Olimex Support Forum

News => New Product Ideas => Topic started by: Maarten van Druten on December 18, 2020, 12:43:58 AM

Title: Olimex Keyboard enclosure like Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer
Post by: Maarten van Druten on December 18, 2020, 12:43:58 AM
I am convinced that an "keyboard enclosure for the Olimex Lime2" or OLinuXino
will help Olimex to become more popular because there are also people that are less skilled and with DIY producrs, and would rather expect a complete working product (with case)

A fact is: Good Hardware is nothing without good software...
an Olimex Personal PC keyboard
is a perfect missing link with which you can create (for example) an "Olimex Keyboard PC Kit" starter kit!

With a study book in which educational and fun projects are taught, so that students and schools also want to invest in this product.
A big plus is that Olimex is open source, and has no vendor lockin like Raspberry Pi ...


Title: Re: Olimex Keyboard enclosure like Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer
Post by: Maarten van Druten on December 18, 2020, 12:57:00 AM
I forgot this product will also be interessting for people and companies that are looking for "turn key sollution" for having a secure cloud only pc
Because more and services are going to be in the cloud nowadays...
Title: Re: Olimex Keyboard enclosure like Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer
Post by: olimex on December 18, 2020, 09:48:31 AM
Hi Maarten,

Thanks for the idea, but for RPi this makes sense as it's educational computer which is used on desk.

Most of our boards are used in industry, build-in machines where is require reliable 24/7 operation.

Putting OLinuXino in plastic keyboard is possible but there will be lost the access to the hundreds of GPIOs.

We have these panels which are used a lot in industry:

https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/LCD/LCD10-METAL-FRAME/

They do about the same as the keyboard but are more robust.

Best regards
Tsvetan
Title: Re: Olimex Keyboard enclosure like Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer
Post by: Maarten van Druten on December 19, 2020, 12:04:03 AM
Dear Tsvetan,

Thank you for your reply, I agree with your answer that the primairy scope of Olimex is professional industrial computing.

But you also sell eduArdu, robot kits, sensors, etc.
If you bring all these components together in a nice looking box, with a community driven manual, you have the perfect "My first Engineering Kit"
for newbies and students that want to explore the world of open hardware and open source software.

a desktop "keyboard Olimex pc" could a great central piece in this concept
I am convinced that this product will be a succes  :)