Pi3b+ VS Pi4 for monocle (or a chromebook OS)
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So I’ve had a Pi3b+ sitting in a box, with case and everything for about 3ys. Was going to use it for a geo clock display for my ham shack , or for monocle. Never did a thing with it.
With the Pi4’s out now , worth going to Pi4 for monocle (instead of spending time on the Pi3?
Only reason I didn’t just order one, was the price, geez. nearly 3x what I paid for an entire kit of the Pi3 , for a Pi4 now.
Any one ever run monocle on some form of a chromebook mini box/desktop?
I’m not familiar with what the chrome boxes are running, so if it’s a stupid questions, oh well. LOL -
@bk said in Pi3b+ VS Pi4 for monocle (or a chromebook OS):
e price, geez. nearly 3x what I paid for an entire kit of the Pi3 , for a Pi4 now.
Any one ever run monocle on some form of a chromebook mini box/desktop?
I’m not familiar with what the chrome boxes are running, so if it’s a stupI know (via other conversations) that you already have it up and running on the RaspberryPi 3B+. But just to answer this for any potential future readers …
I would say that there is no need to upgrade to a RPi4 model for Monocle Gateway for most users.
Unless you have a significant number of concurrent users all streaming different cameras to different Alexa devices, I don’t think you will see any performance difference/improvement. — At least in the case of Monocle Gateway. Assuming your Pi3 is not already overworked/overloaded with other running services :-) The Pi3B+ has Gigabit Ethernet over USB 2.0, so it’s limited to a maximum throughput 300 Mbps. The Pi4B has true Gigabit Ethernet. So if your Pi is running anything network intensive the Pi4B is the better choice in this case.
Thanks, Robert
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@bk said in Pi3b+ VS Pi4 for monocle (or a chromebook OS):
Any one ever run monocle on some form of a chromebook mini box/desktop?
I’m not familiar with what the chrome boxes are running, so if it’s a stupid questions, oh well. LOLNever personally tried on a chromebook mini box/desktop. I have tested it on other single board computers such as the Pine64, BannanaPi, Odroid, etc. But these are mostly just RaspberryPi clones anyway.
VMs and Docker containers are also other options especially if you have a NAS system that supports VM/containers.
Monocle Gateway does not need a lot of compute power or memory, just fast and reliable networking. We are not processing, decoding or encoding any audio or video, we are mostly just packet tunneling (receiving network packets from camera and copying them to Alexa connection).
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@Monocle , thanks Robert for the conversation. Yes, posted that before I dug out the Pi3B+ I had sitting , buried on my bench for years.
The newly assembled and commissioned Pi3B+ doesn’t even break a sweat. When I call for a cam to be streamed, doesn’t even break over 10% CPU usage. Nothing else going on in the Pi, so it’s normally 0 CPU usage, 38DegC.
Shocked a the Pi4 prices. So yea, just went with the Pi3b+ I had.
I had a Win7 thin client on my bench / bolted to the back of a monitor to be able to look up/research while tinkering. That died this weekend, so I’ll be getting a Pi4 8g to replace that old little Win7 brick.
And the Pi3B+ little box is now is officially tucked away headless with Monocle running well.
Thanks for all the great support and help.
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@bk said in Pi3b+ VS Pi4 for monocle (or a chromebook OS):
That died this weekend, so I’ll be getting a Pi4 8g to replace that old little Win7 brick.
The Rpi4B is a great little SBC!
The official price for the 8GB (barebones) model is $75 USD. Anyone charging more than that is taking advantage of limited availability due to global supply chain issues.The Pi400 is also a neat package where it’s basically a Pi4B built into a keyboard shell. Although I’m not sure its available in an 8GB RAM config.
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@Monocle said in Pi3b+ VS Pi4 for monocle (or a chromebook OS):
@bk said in Pi3b+ VS Pi4 for monocle (or a chromebook OS):
That died this weekend, so I’ll be getting a Pi4 8g to replace that old little Win7 brick.
The Rpi4B is a great little SBC!
The official price for the 8GB (barebones) model is $75 USD. Anyone charging more than that is taking advantage of limited availability due to global supply chain issues.The Pi400 is also a neat package where it’s basically a Pi4B built into a keyboard shell. Although I’m not sure its available in an 8GB RAM config.
And they all are to some extent… sux. But a workstation is down. So…
yea, bought a Pi4 8g kit from canakit… only place I could get Pi4 8g kit, which was the same price as just the board on amazon. eeek$ either way. Kit s/b 100-130 tops. I looked at the Pi400, big thing, at the bench I prefer wireless K&M, easier to turn 'em off an put them aside when needing space. The logitech K360 and 510 mouse on a unify dongle (already paired from use on the Win7 brick thin client) worked flawlessly on start up of the Pi3 . Since now the Pi3 is headless and VNC /SSH access, that K&M will go with the Pi4 station.When the Pi’s get back to normal pricing (if ever), I plan on getting a few more for a few other projects I had in mind as the Pi3B+ was collecting dust, but never broke the box open for.