For anyone interested in a similar, slightly higher specced, hackable ex-consumer device for next to nothing: ZipIt Wireless have been clearing their old "ZipIt Z2" messenger range for some time now.
http://linux.zipitwireless.com/
ARM9 ~300Mhz, 32MB RAM, wifi, QVGA display, keypad, mainline linux kernel support, etc.
Decent sized hacking community: #zipit on freenode & sites like http://mozzwald.com/
Believe prices are as low as $18 for a single one, or $10/unit if you buy 16. We bought around 20 in a group buy at our local Hackerspace. Not quite cost of postage, but still pretty cheap.
Comments
For anyone interested in a similar, slightly higher specced, hackable ex-consumer device for next to nothing: ZipIt Wireless have been clearing their old "ZipIt Z2" messenger range for some time now. http://linux.zipitwireless.com/
ARM9 ~300Mhz, 32MB RAM, wifi, QVGA display, keypad, mainline linux kernel support, etc.
Decent sized hacking community: #zipit on freenode & sites like http://mozzwald.com/
Believe prices are as low as $18 for a single one, or $10/unit if you buy 16. We bought around 20 in a group buy at our local Hackerspace. Not quite cost of postage, but still pretty cheap.
Did you ever do anything interesting with one?
To be honest, not as much as I'd initially hoped.
- Fitting a USB interface is possible, but it's a bit fiddly, so not many got added.
- I ported OpenWRT, as a good Linux distribution, but I haven't used it for anything after! :/
- There have been some cool projects made by others though, like the zipitbot: http://justinbox.aresgate.net/html/make_page.php?n=zipitbot
Yeah. I have a terrible urge to get all these low-end machines and they inevitably are not terribly useful.
I did just buy a TP-Link 703n which seems pretty useful for a low-end box.