Low power effective computing?

[Scalf77]

Could try a laptop screen extender for an extra monitor.

[dbhosttexas]

Originally Posted by SMB123

All told - my thought was ipad when I saw the original post

Nowhere near enough screen real estate. Worst case scenario, I just use the laptop and eat the extra power it uses...

[Scalf77]

I used something like this for a TV in my old SMB. This is for a counter top installation, but it would be pretty easy to disconnect and connect if one had to. RAM® Tele-Pole™ with 4" & 5" Poles, Swing Arms & 75x75mm VESA Plate

[dhally]

I've done a little vomit in ng in the van. I found cables and cords to be a BIG annoyance. Once everything is hooked up, don't move or get up because it will rip all the cables out...

They make laptops for a reason!

[dbhosttexas]

Originally Posted by dhally

I've done a little vomit in ng in the van. I found cables and cords to be a BIG annoyance. Once everything is hooked up, don't move or get up because it will rip all the cables out...

They make laptops for a reason!

No idea what vonit in ng means, but I totally agree on cables and cords.

So the idea here is thus...

Raspberry Pi 5 which is a system on a chip type computer, about the size of a deck of cards, a bit taller though...



The white cable is the power which is USB type C 27 watts max, and the black / gray cable is the micro HDMI to HDMI cable.

The computer box is no bigger than one of those hinged VESA wall mounts, and where I intend to mount, I have access to install 12V power ports for the high powered USB 3 and USB C power.

So the Pi would be mounted on the back of the monitor, monitor power and Pi power would be routed together along the VESA mount to the wall so never seen. HDMI cable would be run entirely to the monitor and hidden behind it. Going to switch to a 3ft cable instead of the 15footer that is there now.

My keyboard and mouse are Logitech Unifying MK550 and are wireless connecting to the Pi via that Logitech Unifying receiver dongle.


Should there be a reception problem with the USB simply pull the dongle, and install it to a USB A / USB B cable routed to just under the monitor, and again mount it don't just let it dangle. Gorilla tape would be great for this, it's black, so hides well, and bonds REALLY well...

So in the space the human occupies, there would be no cables anywhere in the way, unless of course I opted to not mount it, then it would be power cables from the Pi and monitor to the wall along the countertop during setup / takedown.

The concerns are screen real estate, and power consumption.

As a reminder, I have 600w solar, 40 amp DC to DC charging, and 400 amp hours LiFePo4 battery.

I could just as easily use my laptop. An Asus ROG Strix G17 G713 AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, a couple of years old, but a top tier laptop for its heyday... 17" screen GeForce graphics, fast Ryzen processor, 16GB RAM, nice machine, but that 17" screen is very limiting. I know LOTS of folks make it work, I am wanting to be comfortable as I work, not just make do. Honestly I could accomplish the same thing with the laptop to an external monitor, but power consumption would shoot way up...

[Scalf77]

That will make a neat little system. I think the key is finding a place that you can mount your monitor, so that it accessible for work. My TV/Monitor priority is for watching TV when we want to. I can access it with my lap top or onboard computer if I want to, but it's general position I wouldn't call work friendly.

I use a stick pc as the onboard computer
It connects to a small touchscreen monitor that is used for backup camera, general systems monitor and display. That is really only purpose that I've used it for to date.

I started working on computers back in the mainframe days, it always amazes me the size and power you can get today.

[dbhosttexas]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

That will make a neat little system. I think the key is finding a place that you can mount your monitor, so that it accessible for work. My TV/Monitor priority is for watching TV when we want to. I can access it with my lap top or onboard computer if I want to, but it's general position I wouldn't call work friendly.

I use a stick pc as the onboard computer
It connects to a small touchscreen monitor that is used for backup camera, general systems monitor and display. That is really only purpose that I've used it for to date.

I started working on computers back in the mainframe days, it always amazes me the size and power you can get today.

my first computer was a TI 99/4/A and it was brand spanking new at the time if that gives you a frame of reference. Hated the chicklet keyboard with a passion. My Dad got me an Atari 800 soon after and I have been hooked since. Glad sizes have come way down...

[posplayr]

Originally Posted by dbhosttexas

my first computer was a TI 99/4/A and it was brand spanking new at the time if that gives you a frame of reference. Hated the chicklet keyboard with a passion. My Dad got me an Atari 800 soon after and I have been hooked since. Glad sizes have come way down...

I never heard of the TI 99/4/A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99/4A

I graduated with BSEE in Dec 1979 where we worked with the Motorola 6800 in the microprocessor classes and labs. They subjected us to a variety of torture devices including recording hand-assembled programs on audio tape recorders.

At my first job starting Jan 1980 (Raytheon EW Goleta CA), there were a 2 or 3 of the senior engineers in my department who had built Cromemco DIY computers based on the Z-80. I recall using these to burn ROMs for a few Z-80 and Z-8 boards I was designing. I was also using more crude devices to bring up bare board computers in assembler language.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromemco_Z-2

[Scalf77]

Originally Posted by posplayr

I never heard of the TI 99/4/A

At my first job starting Jan 1980 (Raytheon EW Goleta CA), there were a 2 or 3 of the senior engineers in my department who had built Cromemco DIY computers based on the Z-80. I recall using these to burn ROMs for a few Z-80 and Z-8 boards I was designing. I was also using more crude devices to bring up bare board computers in assembler language.

[

Small world, I started working at Burroughs (now Unisys) Feb of 1980 right down the street in Goleta, CA). They closed down that plant in 1981, and I moved to Burroughs Mission Viejo Ca. In 1996 I moved to Intel and finished out my career in Oregon. So I started with small mainframes, moved to small/medium mainframes and eventually to servers.

[posplayr]

Originally Posted by Scalf77

Small world, I started working at Burroughs (now Unisys) Feb of 1980 right down the street in Goleta, CA). They closed down that plant in 1981, and I moved to Burroughs Mission Viejo Ca. In 1996 I moved to Intel and finished out my career in Oregon. So I started with small mainframes, moved to small/medium mainframes and eventually to servers.

Yes, a small world. I think I probably jumped around a bit more although mainly in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. After starting my master's at UCSB, I ran into a manager of the Control systems department at Delco a bit further down the road. At that point, I moved over there for the next few years focusing on control systems in automotive, locomotive, and C-17 stationkeeping among others. I was essentially in the inertial navigation business area which was to see a massive technology change (along with the rest of the computer industry).

Due to a combination of factors, in 1987 I moved down to West Lake CA to work at a commercial missile company where I learned how to do systems engineering. I had weapon-level responsibility at the design phase review and later became the TV seeker/Tracker guru during detailed design and verification.

By about 1991, many people were looking for the next phase in their careers and I ended up starting a garage project building parafoil guidance systems which we eventually sold to the US Army, NASA, and internationally. The NASA work was a multi-year support contract on the X-38 program. Although they would never admit it, I was guiding this big parafoil with our system as an extension to an US Army program that started in late 1993.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYUznlsRqqI

In 1997 we moved back to Santa Barbara, but when the parafoil work ended in 2002, I did a short stint back at Raytheon (30 years later than the first time).
It did not work out that well, but that was before finding a dream job consulting at BAE Systems in San Jose on US Army manned ground vehicles. By this time, I was a Modeling and Simulation SME in the Survivability IPT. It is pretty remarkable how I became an SME in only about 3 years because at the time i was managing the M&S efforts at BAE and the simulation became the reference truth for the complex systems. So if you understand the simulation you understand the system better than most anybody else.

After that, in a continuation of other US Army work, I got into vehicle health management systems as a Communications IPT deputy which begged the question of why are we doing all of this? (needing to justify all the data that is being pushed around)? As kind of my own little project, I explored what we should be doing as nobody else had figured it out by then. Even after I left I spent 2-3 years on and off working with the NPS on a comprehensive solution to this as there was no known solution.

Motivated by how screwed up these large military programs are, by about 2015-16, this had led me to do independent research into organizational structures or more specifically optimal solutions to large-scale systems and the associated organizations.

I had earlier found a main result that was so profound that I got into the Set theory, solving P vs NP using a computational model, Model theory. Distinctly different from engineering, the foundations of mathematics are very controversial. So not being trained in pure mathematics and logic (Enginnering is applied mathematics), it is like jumping into a giant abyss. At this point, I have satisfied myself even if nobody else cares.

Sorry for the long diatribe, but it gives some background as to how I jumped around so much.