Raspberry Pi Zero: Merits and Limitations

(The second part of a running mini-series about the Raspberry Pi Zero, the first part is here).

The Raspberry Pi Zero is an amazing little tinkering trinket. It is among the smallest, cheapest and most efficient single board computers currently on the market, because of its radical design choices. First, it features almost no additional components besides the system-on-a-chip (SoC) and the RAM, which are stacked on top of each other. And second, its connectors are all chosen to be as flat as possible, making this the flattest offering on the market. Logically, these choices open up some doors while it closes others. Because of my personal interest in low-cost embedded/mobile/robotics projects, I’m mainly interested in the doors that open. What follows is thus a slightly biased analysis of the pros and cons of the Raspberry Pi Zero (version 1.3 available since May 2016). read more...

Raspberry Pi Zero: A Bit of History

(The first part of a mini-series about the Raspberry Pi Zero).

We all loved the original Raspberry Pi premise; a small and modest yet very affordable and versatile single-board hobby computer that brought computing projects into homes and classrooms alike. They were not the first or the only one on that market, but they hit a sweet spot in terms of value for money and community building that resulted in an unprecedented buzz. read more...

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Welcome cyber traveler! You have entered the realm of Project FRAC: a DIY robotics hobby project. This site chronicles the journey of an electronics amateur who is building a pet robot from scratch, plus associated topics like electronics, embedded computing and maker culture.

FRAC prototype 1This project aims to popularize (amateur) robotics by showing that entry-level resources and materials are available and affordable to anyone. A secondary aim is just to showcase this cool little hobby and get feedback from and engagement with the community: your ideas, experiences and reactions are much appreciated! read more...