Hey everyone, it's Colin. How's it goin'?
Small, single-board computers are really cool,
but something almost all of them seem to have in common is the need for not-so-small peripherals.
This time, let's take a look at one that includes everything you need in a familiar form-factor.
[♪ Music - Intro ♪]
This is PocketCHIP from the Next Thing Company.
It's made up of two parts: the single board computer itself,
and the heldheld housing it snaps into.
The CHIP computer module is very small, about the size of a book of matches.
and despite its size, it packs in some solid features.
It's powered by a 1 gigahertz ARMv7 processor, coupled to a Mali 400 GPU, and 512 megs of RAM.
There's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in, along with two USB ports,
one for peripherals, and the other for power and data transfer,
along with a combined headphone and analog video output jack.
One thing that's missing, though, is a MicroSD slot for storage,
but CHIP does have four gigabytes of flash built-in.
Two rows of pin headers give access to things like GPIO lines as well as digital video output.
The handheld body, meanwhile, has a really interesting design.
The circuit board that CHIP connects to is used as a main part of its structure,
with white solder mask for a clean look.
The handheld has three main functions:
It provides an LCD touchscreen, a keyboard, and a battery.
On the backside is a clear plastic housing to help hold everything together.
It's got a cool geometric look, but the downside to this is some
pointy corners that make the handheld a bit uncomfortable to hold.
The keyboard is deceptively simple.
It's just dome switches
integrated into the PCB with a clear plastic overlay.
They offer a very clicky feel, which can be nice for typing,
but end up being a bit frustrating for gaming.
But, more on that in a little bit.
The layout is mostly standard,
but because of the color and positioning of the screen printing,
sometimes it's a bit of a hunt to find the key you want.
The LCD screen is perhaps the star of the show here.
At 4.3 inches in diagonal, it's a generous size for a handheld device like this,
and offers a resolution of 480x272 pixels.
The resistive touch panel has a matte finish, so glare isn't much of an issue,
and the backlight gets decently bright.
Above the display is a row of pads that give access to some of CHIP's breakout pins,
but since voltage is present, you'll wanna be careful to prevent creating a short.
A piece of tape here would be a good idea.
Around back, the Lithium Polymer battery recharges through the MicroUSB port on the CHIP board,
and lasts for about five hours.
Finally, something to note about the handheld is actually a feature it lacks:
a speaker.
In order to listen to audio, you need to use the headphone jack,
which thankfully, is easy to access.
As well integrated as the hardware seems, the software is mostly there to match.
PocketCHIP comes pre-loaded with a custom operating system based on Debian Linux
that's been tailored for handheld use.
It makes good use of the touch screen,
booting to a menu that makes it easy to launch a few common programs
or change basic settings, like brightness and Wi-Fi.
You can launch a GUI-based file explorer or jump into a text editor
or command line terminal session.
But the main focus seems to be on gaming and creativity, with
PICO-8 front and center.
It's an app that lets you play, design, and share custom 8-bit style games.
It's not an emulator for commercial systems, like the NES, but rather, an open-source community-driven platform.
A number of games come pre-loaded, and if you connect PocketCHIP to Wi-Fi,
it's super simple to browse through and download hundreds more.
The games overall are pretty well-made.
One of my favorites is Pico Racer, which features vibrant colors, and reminds me of Pole Position.
Pico Racer is a good way to illustrate the keyboard's limitations, though.
While its clicky response is nice, it does slow down inputs.
Fine control can be tough, and sometimes you have plan your character's movements around the way the keyboard works.
With CHIP running a flavor of Linux, you can install more applications yourself, and there are quite a few options.
These, of course, include game emulators,
though sometimes a bit of configuration and troubleshooting is necessary to get 'em working well.
If you flash a software update, then you can install Minecraft and Quake III Arena,
which even includes a wireless multiplayer mode.
Overall, PocketCHIP makes for a refreshingly comprehensive package.
A lot of times open source hardware can seem like a bunch of parts just stuck together,
but PocketCHIP really feels well thought-out.
The hardware and software, for the most part, play to each other's strengths
and the whole thing has a slight retro '80s style.
It works great out of the box, and it's fairly easy to use,
at least as far as the built-in apps are concerned.
But if you wanna grow beyond that, the learning curve starts to steepen.
If you want a simple handheld device to play ROMs on,
well, PocketCHIP may not be the best choice.
I think that this can be a great option though, if your goal is to get into embedded computing in general.
While the price of about $70 US is a fair bit more than the $9 the CHIP board itself goes for,
having a display, keyboard, and battery built-in may very well make it worth the cost.
I owe a big shout-out and thank you to viewer Chris from the UK,
who donated a PocketCHIP to the show for me to check out.
If you like the video, I'd appreciate a thumbs-up, and be sure to subscribe.
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at thisdoesnotcomp, and as always, thanks for watching.