems
| built for the longer term.
|
| Until then, it's a wonderful toy. And that's not a bad thing.
| [deleted]
| roughly wrote:
| Also: Toys are cool! Toys are fun! Play with toys more! Not
| everything has to be Serious Business! Things can be fun!
|
| (This message brought to you by the society for people tired of
| Jony-Ive-esque bullshit being passed off as the One True Design
| Paradigm.)
| syassami wrote:
| Wow.
| ibejoeb wrote:
| Love the physical switches and controls. This is like VB but IRL.
| jet_32951 wrote:
| So very many applications! One is it will make lashing up an
| approximately-OK control system easier early in a project. There
| are five or six machine designs in my past where having a
| rudimentary control system was needed for initial testing. This
| would have saved days or weeks on each one.
| throwaway5486nv wrote:
| you mean for building ciruits? Could you please elaborate. I
| thought control systems was necessary for physical objects
| dt3ft wrote:
| Whoa! This has the potential to grow to unimaginable scale! I'm
| seeing star-trek gadgets. I'd love to get my hands on a starter
| kit.
| tjchear wrote:
| Seeing Pockit gives me an idea: can we do something similar for
| Web APIs?
|
| Perhaps a web app with a 2D board where users can place modular
| blocks the same way one would place Pockit blocks on the magnetic
| breadboard. We could have a geolocation module, vibration module,
| button module, slider module, camera module, etc. Like Pockit,
| the system finds a script with the closest matching blocks to
| what's placed on the grid, and runs the script. E.g placing a
| camera flashlight module + button module on the grid triggers a
| script that would toggle the light when the button is pressed.
| User could also write their own scripts.
| severak_cz wrote:
| It's already done. This is how these "website builders" (e.g.
| Wix) works - your put different modules onto a template and
| build your site out of these.
|
| Also Drupal and Wordpress have similar funcionality via
| plugins.
| tjchear wrote:
| Right, but I wasn't talking about website builders. I'm
| talking about enabling access to a phone's various sensors
| and capabilities through a manner similar to Pockit.
| XCSme wrote:
| This is what Web Components[0] was supposed to be, but it
| didn't really take off.
|
| [0]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
| US/docs/Web/Web_Components
| rileyphone wrote:
| For a more recent development, https://blockprotocol.org/
| tjchear wrote:
| Far as I understand, web components are used to build
| websites / web apps. I was talking about how a phone carries
| a suite of sensors and various capabilities that we can make
| accessible in a manner similar to Pockit.
| XCSme wrote:
| Oh, I misunderstood your comment then "can we do something
| similar for Web APIs?", I thought you were referring to a
| similar way to build web apps.
| punnerud wrote:
| How would that be different from NodeRed? https://nodered.org/
| tjchear wrote:
| What I have in mind is rather different. Imagine your phone
| simulating a Pockit experience, except the sensor modules are
| what your phone already provides (e.g geolocation, gyroscope,
| accelerometer, etc), the I/O are simulated buttons/sliders
| and screens.
|
| That's what I'm thinking.
| orbifold wrote:
| That is a cool idea :)
| allenu wrote:
| Wow. This is so incredibly well done. The tech itself is amazing,
| but so is the design of everything, not to mention it's all well
| presented visually. It reminds me of the classic "mother of all
| demos".
| mastax wrote:
| All I want to know about this is what the pinout of the connector
| is. I want to know how it was done and the limits of what it can
| do. The author has provided very little information about it[0],
| which makes me a little suspicious.
|
| [0]:
| https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ta85ql/my_small_modu...
| Taniwha wrote:
| Yeah I want to know that too - I'm not so much suspicious, he's
| obviously done something amazing - more I wonder if he really
| has 12 pcie buses and they are they really wired in a way that
| they can be hooked up in 4 different orientations? (and what is
| the signal integrity like?)
| lanewinfield wrote:
| As far as I can tell, this is a single individual that has done
| all of this work. I am floored at the design and intricacy of
| this project.
|
| Really, truly blown away. I'm sure there are plenty of edge cases
| to correct for but I haven't gotten so excited by a demo in a
| long time. I've obviously signed up to learn more.
| dhc02 wrote:
| The UI of the dashboard alone would be an impressive feat for a
| single person.
