Onion Omega 2 is on Kickstarter for $5

General Chit Chat
#1

Over a year ago, I backed the gen 1 Onion Omega. It’s a tiny device (28.2mm x 42mm) with a 400MHz processor on board, built in WiFi, running Linux (OpenWRT + BusyBox). It’s designed to be an IoT device, but is basically a great device for anything that a Raspberry Pi is too big for. I’ve used it build a few silly prototype controllers but it will soon end up controlling a dehumidifier in my shed. This can be easily achieved using a good amount of add-ons via GPIO that you can buy from Onion and also from other suppliers.

I raise this because the gen 2 model is on Kickstarter and you can pick one up for as little as $5 (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onion/omega2-5-iot-computer-with-wi-fi-powered-by-linux).

1 Like
#2

Hang on, it does wifi? It doesn’t need a dongle or to be powered from a USB hub or anything? I can just plug it into a normal phone charger and it’ll do wifi? blimey. that sounds excellent…

#3

Exactly. All it needs is a single USB micro if you’re running it in its dock (which just basically unpacks GPIO into friendly ports). Or you can power it via GPIO directly. No extra power is needed for the built in wifi.

I can’t remember how I found the original Omega kick starter but I’m surprised not many people know about it because it’s a brilliant little device for any sort of automation / monitoring etc where a Pi is massive overkill.

#4

hrm. I assume there is a little adapter wire available for purchase somewhere which has a microusb socket on one end and a thing which connects to gpio pins on the other end, so you can power this sort of thing from a standard phone charger? Obviously the dock does this, but the dock also does a bunch of other stuff and therefore could be smaller if it didn’t :slight_smile:

(update just seen the Mini Dock and Power Dock, which solve that problem and are really not very big at all :))

#5

Yes, I was just about to link you up. Although, the idea of a USB cable with individual female connectors on the end, to go straight onto the GPIO pins, isn’t a bad one. Might have to look that up.

There are some really great sensors at https://www.controleverything.com, the only annoyance is the enormous shipping price (and now the weak pound).

Once they humidity sensor and relays arrive, I’ll put an article up about building it.

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