What do we want in the next Rock Pi?

#1

What do we Rock Pi owners and users want in the next Rock Pi? Perhaps we could offer Radxa some advice and feedback.

For myself, I would like:

  • some more RAM (8GB? 16GB?)
  • bringing the processor up to date would also help
  • do we need a better power supply option? Is the current model throttled by the USB power supply?

There was a previous thread on this topic back in February, but given the lapse of time, we are better with a new thread.

Obviously, it is up to Radxa to decide what they want to offer in the marketplace, and commenters in this forum (“Radxa fanboys”) are only part of the market.

1 Like
#2

16g太扯了，8g值得期待，音频接口换个光纤更完美，CPU毋庸置疑必须当时的旗舰

#3

@evenxiao I read you as saying that 16GB is too much and 8GB is enough, also something about audio over optical fibre. Also, that the CPU must undoubtedly be the current flagship.

#4

Tbh I would like to have more support of the OS developers as the Raspberry Pi has…maybe with more updates we would have a better performance on some specific system or projects.

3 Likes
#5

I’m not sure what you’re expecting here.

Seems to me that the software/OS support for these boards is WAY better than rpi crap.

3 Likes
#6

unofficial os can boot from m.2

1 Like
#7

Real community instead of self apointed experts, get rid of censorship, invite and share experts instead to lose them, more competent staff of those who interact with users, … if you cant wait for it as RADXA failed to provide it on multiple stages, come to discord and share your experiences with your rock.

Join RADXA’s community on discord: https://discord.gg/ncfX5y

Add cevap’s images if you are able, even 4k works on them where RADXA totaly failed to provide working software, cevap sells rockpi’s with his images, make it free please.

Max IO for RockPi4 seems to be 1600MB: https://vimeo.com/350784916

#8

Actually, I was thinking more of any new hardware features. Please do not turn this thread into a session on Radxa’s support team.

#9

???

Edit it to HARDWARE pleasse before you complain. Seeing you marking your own answer as solution, why do you complain or ask in public other people to write? Just write to RADXA instead.

RADXA’s support is terrible, as owner, I stopped hoping they will get better, as for community, this thread is great example.

1 Like
#10

when you are talking about specification/configurations, don’t forget to mention how much money you would like to pay for it :slight_smile:

4 Likes
#11

As much as it costs if price/overall relation is better than on other devices, considered that your manufacturing costs are smaller than from your western rivals, I would be ready to pay even for less price/overall if I have a feeling you care about it to deliver later better products.

Add fibre support, add second m2 nvme, release which is not broken, for that combo I would be ready to pay up to $ 200 even if you dont deliver any soft.

There are other chinese brands producing quite cool devices for less than € 300 with intel’s cpu’s and 8GB+ RAM.

I guess I like it more to have rock pi s for $ 10 than RADXA wasting money on high tech and expesive components.

Main critics still stay, HW is nothing worth if there is no software working with it properly. Whatever you do with your HW, invest please properly into customer relationship and marketing, you badly need it.

2 Likes
#12

@jack: how much (rough estimate only) would you think you could sell an 8GB version at?

#13

I think the current price points are fine. Rock Pi 4 is already a great device. If anything to improve, I hope the next SoC would be 12nm and better VPU, (4K encoder would be a plus), a NPU for NN interference would be great, these will be the enabler for next generation video processing in applications like smart building and home.

3 Likes
#14

I am thinking probably just an incremental step up in CPU. But with raspberry themselves half killing the Pi form factor I am not sure if its as relevant.

The rk3588 is some time away and the 3399 hopefully has quite a long Eol that I am not sure if the rk3399 pro is much of an upgrade or even if worthwhile.
Radxa have spent a lot of invested time with Rockchip and I don’t think that was a bad idea.
It would be great to maybe have more pcie maybe 2x the current as the modular nature it adds more than any other dedicated device as it can be many.

If we had a wish list in 3-5 years time then a rk3588 2/4/8 gb ram offering.
2.5gb ethernet, 2x usb C with 2x m.2 4x lanes.

Not sure now if m.2 is the best idea for a SBC due to available product but maybe some form of riser to full pcie connector might be a better offering. As we have learnt its what is available as a peripheral is the important thing.

I think Radxa have probably learnt loads from the RockPi4 and its quite interesting as currently it provides entry level computing, but four ARM Cortex-A55 cores and four ARM Cortex-A76 cores coupled with a Mali G52 GPU is actually a pretty amazing device.

That is long term and purely wish for and price somewhere of 100$ but we will have to see what happens with the price of ram.

I am think the next rockpi like the rockpis is likely to be much more humble like the rockpis presuming we might see something like the RK1808 that is an AI specific purpose for vision/voice/gesture applications.

It may not even be a RockPi might be the pciex4 switch to x4 endpoints utilizing some of the cheaper current automotive silicon available as we might even see multiple rk1808 devices linking to the next gen but got a feeling that might be via USB.

Might even be a RockPi0 as the RPI0 is actually my favourite SBC its a wonderfully tiny cheap and useful device, that is just lacking slightly and there could be a market, but really that is already covered by the RockPiS.

My bet is RockPiAI with the RK1808 that is a tiny format that will be an extremely unique and powerful.
Its looking like they could be used in multiples as first stage i/o processor for rk3399/rk3588 coordinators.
RT-linux maybe risc rather than general purpose application linux.