|
| The algorithm that chooses the most likely/useful application
| for infinite possible combinations of modules would be an
| impressive feat for a single person.
|
| The multidisciplinary coding required to get all of these
| pieces to work together in a hot-swap way would be an
| impressive feat for a single person.
|
| The design and implementation of a single physical connection
| interface that can adapt or carry all these different protocols
| (USB, HDMI, etc) would be an impressive feat for a single
| person.
|
| Not to mention the PCB design, 3D enclosure design, machine
| learning proficiency, aesthetic product design chops, and on
| and on.
|
| All together, this is unbelievable. This is 0.01% level stuff.
| Mozart, Musk, Melville. Somewhere in that neighborhood.
| ketzo wrote:
| I mean, even the editing of the demo video itself is
| incredibly slick. This dude is out of control.
| [deleted]
| jsnodlin wrote:
| Anil Reddy is an absolute genius.
| kumarvvr wrote:
| I am floored by the design.
|
| However, the most complex and costly part is the PCB and
| circuit design. The PCBs used in the blocks are absolutely
| awesome.
|
| Thanks to 3D printers that are cheap, the casing and other
| plastic materials are easy to make.
|
| All that being said, this has very low chance of becoming a
| real world product. Real world is messy, dirty, wet and an
| absolutely shitty place for snap on electronics.
|
| What would work, is better connector technology. It is obvious
| that even with all this simplification, this will still be a
| hobbyist product, rather than a serious mass market product.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| The way to that cyberpunk world that lives in collective
| imagination is to make electronics work in messy, dirty, wet
| environments, not try to shield them from it.
| roughly wrote:
| Hey can we use like solarpunk or something instead for our
| collective imaginations? We've been kicking the tires on
| this cyberpunk thing for the last decade or two and it
| turns out they wrote that shit as a dystopia, so, it'd be
| good if we could like collectively Not build that part
| together.
| rileyphone wrote:
| I came across this yesterday:
|
| > Merveilles seems aligned with the ideals of Solarpunk
| while internally expecting the world of Cyberpunk, it is
| neither a utopian or dystopian vision, but a way of
| straddling both contingencies.
|
| https://wiki.xxiivv.com/site/merveilles.html
| roughly wrote:
| Oh man, thank you for that - so good in so many ways.
| I'll definitely be following up on this later, I like
| what they're doing.
|
| Two things stick out for critique to me -
|
| > Merveilles seems aligned with the ideals of Solarpunk
| while internally expecting the world of Cyberpunk, it is
| neither a utopian or dystopian vision, but a way of
| straddling both contingencies.
|
| I get this, and in a way, I think it's how I'm operating
| already, but man, it's an art movement - don't give the
| dystopia space in the room, it's already got plenty
| everywhere else.
|
| > The Merveilles visual aesthetic restricts color
| palettes to black and white, vector or pixel art, with at
| most a single accent color (usually a sea-foam aqua).
| Industrial design is minimalist, geometric black-forged
| metals, natural wood.
|
| My visual aesthetic these days is "all of the above." For
| the love of god, colors exist - trillions of them! Take
| two! Hell, take three or four! They're cheap! And shapes
| - my god, man, the shapes you can make! You ever see the
| temple carvings in Nepal? So many shapes! Take a walk
| through a forest, and just look at all the shapes! Look
| at trees, man - the opposite of simple!
| stonogo wrote:
| It's an art movement -- don't give the colors space in
| the room, they've already got plenty everywhere else.
|
| (this was intended as a gentle ribbing, not actual
| criticism. I found the contrast between exclusion and
| inclusion interesting :)
| roughly wrote:
| Hah! Touche.
| wrycoder wrote:
| Hundred Rabbits is very cool. It will be interesting to
| see what they talk about at their Libreplanent
| presentation 20Mar:
|
| https://www.fsf.org/news/artist-collective-hundred-
| rabbits-t...
| pigeons wrote:
| https://git.sr.ht/~rabbits/libreplanet2022/tree/master/it
| em/...
| entaloneralie wrote:
| spoilers!
