I agree the same concept design could have various sizes and only retain common appearance and connections (esp32+lcd screen). It could work with small board but also mini ITX boards.
Damn I wish I had the skills of Nina here to make such a perfect box :
That’s a direct clone of the NeXT cube of course and we should stay away from anything resembling anything copyrighted if the goal is for many to build / buy it as a creative commons model.
I like the idea of a cube mostly because it is a pure harmonious shape and also doesn’t require costly industrial design.
I don’t think that geometric primitive is copyrighted… yet I also wouldn’t go to a black color as this is too generic and too NeXTcubey.
That being said since it would have a black screen on it having a black surface is the best way for the screen to fit in if we want it to display the boot icon sequence and logo in a good way. Either that or the screen background stays by default of the color or the case.
I have been imagining a black cube with a touch of that iconic yellow tab. Maybe on the on / off button or volume rotary encoder.
Please give a hint if a site rersides on CloudFlare …
… I would NEVER attempt to try to open it !
Those NEVERENDING inspects my browser’s “security” and NEVER STOPS to restart inspecting, AFTER I clicked as I’m a human … at least in Webpositive ALWAYS. and sometimes in Web as well.
Thanks to avoid me getting longer frustrated on Haiku …
If you watch carefully you will find at my post at the right corner above … for whom in the thread I sent the request – aka to whom I replied.
Of course, basically, it is a request for anyone also :))
In Discourse you can send reply
→ to one post – at the bottom of a specific post (like I did in this case previously and now actually as well)
→ to the opening post – at the bottom of the thread of this post
If you are willing to do your own hardware, you can use an output switch.
For example a MCZ33996EK from NXP allows you to control 16 low side output which can drive up to 16 LEDs. With the CS (Chip Select) signal you can drive several of them. SPI1 has 3 CS for a total of 48 LEDs.
Definitely interested in this, even the RPi4 case modified for the Starfive 2 would be cool. I have to say I don’t find it very likely that there would be any issues with doing such a case when it comes to design patents (should have expired if there ever were any), trademarks or copyright. Not like it is going to be that similar when the form factor and type of system is completely different and it would have Haiku branding instead of Be. Not to mention Be is hardly an active brand…
Always thought the Raspberry Pi case color scheme is somehow Be-like and would work well for Haiku too. A Pi400 would have been fun to have running it but now I’m eagerly waiting for a VisionFive 2 to arrive.
The first one has bars similar to the Bebox, but mirrored to have four instead of two.
Or, a complete change: an X with the four bars like a St. Andrew’s cross on the top side of the case when viewed horizontally, not vertically like the Bebox.
As long as you dont’ put a Be or Next Logo on it you are in the clear probably.
Be, Inc doesn’t appear to have ever copyrighted the case, and any trademarks or patents would have expired. Acess Co. still has the Be trademarks and is updating them… so steer clear of those logos and icons etc…
I made a small mockup of what it coud look like. Using a cheap LCD screen ESP-C6 (you can get these for 7 dollars) instead of physical leds. This assumes the boot system writes some data via serial to the screen during bootup to show progress. Later the screen can be used by apps for custom info display.
One cool side of the LCD screen instead of physical CPU bars is that in addition also working for 8 or 32 cores in the future that it can change the screen background color to match the case.
So if you build your case as orange or magenta instead of blue it’s only one parameter to change on the ESP -screen module.
I am thinking there could even be a system prefs app to set this which would send settings (such as background color ) to it or even just call esptool to flash a new version directly.
The Haikube wouldn’t be from one manufacturer as it’s an open system so I’d encourage many to build/sell their version based on a reference implementation sharing only common stuff (a recognizable cube shape and a ESP32 screen controller so the code remains the same).
Instead of being only seen as that Haiku that runs on old Thinkpads (which are great) it could be also the one that runs on a variety of colorful boxes. But
I don’t even have a visionfive yet (but ordered one to fiddle). Being in Brazil it’ll take a month :-/
You certainly know more about this than I do. I thought initially about using UART for simplicity. Notably because to be able to work during the boot process it should be pretty minimal and not add new risks of crashing.
I used these ESp32 modules only with Arduino / ESPHome. They have this advantage of being completely self contained compared to a screen you’d access with more complex code on the Haiku side. They can turn on immediately on boot before the main board (being either Intel or risc-v) and display something (such as time elapsed since start and an eventual error if no communication is received)
I find the idea appealing in both modes: a minimalist communication model (send only values to display and use pre-flashed graphics) and the whole demo scene way of doing whatever you want with this screen to impress your friends once the OS is loaded.
Ideally I’d want a small SDK that any app could add so it would be a few lines to display a chart or a progress bar from your torrent client or your video compression app or anything. Just set name , color or bar and percentage and the module would display it.
Looks great but I wonder what the height is needed for since it has no disks and the visionfive 2 is powered by USB C? Could be a slim design with LCD on the right hand side? Or will it have drive bays there?
It’s a shame there are not headers for things like USB on the visionfive 2, so that front mounted ports could be more easily added. I looked at the star64 and milk v mars and they are also lacking there. I guess the milk v mars compute could be an option but much more work.
Well first off all it’s just a preliminary mockup. The thing is a perfect cube just… looks nice. After all the idea is to make recognizable hardware. Something people can see and this “oh a haiku box”.
Remember the Vision Pro fits in a 12cm length so if you push the height up it’s still a rather small 12x12x12 cube. I can dream of a a place with many of these cubes in various colors .
I thought about putting a decent speaker in the remaining height. The center circle presents a volume rotary button. It could be also work as an open source HomePod . See home assistant for how this can be setup (on Linux nowadays).
I imagine a minimum desktop with just a pure cube box shape and a screen.
In terms of design I’d like to avoid usb ports even if agree they are practical for plugging stuff in rapidly. Maybe in a sliding door. But ports hidden at the back look nicer .
I like it but one speaker is a cheap design. It ends up being a bit indicator. Put two of them and you have a little media box. Interface the LCD with MediaKit and you can even have song or radio infos. It’s not like if you don’t have room, one speaker on each side should do it.
I also wouldn’t go to a black color as this is too generic and too NeXTcubey.
