DLIAtomic Pi Developers Kit

This kit is a terrific bargain--an x86 based single board computer, a breakout board with extra peripherals, and a USB camera, all for under $40! You'd be hard-pressed to find another SBC with similar specs for even double the price.I've had great experiences tinkering with this board, but it's important to set your expectations appropriately. This isn't going to be a super-powerful PC. The Intel Atom x5-8350 was a low-power CPU five years ago, and the 2GB RAM/16GB eMMC is seriously limiting. On top of all that, there's only two USB ports, of which one requires the breakout board to access. If you're looking for a true desktop PC, your money would probably be better spent buying a modern mini PC or NUC.However, this board really excels at being a high-efficiency platform capable of running fully-fledged desktop x86 apps, which (for now) has a wider support ecosystem than its ARM-based SBC contemporaries. It really flies on lightweight Linux distros like Lubuntu or Xubuntu, and can even play YouTube videos at 1080p decently. The best part is that this board is passively cooled. Thanks to the beefy heatsink, it barely feels warm to the touch even under heavy loads. I've always had issues with other SBC's thermally throttling and losing performance, so the excellent thermals on this board were definitely appreciated.Another neat feature is the unique peripheral set that you won't find on an ordinary PC. For instance, there's several GPIOs, a speaker amplifier, and even an on-board IMU! Together with the included camera, this board would make for a nice autonomous robot controller.The setup's a bit more involved than something like a Raspberry Pi--the power connector on the Atomic Pi itself is placed quite awkwardly, which causes it to sit at an angle. The included "Enchilada" breakout board alleviates this somewhat by including a mating connector, although you still need to feed it power through the terminal blocks with bare wires. This means either cutting up a power adapter cord or using a barrel-jack pigtail connector like I did. You'll also need some u.FL antennas if you want good WiFi/Bluetooth reception, as they aren't included in the kit.Once the power situation is sorted out, the Atomic Pi boots into Lubuntu, which came pre-loaded on the eMMC. It also comes with several example programs as well as some documentation. I think this was a nice touch, and is something I would give it a point over the Raspberry Pi.The included camera also requires a little setup to get going. You'll need to download some drivers, which are available on the Atomic Pi github repo. The startup is a little convoluted, as you need to load a firmware image onto the camera each time you want to start it up. However, a bash script would take care of that easily. Another thing I've noticed is that the included extra-long camera cable isn't very reliable. Presumably there's some signal integrity issue with the long wires as it seems to work intermittently. However, the shorter cable (that connects the Atomic Pi to the Enchilada Board) works great.The "Enchilada" board breaks out most of the on-board peripherals into terminal blocks, and provides ample space for prototyping. There's even a space for an Arduino Mini, as well as a USB-to-serial converter for debugging. I'd recommend using this board, as it keeps the Atomic Pi sitting level on a desk.All in all, it's a great board to experiment with, as long as you know exactly what you're getting. The setup can be a little tougher than your typical SBC, but the Atomic Pi subreddit (/r/Atomic_Pi) has plenty of helpful guides as well as troubleshooting tips for common problems. This won't be your PC replacement, but then again, it was never meant to be one. However, if you're looking for an x86 based machine for embedded control applications, this might just be the board for you!Pros:+ x86 CPU capable of running desktop apps+ Boots from eMMC, no SD card required+ Very efficient, runs cool+ Includes many unique peripherals+ Superb value--this kit comes with the Atomic Pi, Enchilada Breakout Board, and a USB camera, all for under $40Cons:- Awkward power connector location- Missing WiFi/Bluetooth Antennas- Only 2GB RAM, 16GB eMMC- Not a particularly powerful CPU- Camera can be a bit tough to set up

