Raspberry Pi 3 or Intel Compute Stick?

[oldairmail]

In anticipation of Air Manager V3, I'm starting to consider updating my generic flight set setup.

I'm using two 9" USB monitors at the moment for instruments. They work well, but I thinking of replacing them with a single, larger, monitor.

I'm using Prepart3d V4 with most of the settings set to the maximum, and Air Manager V2 works well with it.

Actually, it works better than just "well" with P3d V4. P3d V4 is so new that a lot of the free and commercial aircraft have instruments that don't work in P3d V4.

Air Manager lets me use those planes by bypassing the cockpit instruments.


Anyway.

The question is this - is it better to buy a Raspberry Pi 3 or an Intel Compute Stick to use for the instruments?

I'm also not sure if I need to pay to install Air Manager on either one.

If I do get a Raspberry Pi 3 or an Intel Compute Stick, what should I be looking for?



For those who haven't heard of an Intel Compute Stick.

[Ralph]

Both are possible. I think that Raspberry Pi's are cheaper than Compute Sticks? You'll need a license for each device, that can be Sticks, Pi's, etc. You're cheaper of buying one Air Manager license and two Air Player licenses. Or if you buy one Stick and one Pi and then run the Air Manager on the Stick and Air Player on the Pi, it's even cheaper You need an Air Manager license to control the Air Player application(s).

[oldairmail]

Whether I use the Pi or stick computer I will use it for a 16 to 20 inch monitor for instruments only. Fifteen to twenty instrument max. Maybe.


When I look at the Raspberry Pi 3 kits (Pi board, power supply, case to put it in, SD memory card, HDMI cable, etc) the (low end) price gets up about $70 - $80.

A Windows 10 Computer Stick Intel Z3735F Quad Core 1.83GHz,2GB RAM 32GB ROM,H.265 with Built in Wifi,Bluetooth 4.0 runs $96.99. Would 2GB RAM be adequate for a 20" screen full of Air Manager instrument?

If I had the Raspberry Pi already, that would be a simple choice. But if it doesn't matter, I might as well go with the Intel Compute Stick for just a little more.


Memory wise, would 2GB be enough for the Air Player application? That it could run on a Pi would make me think so, but that's a wild a$$ed guess.

I think that the only way to find out what the impact will be is to request a V3 and "Air Player application" trial. I have an old laptop with 2GB to put the "Air Player on. That should do in place of an Intel comput stick.

[oldairmail]

Of interest

I was reading an article about Walmart's competing with Amazon. Long story short - Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, Sliced 9 Layers Case Box+Cooling Fan+SanDisk 16GB Memory Card+HDMI Cable - $36.97

That puts a new light on the subject for me. I still know almost nothing about the Pi, but....

[JackZ]

Be wary though that the Pi is using an embedded Linux distribution, be it Raspbian or Ubuntu (and probably others I don't know).
Time to learn a new Operating System, if you are not familiar with these...

The Compute Stick is basically a Windows 10 PC system in a stick, the newest versions are powerful enough to operate more than a single instrument and even a complete panel, which is not the case of a Pi which is limited to only one instrument AFAIK.
The main advantage of a Rasberry Pi over the Stick is that you can eventually hook up some hardware such as encoders, switches, leds and the like and operate some of the Sim functions through the Pi via Air Manager.
Useful if you are planning a hardware cockpit of some sort.

Jacques

[oldairmail]

DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER - THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PI!

Sorry for the "Lost in Space" part.

But, no. the Raspberry Pi is not included in that listing. You have to really search for the "Not included" part.

As to Linux, I've played around with one version or another for a few years using Oracle VM VirtualBox.


So it's back to the Intel Compute sticks.

As I'd be using it only for one smallish monitor full of instruments, I was thinking of this one - Windows 10 Computer Stick Intel Z8350 Quad Core 1.94GHZ, 2GB RAM 32GB ROM, with Built in Wifi, Bluetooth 4.0 - $109.90

There's a big jump in price when you go from 2GB to 4GB, so I'm hoping that the 2GB will do.

The advantage of using a Pi for switches and encoders is less important to me as I've already used Arduinos to make some of my own controllers. They're so cheap that I have 6 or 7 in bins, along with a couple of hand full of switches, buttons, and encoders. Not to mention a couple of pounds full of LEDs, resistors, capacitors, etc. It's been a small hobby, you could say.

Actually, using Arduinos is simpler for me than a Raspberry Pi would be. There's a ton of free Arduino code that just has to be slightly modified to suit my needs. The Pi may be the same, I don't know.


The real gold here is Air Manager. Controlling aircraft functions, like headings, or barometer settings is easy. But my eyes are too old to try and read the cockpit instruments of a moving aircraft.

A stationary monitor, with instruments large enough to read works perfectly.

[JackZ]

Can't agree more. Full sized instruments are the way to go IMHO.
That's what I've done in my setup, with a 24" monitor that gives plenty of real estate for a full set of true size instruments (3 1/4 inches)and engine gauges.
The hardware side is like you also connected to an Arduino Uno and a Mega and the interface to FSX is handled by Link2FS.

All the switches, landing gear lever and its associated leds, and the encoders for the heading, course and altimeter are bolted on some custom acrylic backplates which are backlighted at night. Air Manager is running on an old spare laptop directly connected to the monitor, but I'm thinking about making the switch to a compute stick

Jacques

[oldairmail]

Someone went to a LOT of work.

Thanks for posting the picture. I'm just starting to think about redoing my setup, and the more pictures, the better.