[Dprglist] Anyone using an Omega2 Pro?

[Chris N]

So many boards to choose from these days….  Differentiation is not always clear though.

I suppose this is intended to compete with the Pi Zero W?   

But at $49, it better have something the Pi Zero W does not offer.   If this board as significantly lower power consumption – with Wifi active - compared to a Pi Zero W, then I suppose it fits into a certain niche.  I did not see a spec for power consumption, though.

As for the 128MB of RAM:

It is of course not practical to run a typical Linux distribution with that little RAM, even headless.  Typical distributions (e.g. Debian-based) are simply too bloated.

On the other hand,  128MB of RAM is plenty for running what I would call “Embedded Linux”, i.e. what one would use on a real product / appliance of some sort.    I have not used OpenWRT, but I guess it goes into that bucket.  I do have some experience with “Embedded Linux”.   At my day job, for example, I have successfully created a Linux based controller platform – with touchscreen based UI – with only 64MB of RAM.    Of course there is not “apt-get install xyz” possible. 

Chris N.

From: Jim Merkle via DPRGlist
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2020 4:18 PM
To: Murray Altheim
Cc: dprglist at lists.dprg.org
Subject: Re: [Dprglist] Anyone using an Omega2 Pro?

Need to figure out what you plan to do with the board / why THIS board 
is necessary.
That is a VERY SMALL amount of RAM!  Using flash space for swap is a 
normal OS practice, but you will take a performance hit.
The 8GB Storage is FLASH.  This would be comparable to using uSD card 
storage on the Pi, which is very cheap storage.
The Raspberry Pi, especially the Raspberry Pi 4 will perform 
significantly better with higher clock speed and four cores.
If you need something that will run on a small battery for a year, the 
Omega2 may be the choice, else, go with the Pi.
Not sure why MIPS was chosen for CPU core.  MIPS has never been very 
popular.  There are many low power SOCs that use ARM
if power is the main focus.

You can get the Raspberry Pi 4B, with 4GB of RAM at Microcenter for 
$49.99, if all you need is one.
https://www.microcenter.com/product/609038/raspberry-pi-4-model-b---4gb-ddr4

With the much larger RAM, this unit is a very good performer !  The 
extra RAM makes a big difference.

Just my 2 cents....

PS: Don't skimp and buy Microcenter's uSD card.  Get a name brand with 
good specs.  You want access to this storage to be fast.
I just replaced the flaky Microcenter uSD card on one of my Pis with a 
"SanDisk 32GB Extreme microSDHC UHS-I Memory Card", available at 
Amazon.com for $10.29.
The Pi is performing very well now.


---
Jim Merkle
Carrollton, TX 75007
jim at merkles.com

On 2020-09-19 05:40, Murray Altheim via DPRGlist wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Has anyone any experience using an Omega2 Pro development board, or any
> of the Omega products? Looks like an alternative to a Raspberry Pi, 
> with
> built-in LiPo battery management. Seems like a nice small board.
> 
>    Omega2 Pro___________________________________
>    Processor: 580 MHz MIPS CPU
>    Memory: 128 MB RAM and 384 MB flash swap file
>    Storage: 8 GB
>    Connectivity: 2.4 GHz b/g/n Wi-Fi
>    Operating System: OpenWRT 18.06 Linux
>    https://onion.io/store/omega2-pro/
>    https://onion.io/omega2-pro-get-started/
>    
> http://linuxgizmos.com/open-source-omega2-module-gives-way-to-a-pro-sbc/
> 
> It runs OpenWRT Linux and cost US$49.00. There's a GPS expansion module
> for $14 and a few other accessories. I've used OpenWRT a bit with the
> Arduino Yun, a bit more awkward than the Raspberry Pi's OS but it'd be
> fine. It has all the normal bells and whistles: USB, Ethernet, I2C, 
> UART,
> I2S, SPI, PWM, and GPIO, a web-based Setup Wizard and some other nice
> features, the price about halfway between a Pi 3 B+ and a Pi 4. Not as
> fast (?) but 8GB of memory (which on a Pi 4 costs $75).
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Murray
> 
> ...........................................................................
> Murray Altheim <murray18 at altheim dot com>                       = =  
> ===
> http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     ===  
> ===
>                                                                    = =  
> ===
>     In the evening
>     The rice leaves in the garden
>     Rustle in the autumn wind
>     That blows through my reed hut.
>            -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu
> 
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