| user_7832 wrote:
| Hobbyist isn't necessarily bad though. Look at where boards
| like the raspberry pi/Arduino were and look at where they are
| now. There was an image floating around a few weeks back of a
| major screen at a train station that had crashed... with the
| raspberry pi logo at the top. It will take time, sure, but it
| could become much bigger than one might expect.
| pharke wrote:
| I don't see why the contacts on the demonstrated devices
| would be any more vulnerable to the real world than the port
| on an iPhone. I'm not sure these devices would be mass market
| since some skill is required to understand and use the
| software but they would absolutely have a good run at serving
| the same size market as 3D printers. They could even work
| hand in hand with 3D printers by providing the 'brains' for
| prototyped projects.
| morcheeba wrote:
| Besides the wiping, these connectors are missing two other
| features: ESD protection and connection-sequencing.
|
| Most user-facing connectors have a metal shield around them
| connected to frame ground. The idea is that any ESD shock
| goes safely through this first instead of to a sensitive
| data line.
|
| Connection-sequencing ensures that the ground and power is
| connected before data lines are. If you look inside a
| cable-side USB connector, you'll see that the inner two
| wires (data) are recessed a little so that the power
| connectors go first. A device that is connected without
| power can (through its ESD protection circuit) attempt to
| draw power from data lines... this can cause damage because
| most data lines can't supply the current to power the
| entire device.
| riskable wrote:
| You don't know if they ESD protection or not. There are
| loads of tiny little ESD protection ICs/diodes that can
| handle many inputs. Just put them very close to the
| connectors and you should be good to go from an ESD
| perspective. You don't _need_ a metal shield around
| everything to protect against ESD.
|
| Every USB device connected to your PC right now probably
| has a little ESD protection IC in it. Usually sitting
| right next to the USB connector (as close as possible).
| coryrc wrote:
| Connectors are usually built so there is a small amount of
| "wiping" as they seat, which will scrape off oxides or
| dirt. They will also have just the right amount pressure to
| balance longevity versus contact resistance. The pockit
| connectors may not balance these factors well (depends on
| what's making contact from the modules - I couldn't find
| the details readily). Regardless they won't have wiping,
| which isn't mandatory but is the cheapest way to keep
| connections reliable.
|
| So likely they won't have nearly the cycle life of USB-C
| but do they really need to?
| pharke wrote:
| If wiping is the main problem you could just wipe them
| with a cloth or some other device. They are exposed and
| highly visible after all.
| seanw444 wrote:
| Wow. One person. That's insane. This is a really cool project.
| I just signed up as well. Color me impressed.
| Lorin wrote:
| He posted this a day or two ago on Reddit and I echoed the same
| sentiment. The test suite must be nuts (assuming there is one)!
|
| As solo founder this is really motivational - I hope my
| upcoming project garners even half the interest once launched!
| So many hats.
| symstym wrote:
| But remember, there's no such thing as a 10x engineer! /s
| philliphaydon wrote:
| 1 person? Man it's an absolutely incredible feat. I'm also
| blown away, and I want to play around with it. I would love to
| try and automate parts of the house and such.
| renonce wrote:
| Pockit is just one of the small parts needed to automate
| parts of your house. All your devices have to cooperate
| smoothly and this will require a standardized IoT API from
| manufacturers.
| philliphaydon wrote:
| Sure but you could 3d print parts to automate traditional
| things and build on top of pockit. That's what I like.
| jpm_sd wrote:
| Previously https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26590715
| dang wrote:
| Thanks! Macroexpanded:
|
| _Pockit Modular computing demo [video]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26590715 - March 2021 (33
| comments)
|
| _Project Pockit, a modular ARM computer runnig Linux_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26547377 - March 2021 (15
| comments)
| rpmisms wrote:
| This is insane. Sure, it's not on the level of a professional
| tool, but you can emulate _so many_ professional tools with it
| that who cares?
|
| Many people want a thermal camera on occasion, but probably don't
| need one lying around all the time. Here's the solution. Maybe
| you want a Gameboy? Put one together on a lazy afternoon and play
| some retro games. Oh, you just want a quick and dirty USB hub? Do
| it. Oh, no! Your car is acting weird and you want to stream the
| OBD-II data and match it with accelerometer data? Go for it!
|
| This is just insane in terms of flexibility, and I think it could
| replace many devices people use extremely infrequently, as well
| as do other things we don't really think about. And it's fun!
| Technology is absolutely insane now, and I think we neglect the
| fun aspect too much.
|
| Edit: I used the word insane a lot. I stand by it.
