is there a reasonable option for diy tablet?

pani_alex · September 11

i have the raspad 3 but it is still not there but I mean from the board to the screen, all the parts that make a tabled, because the raspad is ok in the sense that you can use it at least but it no the full tabled experience in the sense that the audio is horrible(not to mention that is placed in the back, what is so stupid) and you can build something that is around 5$ and 10 times better from ali, the raspad board doesn't use any standard communication protocol that allows me to see battery, control rotation, brightness, volume, sleep, from the os, the board also drains the battery in less than a week, so instead of using the arm battery advantage, you need to stay plug or have a powerbank because it can be that when you want to use it, it is low or no battery.

The standardization of connections and protocols could make DIY electronics so amazing if they choose to create some to use the USB and push it in the os so that lets say, there is a basic protocol to detect if the USB device is a volume control. display (which can involve, brightness, rotation, touch), battery, cooling, etc, so that if I get a sbc and a USB screen and install android or linux, the os automatically detects the p&p components and it just works. And lets go more extreme with the new adoption of pcie, if the board has it, you can have more USB, lan, wifi, audio, storage, m.2 expansion, and considering those asm pcie 2.0 bifurcation ships are not expensive, doesn't sound ultra expensive.

Also the drivers bs on arm needs to get better make it so that is available to embed in the os by the manufacturers of the products or by the community, or available to download and install or in the repositories so that when the os looks online take care of it.., to make software that works and not something that you need to fight for days to have it working until something gets update and it doesn't anymore, or a team collaboration just to make it work. Or just throw it all away and start from scratch in riskV with open mind

Im asking because in a tablet if it breaks, is not easy to fix it, sometimes impossible, so I don't like that s, also the thing that they limit me in storage, that is totally bs, it could be so much useful if the storage is customisable, the lack of USB connections, display out and in (so that it is possible to use is as a second display or second life) and make it even more useful in your life than just like the big companies want, like having 5 forks to eat instead of one... and so the 1 thing that I probably need to change in a phone or tablet with more frequency may will be the processing power, and with the existence of the sbc or even cm it will be easy to upgrade my device without having to create unnecessary ewaste (the same way that when your PC gets slow, you update the CPU or replace the some components but not the case, cooling, storage, keyboard, mouse, monitor), I also get to choose the screen type, size, the audio configuration, storage, devices (cam, mic, sensors in general, and by having full control of it also avoid being spied), battery. Im the mind that it is possible to pack a DIY device in at least 1cm thin, personally don't care if it is 2cm or more, so long I can pack everything I need inside of it.

Another annoying problem is that because it doesn't have enough integration between the parts, it doesn't sleep so when I am not using it, I have to turn it off and when I need it, have to wait until it start up with is very slow from an sd card, I can turn off the screen but it still uses to much battery that doesn't even holds enough battery to allow me to do something in a random hour of the day, what can be fixed if I plress onche the power button and it sleeps the sbc and turn off the screed. It will be ideal to charge it at night, and have it available during the day and having to push just a button to do what i need to do and then put it to sleep again or telling it to sleep from the os or by timeout like a normal tabled/phone

Right now the way is done, i have to fight to watch, netflix, or other streaming services, because of no big company likes the idea of me choosing and I'm only allowed to use blased devices in wich i can not choose certain things, the same in browsers, installing apps and basically averithing that was considered normal in a PC in the past, and I'm saying the past because it seems like windows also wants to take away the ability to set some things and force the users to use the os in a way that they alwais have access to your data, cam, mic, to mine the data for advertisement or ai training. Ideally i will use a linux that has the ability to run sandboxed android apps, to that i allow to app to do things and it doesn't mine me or screew mi device.
Like to have more options like framework and less like orange pi, raspad, pitop, that make defect devices or that never get updates or even fixes or reasonable usable software, basically doa or ewaste, even raspberry could do it better, if they use some more powerful CPU will be and option for more than just prototyping things and small low power projects, and if arm is the wall, don't invets on an achor, study more flexible options like riskV. Because like was said last week or this in level1 news, even big companies like wen they have to pay monthly for something, they like to buy and use it until the end of times, and how much more a person that doesn't have unlimited budget?

manikyath · September 11

i'm not gonna read the whole thing, but the thing about part standardization and "customizability'' of tablets is this:

it's a balance between size and options. tablets are HUGELY integrated devices, you're cramming an entire computer including battery inside the size of your laptop's display. the more customization you add, the more size you add.. and as it turns out, there is essentially no market for bulky heavy relatively low performance tablets... which means prices go up because lower production numbers.

and if you'd have the choice of buying a $300 tablet and just making sure you dont sit on it.. or a $800 tablet that only costs $200 to repair when you sit on it.. i guess that choice is easily made.

pani_alex · September 12

it doesent have to cost 800$ unless is a scam, since a touch screen starts around 200, and a power bank less than 50.

A portable display can be a tablet option if it has the integration with the os since its a display, has touch and is already connected via USB, so the only thing that it needs is to talk with the os and that is a thing that could be standarised, like when you plug a keyboard or a keyboard, it just works, and on top of the standard are added special functions like all the other things that are already done, it not black magic, is just companies that love to do things that have a short live span and are impossible to repair, useless, like the tabled that can have hw like a PC but is artificially blocked so that instead of having a multitool you weel need 5 forks, to their only benefit and to screw people. A phone could be a PC since many people don't need gaming pcs and phone are already powerful enough but sometime the screen is the limiting factor.

Its also a big problem that if you look around is everywhere, the problem with the not standard rgb and fans from different companies that even between the same company they change the connector or the way they work and you have to throw away working things because one in the chain broke and the replacement is incompatible. there is a project about that that Wendel and Steve talk about