Banana pi $29.99 computer

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don570
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Banana pi $29.99 computer

#1 Post by don570 »

EDIT: They are claiming a target price of $29.99 US now


There's a new attempt to start an open source project in China
to make low cost computers using AllWinner A20 processor.

$49 plus shipping at http://www.alibaba.com

http://www.lemaker.org/
German Distributor

Image
Banana Pi has officially started selling on the Internet, the majority of developers, players and users can go to online stores to buy the latest version Banana Pi product.

Banana Pi is a new generation single-board computers, following the open source hardware world trend, to provide customers with a powerful hardware platform. It equips with Allwinner Tech A20 dual-core SOC, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, built-in Gigabit Ethernet, a HDMI interface and other powerful hardware configuration. You can view the specific characteristics of Banana Pi on official web page (http://www.lemaker.org). It can run Raspberry Pi, Cubieboard, Android, Android 4.4 operating systems perfectly. Reserve multiple extended interface, full compatible with Raspberry Pi. In the future, Banana Pi would expand to develop Scratch.

If in doubt, you can send an email to: bananapi@lemaker.org or visit the official forum http://forum.lemaker.org/ for discussion.
Last edited by don570 on Thu 12 Jun 2014, 18:49, edited 2 times in total.

gungsukma
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#2 Post by gungsukma »

The price is US $54.15 / piece on AliExpress, including shipping.

The CPU is the same as Cubieboard2 (A20), so it may run FatdogARM, too.
I already bought Cubie. It is great, but this one is cheaper :cry:

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don570
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#3 Post by don570 »

The first review of banana pi

http://raspi.tv/2014/banana-pi-review-first-impressions

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don570
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#4 Post by don570 »

First review of banana pi on Youtube.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5pOiAMnUnw

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nooby
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#5 Post by nooby »

cool I want one now
I use Google Search on Puppy Forum
not an ideal solution though

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don570
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#6 Post by don570 »

The banana pi people have announced that they are sold out of
boards but they have put in a large order of boards from
a factory (obviously in China).

Apparently they want to compete head to head with the
Raspberry pi foundation. They have Allwinner backing them
so they should be taken seriously.

They are claiming on their site that they will have a target price
of $29.99 + taxes + shipping costs

New site
http://www.bananapi.org/

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solo
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#7 Post by solo »

Actually, as I see it, the real competition is between the Banana Pi and the Hummingboard. That is, once they finally decide to put the Hummingboard on the market.

http://imx.solid-run.com/wiki/index.php ... d_Hardware

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don570
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#8 Post by don570 »

I doubt that the hummingbird will fly. Pun intended. :lol:
It has no track record of low-cost manufacture.
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Sylvander
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#9 Post by Sylvander »

I'm in the UK.
How/where best to buy one?

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don570
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#10 Post by don570 »

Quite a few distributors seem interested in stocking it
similar to raspberry pi.

But check for the price on http://www.alibaba.com
which is China's big mail-order house.

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raffy
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USD52

#11 Post by raffy »

Right now it is priced USD52 (free shipping) at aliexpress.com.
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

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don570
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#12 Post by don570 »

It will take a couple of months for a stable price to be established.
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don570
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#13 Post by don570 »

Power supply consumption was posted. If there is no hard drive it
stayed under 300ma which is good. 8)
A very cheap power supply would be possible, perhaps just a cable
to another computer's USB port.

A computer USB port is capable of supplying 500ma.
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I noticed this post at the banana pi forum.
It may be a little optimistic. :lol:
Morgan Fitzgibbon
Jun 20
Does anyone know of a European Supplier for Banana PI?
Thanks
michaeljc...@gmail.com
05:33 (10 hours ago)
Yes you can get them from www.thepidish.co.uk
They say they will be in stock early next week
_______________________________________________

The Chinese government gives some support to open source projects
and banana pi is one of them
SIAT to provide space to the Banana Pi Development Team
Being open and committed to helping the community with educational development has always been the principle that LeMaker & the Banana Pi team adhere to. Given that, SIAT (Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, http://english.siat.cas.cn/) has decided recently to provide space for Banana Pi’s further growth and is willing to offer technical support for the Banana Pi team. SIAT hopes that Banana Pi can make a success of their open source hardware project and popularize Scratch through the Banana Pi product from which more young people will benefit. Banana Pi always feels obliged to take social responsibility and make contributions to education and public welfare. As such Banana Pi fights for a better product to fire young people's imagination and encourage them to fulfill their full potential.

From now on, Banana Pi’s base will be in SIAT campus, Shenzhen
E-mail: bananapi@lemaker.org
Address: A1002, SIAT campus, Shenzhen University Town, Shenzhen, China
Postal code: 518055

jamesbond
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#14 Post by jamesbond »

It would help a lot if Allwinner open sources (or at least provides a documentation) for their VPU hardware. Everybody's doing ARM these days, it is the "extra" part of the SoC that makes the difference (like the VPU or GPU, but especially the VPU). A20's CPU is rather weak, even compared to A10 (A10 has Cortex-A8, while A20 has Cortex-A7, the rest of the competition is pumping out Cortex-A9 which is better than both A8/A7).

Btw, responding to this thread makes me remember about nooby :cry:
Fatdog64 forum links: [url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Latest version[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/ke8sn5H]Contributed packages[/url] | [url=https://cutt.ly/se8scrb]ISO builder[/url]

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don570
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#15 Post by don570 »

http://forum.lemaker.org/viewthread.php ... a=page%3D1

These are some pictures of the factory that is making the banana pi board.
It looks very crowded and low-cost. That's how they are keeping the cost down.

The pictures were taken only a few days ago so expect deliveries to
begin in a few days.

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don570
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#16 Post by don570 »

The new batch of banana pi boards are available now
The manufacturer is selling them direct it seems. No middleman.
So all the money goes into the pocket of developers which is good.
But price is more than expected. $50 + cost of shipping
Plus $7 for a US/European power supply

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... o_detail_a
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The company also manufactures some other equipment
http://sinovoip.en.alibaba.com/?tracelog=store_top
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don570
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#17 Post by don570 »

The developers have set up a git account to encourage individuals to
make small improvements to the compatible distros.

https://github.com/LeMaker

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don570
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#18 Post by don570 »

The price has dropped in recent days.
There is free shipping however some sites that offer free shipping from
China actually go to Hong Kong and mail from there using regular
HK mail which takes about one month to deliver. So watch out!
Read feedback comments.

www.aliexpress.com

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There is another German distributor 60,40 EURO
(apparently free shipping and VAT )

www.reichelt.de
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don570
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#19 Post by don570 »

Walmart in the USA is heavily advertising on TV a $100 10 inch screen
computer. I think this is the one they are referring to ---> Android OS

Walmart.com

It probably has the Allwinner A10 (or A13) processor.

Image

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There's a quad core processor model for $199.
From RCA site chip is from Rockchip.
http://rcatablets.com/tablets/rct6103w46

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slavvo67
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#20 Post by slavvo67 »

Actually, RCA's quality is not bad, either. I have one of their portable video players from about 12 years ago and it still works well. It's an old, square brick looking RCA Lyra. Kingsoft office might be a good choice, too. Personally, I would have went with Libre Office (seems more compatible with MS stuff) but Kingsoft is decent.

I like the tablet description: "Tablet PCs function as a secondary device for casual entertainment purposes, and are not meant to replace a computer."
That statement is the complete opposite as to how MS is trying to sell its tablets.


I'll probably throw down $100 to play with this one....

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