1 Like
#15

I forgot to mention one thing. I hope the next Rock Pi would have the chip on top of the circuit board instead of the bottom, so we could use some of the Raspberry Pi cases. There are many third party manufacturers build accessories for Raspberry Pi, Rock Pi can take the advantage of that by making it fully mechanical compatible.

I got these cases for Raspberry Pi 4 within a month after it’s released.

rpialumcase
rpialumcase.jpg800×800 65.3 KB

rpialumcase2
rpialumcase2.jpg800×800 67.6 KB

rpialumcase3
rpialumcase3.jpg1000×1000 65.8 KB

I really hope my Rock Pi 4s could fit in (the 3B version).

1 Like
#16

My needs are simple and few but yet to have been met.
Boot from EMMC. complained about it many months ago , No working answer. Mine must be broke.
Working wireless / Bluetooth. complained about it many months ago , No working answer. Mine must be broke.
Boot from M2. I briefly saw some information that this may work with some extended effort.
Boot standard linux distro’s with newer kernels. Pipe dream I guess.

I quit using my RockPi about a month ago. Progress on these issues is too slow.

#17

Boot from EMMC. complained about it many months ago , No working answer. Mine must be broke.

What exactly is the issue? Booting from eMMC is the very beginning and should work just out of box.

Working wireless / Bluetooth. complained about it many months ago , No working answer. Mine must be broke.

The latest Debian Desktop/Ubuntu Server has working wifi/bt. If you have issue with it, you can paste the dmesg to check if it’s hardware issue.

Boot from M2. I briefly saw some information that this may work with some extended effort.

For sd/eMMC + NVMe booting, works perfectly now, with most ssd on the market.
For SPI + NVMe, not all models are supported but it works on some ssd.

Boot standard linux distro’s with newer kernels. Pipe dream I guess.

We now have Debian Testing/Bullseye running on ROCK Pi 4 with kernel 5.3+ open source panfrost gpu driver(thanks to our friends from Collabera). It’s a matter of time to get the other standard linux distro support.

2 Likes
#18

Not really sure what the difference is in the big rpi4 heat sink to the big rockpi4 heatsink.
But always confuses me as most seem to have the Rockpi4 up side down.

The problem with making a Pi format board has already been seen as Raspberry themselves are likely at any stage to kill that format as they have done with the changes from Pi3 to Pi4.

The Pi format is really no longer relevant as its extremely likely the Pi5 will not be the same as the Pi4 or any other SBC will bother with the 2x hdmi and that port arrangement.

IMG_0198
IMG_0198.JPG3648×2048 1.43 MB

That is how I have my RockPi4 and the CPU comes as standard on the top!
I did have a $3 Pi3 prototype board as a base plate but then it occurred to be to why?! As its on feet!

Its been rather bemusing as the cpu likely has a thermal design expecting the casing to be top not the BGA array and keep wondering why Radxa and the community keep posting pictures of the product essentially upside down?!!!

It would be great if Radxa would throw in a 4x 15mm+ M2.5 pillars so maybe people could actually sit this thing the right way round :slight_smile:
Seriously I am totally bemused on this one especially with Radxa ?!!!
The $8 hunk of metal that is the RockPi4 heatsink is price/performance impossible to beat, and an extremely effective passive heatsink especially when orientated correctly.
The fin spacing also allows you to mount a 40mm fan or you may see some slight residue on mine as basically didn’t have any self tappers so epoxy did the job.
That allows me to use a 12v 4 pin fan controller that doesn’t take up any gpio.

But yeah the CPU is on the top but for some reason most people have them upside down and mainly due to Raspberry the Pi format is no longer a format standard to emulate.
With basic primary school knowledge that heat rises I will say no more to the majority who have the rockpi4 sat correctly and its me who has it upside down… :confused:

2 Likes
#19

Those Raspberry Pi heatsinks called “armour case”, there are 2 pieces, protecting top and bottom, while Rock Pi 4 heatsink (which I’m using too) only on the bottom.

#20

If Raspberry had kept to a format and like the IBM PC it would of been exceptionally good for the the complete SBC market Pi clones especially.
Radxa probably spent much time and development trying to approximate the Pi3 format which the Pi4 has managed to kill.
That clamshell if cpu was reversed still would not fit because raspberry have changed the order of the ethernet / usb.
Everybody thought “backwards compatibility” was set in stone and that format would continue one of my main reasons for purchasing the RockPi4 as it was so very close to RPi format.
I think that is gone up in smoke as no manufacturer now can be sure how long any raspberry format may stay in production and now can no longer be assured of any life span.
If the Rockpi4 had totally assimilated the RPi3 with the RPi4 introduction essentially that work would be null an void.

I put the board back on just to show you as essentially whats the difference?

IMG_0199%5B1%5D
IMG_0199[1].JPG3648×2048 1.38 MB

IMG_0200%5B1%5D
IMG_0200[1].JPG3648×2048 1.47 MB

I took it off as its on pillars rasied above the ground and has no need for protection and make access easier even if I don’t really need it.

The armour case is a nice looking case but its only true advantage is its nicer eye candy.
That is prob not design motive for a SBC manufacturer who may think Soc capabilities might be of more importance.

Also I can fit addons such as the m.2 extender or even create a cluster tower which all have function.

The rockpi heat sink is on the top and you have it upside down :slight_smile:

Then again when a put that board back on its actually upside down as the gpio header pins are on the wrong side :slight_smile: