Ya NanoNote feature requests
What do you want in the Ben successor, Ya NanoNote?
Solderless serial connector without interference with keyboard :P, IR (LIRC compatible) ,GPS, and/or some kind of low power modem radio like Jeelabs are using in his JeeNodes, I thing this tree "easy" to integrate peripherals can boost a lot the applications of such little device.
WIFI,BT are too much power hungry/complicated/qickevolving and bloated to include right now.
I'm playing with my Ben Nanonote right now. Great little toy. :D
I'd love a Ya Nanonote with:
- integrated WiFi and/or Bluetooth (or at least: double SDIOHC slot and optional BT/WiFi cards)
- larger screen within current shell (why so large a bezel...)
- USB host
- higher capacity battery (2x-3x)
- optical mouse (like in Samsung SGH-i780: works wonders)
- backlighted keyboard
- smoother keyboard: Ben's keys are hard to press
- 2x-4x RAM
Fernando
Although it´s power hungry my wish for the Ya would be Wifi. Wifi really opens up a lot of possibilities. Also a larger screen / higher resolution would be great.
Regards, -Thomas
Some method of adding external peripherals or devices and external connectors for existing features.
Some thoughts that come to mind:
Several GPIOs - for implementing I2C, 1W, etc via bit-banging
CF - not just for flash, but also for CF WiFi, CF GPS, etc
WiFi - could be low power if a pair of decent antennas can be built in to the lid
BlueTooth
ZigBEE - 1mW should be enough for anybody :)
Line-IN/mic connector
USB Host
UART connector (both ttyS0 and ttyS1 on the same connector)
JTAG
etc
An "expansion port" could be created that would combine more than one of these into a proprietary (but documented) interface using standard connectors, a single- or dual-row 0.1" pitch header (could be male or female), for example.
With the expansion port, it would be easy to create a prototyping board that would either plug directly into the port (remember the Handspring Springboard modules?) or would connect via a short ribbon cable. This would encourage development and help with troubleshooting.
With a little work, the external modules could supply power independently to the devices on the module or even power the Ya, appearing as a 2nd battery, reducing the need for a larger battery.
When using the expansion port or CF, etc, the device would not necessarily need to be contained within the Ya. For instance, the CF card connector could be about 1/4" inside the case, just enough to hold the card securely.
-Rich
if doing a expansion port, perhaps one could borrow the layout bug labs use on their modules? http://bugcommunity.com/wiki/index.php/Exploded_Connector_Diagram
this port came to my attention: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/PDMI
Some sort of wireless connectivity. Wifi, bluetooth, zigbee, anything would fine.
Some sort of Pointing stick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointing_stick would be awesome! I would definitively buy one with this feature!
kid of late but why not add a small vibrator small devices tend to have one to notify when something happen
I am wondering whether Ya will still be Ingenic SoC based. I have some experience with JZ4750/JZ4755 based PMP/MID, so I'd like to give some suggestions. Though JZ4750 is more powerful, it is an BGA chip and is more complicated. However, it could support two SDIOs for WiFi and SD card, and it has USB Host and more GPIOs too. JZ4755 is QFP based and is cheaper and easier, however it only has one SDIO and no USB Host. Therefore you could support the SD slot and use the SD based WiFi Card instead. For the screen, JZ SoC uses SDRAM interface, therefore 32MB*2 RAM is popular. Of course, you could choose 64MB*2, but they are much more expensive. Considering the limit of CPU speed and RAM size, 4.3inch/480*272 screen is a better choice. If we do not care too much about the cost, we could use JZ4750 with SD(TF)/WiFi/FM/USBHost/Keyboard/UART/128RAM/StereoSPKer/CVBS/4.3inch480*272TouchScreen Or a easier design JZ4755/SD(WiFi)/FM/Keyboard/UART/64RAM/4.3inch480*272TouchScreen
An essential thing to add would be a NIC i.e wifi with a hardware on/off switch or an ethernet port.
also a normal sized USB host port to plug in regular USB accessories like memory and wifi sticks would be great
My wishlist:
- Wifi with on/off switch (would be amazing) , or ethernet port
- Normal sized USB host port
- Better serial interface
- 64mb RAM
- Widescreen to match the keyboard width
a jz4760 processor. at 700mhz, it would be almost useable as a normal computer.
A small battery for RTC. Is is hard to implement? In Ben the time is reset once you remove the Battery or the the battery is drained for some time. which is very bad.
Also either there should be a line-in port or the line out port should be configureable as line-in/line-out/mic-in. I really look forward for Ya be be used as a good Digital storage Oscilloscope for moderate troubleshooting.
As earlier mentioned if the Piezo Buzzer is not finding much use case that it can be replaced with a vibrator.
Things I think are in the realm of reality:
OLED display for lower power-consumption and better outdoor visibility.
More screen per lid (less of a huge border around the display).
More RAM (64M~256M).
A second SDIO slot.
Built in 802.14.5 "atben" with an internal antenna, and external antenna connector.
Optionally expandable battery.
Non-glossy display finish (hooray, glare).
Contention with other suggestions:
No Bluetooth/WiFi/3G built in, as we're trying to stay copyleft and steer clear of patent encumbered hardware. (end-users can use second SDIO slot for this if need be)
Fantasy:
Perhaps (big perhaps, as OLED is expensive) a larger formfactor (like the Jornada 720).
A second CPU, or a single dual-core cpu. (preferably still MIPS-compatible).
Milkymist has almost all the features that I would like in Nanonote, better video capability, ethernet,VGA, etc. A companion device like a video player derived from Milkymist would be a good idea.
I would like to suggest some changes in the Ben Nanonote keyboard. The dedicated arrow keys plus the volume keys could be replaced with number keys. (there will be 6 keys, need to find 4 more :)). The volume key actually could be moved to the side. It would be better if the keys usually used in command line the '>' and hyphen can operated without modifier key. At least there has to be locking for number keys. A home key also would be useful.
If possible, either or both usb host and sd card slot not just microsd as there are a lot of fun devices that could viably be used then :D
my biggest wish is an integrated 3G modem. what I'm looking for is the cheapest, smallest, lightest computer for remote log-in into other computers. I have gnu screen sessions with always-on IRC, servers, my home NAS etc.
even the 3G plan would be affordable, transmitting text from and to unix terminal doesn't use up much bandwith. OpenWRT is an OS precisely made for networking and enabling internet access.
then in order of preference : - a higher screen resolution to cram in more text or make it more readable. 80 columns text
- bluetooth, this has many uses. small gamepads to play old console games, file transfer, limited network connection, audio, interfacing into micro-controller setups with a bluetooth/serial gateway, etc. But, SDIO bluetooth cards seem affordable. possibly the only common SDIO card.
- internal micro SD slot. I like that my expensive flash just doesn't hang outside.
- usb host. here you can plug in keyboard, a hub, powered or not, ethernet, wifi etc.
what I don't want
- wifi. power hungry, spectrum is crowded, public hotspots are filtered sometimes only allowing port 80 and 443. - ethernet : a RJ45 connector is too thick anyway. won't ever buy a laptop or netbook without ethernet but we can compromise on this and ethernet access can come through USB host or device. - huge memory or fast CPU
bonus specs : - video decoding hardware in the CPU, at least divx - FM radio just as with the Dingoo - whatever manages to fit in and costs nothing
No bluetooth. By default, bluetooth's UUID is visible. Hackers can detect bluetooth's UUID and hack the computer/tablet/phone.
No Trusted Platform Module (TPM) or ARM's equivalent of TPM which is TrustZone. Processor's serial number (PSN) not be read in userspace. Not be visible online.