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penk / penkesu

Penkesu Computer - A Homebrew Retro-style Handheld PC
https://penkesu.computer
MIT License
1.85k stars 72 forks source link

External USB and/or UART ports #6

Open Drizzt321 opened 2 years ago

Drizzt321 commented 2 years ago

Any thought to bringing out UART (maybe from an FTDI?) or USB hub to allow for external USB connections as well? I imagine this could be a very handy micro computer to carry around to be able to flash/reprogram/debug IoT/micro stuffs.

Something like this USB + Ethernet could be quite handy to have. Pull the case off and mount it bare PCB internally. Or perhaps this one is better, since it could go in a corner and provide 2 external USB, and 2 internal USB while still giving USB3.0 speeds.

Or actually this adafruit board is interesting, and it uses pogo-pins to 'takeover' the USB header output. At least of the Zero/Zero W, not sure on the Zero 2 W.

2disbetter commented 2 years ago

In the current design there isn't enough room for the pogo-pins board height wise. I'm currently experimenting with a retrocution mini usb hub. If I can get it to work, what you're asking here should be possible. The biggest concern for right now is available power. The Zero and display use about .8A of the available power. This leaves only .2A to use. This limits the amount of things you could connect. Still, I'm hoping to at least be able to use a USB thumb drive, etc.