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| Reminds me of M5Stack: https://m5stack.com/
| gswdh wrote:
| mothsonasloth wrote:
| Very cool,
|
| It reminds me of Star Trek's Isolinear chips that you would see
| Crew members slotting or re-ordering to create different effects,
| or create an ionic pulse from the deflector shield.
|
| https://youtu.be/rr8eO6gfnuY?t=66
| beckman466 wrote:
| this reminded me of Dave Hakkens and his Phonebloks concept
| video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAw7vW7H0c
| RTFM_PLEASE wrote:
| Yeah, the first 10 seconds of the Pockit video immediately sent
| me back nearly 10 years to Phonebloks.
|
| Some follow up:
|
| Typical, fairly sensationalist piece on Google's Project Ara -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQqudiUdGuo
|
| and then, Phonebloks, 5 years later -
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wwrIpv38nE
| moonlighter wrote:
| This is pretty incredible. An entirely different level than the
| old and trusty breadboards! Love how the components just snap
| magnetically and load the best-matching software to support them.
| Looks super promising!
| tacticaldev wrote:
| Ok, wow! This is, by far, the most innovative "product" I've seen
| in years!
|
| I will definitely be keeping a very close eye on this project!
|
| I sincerely hope it does well enough to get to production levels
| large enough to be "affordable". I would totally buy this for my
| Daughter's as a way to get them interested in building/coding.
| tomcam wrote:
| Is there a page that lets you buy things? I couldn't find one
| on mobile
| mib32 wrote:
| Man I so much wish to do something like that, but 40 hour job
| eats all the time. Can somebody give an advice how to find time
| to doing such interesting things?
| corobo wrote:
| What do you do outside of the 40 hour job?
| Koshkin wrote:
| Spending the money earned, too, takes time.
| mib32 wrote:
| Like, eating, walking out, talking with wife, reading
| something, playing xbox occasionally - like the things that I
| wanna keep even if I do the side project.
| criddell wrote:
| You would have to take the time from those things.
| lostmsu wrote:
| Also from job too. Many software shops look at the
| result, rather than the time spent. Might need to shuffle
| hours in some jurisdictions though.
| Koshkin wrote:
| Does not seem possible if you have a family (young kids,
| especially).
| Venkatesh10 wrote:
| Looks good. But how will it perform over the years to come?
| vanderZwan wrote:
| Arguably it would be better than current solutions because you
| can upgrade the modules that need upgrading while keeping the
| stuff that works, instead of throwing out everything and
| starting over.
| izzydata wrote:
| Unless you want it to have a better computer. The computer
| doesn't seem modular to me. You can't quickly add additional
| or better memory. You can't replace the processor with a
| better one. The computer itself is a single entity that in
| many ways is less modular than a traditional desktop
| computer.
|
| Wouldn't a desktop with 100 USB ports be a modular computer
| in the same sense as this thing?
| vanderZwan wrote:
| It's a 25 dollar Raspberry Pi, not a 1000 dollar desktop.
| space_rock wrote:
| Can we get internet of things devices with power of ethernet?
| Seems so much easier that WiFi, Bluetooth and a battery and usb
| for recharging
| ibejoeb wrote:
| That would be excellent. A little box that I can plug in with
| one wire and be done.
|
| Alternatively, I'd like a software product that makes it a snap
| to run programs on cloud provider but bridged/tunneled as if
| they were running on my local lan. I want it to support
| multicast dns and all of that stuff for things like sonos,
| zigby, chromecast, airplay, etc.
| erulabs wrote:
| This is extremely close to what we're building at
| https://pibox.io if you're interested - although after some
| polls we decided to drop PoE on our first model. Just
| improved the mDNS support last night!
| baalimago wrote:
| I have no idea what the usecase is, but it's incredibly
| impressive from a technical standpoint
| kilroy123 wrote:
| I really want this to become a thing. I feel like computers and
| tech have become less and less fun over the years as it has
| become so commercialized.
|
| Something about this just seems fresh and fun again.
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