I bought this to serve as a home server, environment monitor, and webcam. My kit came neatly packaged in its box, but I did not find a camera module. Perhaps I am just unlucky and they forgot to put the camera in my box. But that doesn't bother me since my Atomic Pi went into the basement next to the router and network equipment where the camera would not have much to look at.The compute board is quite small, although not as small as a raspberry pi. It is about the size of a small paper napkin. The real benefits of this board are not the camera or other features like that--I have other devices that will do a much better job for watching my cat sleep. What I really wanted was a server that would provide good performance on the workloads that I needed to run, gigabit ethernet, low power consumption, compatibility with popular operating systems like Ubuntu Server, enough memory to do what I need, an I2C interface to connect environment sensors, and a low price. This board fits all these requirements nicely. The board is totally silent because there is no fan or spinning hard drive. I purchased a high endurance SD card for long-term reliability. I also built a small mounting bracket to attach the Atomic Pi next to the other network equipment. The Atomic Pi comes with brass standoffs that you can use to attach the breakout board, and I added my own standoffs to attach the Pi to the mounting bracket. I set up my Atomic Pi with Ubuntu Server, which uses only a fraction of the 2GB of memory in the Atomic Pi. Next, I installed OpenVPN and other packages that allow me to communicate with my home network from anywhere and access files stored on the Atomic Pi. The gigabit networking is very important for this, as is the quad core processor since OpenVPN needs to encrypt and decrypt traffic sent through the VPN tunnel. I find the performance to be very good for what I am doing, and I couldn't be more pleased with the very low power consumption of this device.I also added an Amazon Smart Plug which allows me to turn on and off the power to my Atomic Pi from anywhere. This allows me to shutdown the server, turn off its power, and later turn it back on without having to set up wake-on-lan, which would require me to open another port to the internet on my firewall. I decided that the Smart Plug would be a better, simpler, and more reliable option.My next project will be to add environment sensors to the I2C interface so that I can see live temperature and humidity values. I might also add an SSD over the USB 3.0 port to give serve as a very low power NAS. I already have a QNAP, but that uses about 25 watts of power when the two hard drives are spinning, which is most of the time.I just purchased a second Atomic Pi to play with, and that should be coming soon. The Pi does have built-in storage of 16GB plus two small drives of 4MB each, but I have not used those devices yet. I also have not played with the gyroscope, but my second Atomic Pi will be useful for this experimentation.

OpenMediaVault x86 flashed onto an SD card and it installed itself easily onto the MMC. I'm using it as a NAS to replace my Rock64. Getting 112 MBps on Samba transfers with WD USB 8tb spinner drives on a usb 3.0 powered hub.The reason I even tried this was for better Plex Transcode performance. Out of the box OS and OMV are both able to Plex Hardware Transcode with the iGPU (hd630?) without any mods. For reference you can probably get 8-12 transcodes of H264 1080p (OR) 2-3 of H265 1080 transcodes to remote 2mb clients. 4K transcode is too much buffering, but why would you do such a thing..Over kill for my needs as in house Plex works great. Runs OMV and DLNA as a NAS even better. Only issue is I had to relocate the temporary transcode folder to an SD card as the MMC was getting near full after a full scan and devices cashing thumbnails for plex.I flashed a Modded BIOS to get 1.9ghz boost and extra UEFI stuff. So far it has been stable but I read dont muck with the C state. I also MAXED all the iGPU ram options in the modded BIOS. 10 watts on full tilt from the wall on a Saberant 4amp supply. 12 watts from an old 3.5 amp I already had. And only 4.4-4.6 watts idle running all the above stuff.I bought a 2nd one after playing with this one. Great deal! Good spare! Almost want to order a 3rd cuz I'm a nerd!UPDATE: 9 months later, these things are ROCK SOLID! Not a single crash or issue, serving ALL my needs and then some. I've since installed OMV5 (old) as usual for a base on the built in MMC memory, but now run PLEX and other things inside Portainer Dockers to either SD card or USB/SATA on a SSD. The later is mucho faster but less stable long term.

für meine Zwecke, als Win10 Steuerrechner für ein Multifunktions Messgerät ist der Atomic Pi hervorragend geeignet

Wäre das Board nach kurzer Zeit nicht ausgefallen könnte man es sogar als Desktop Rechner verwenden.