Omega2 Kickstarter is Live! An IoT computer for just 5 bucks!

Lazar Demin

@Guest The sensors come from Control Everything, nothing we can do about the price

Kit Bishop

Looks really good I will be signing up.
A few comments, questions:

Pleased to see the new Arduino Dock breaks out the Omega GPIO pins
From the photos, it looks like the Arduino Dock GPIO breakout is layed out the same as the GPIO headers on the standard Omega Dock - is this correct?
I note that the Omega2 only has 15 GPIO pins against the 18 on the original Omega - what has been lost?

Lazar Demin

Regarding Questions 1 & 2:
Yep, the Arduino Dock R2 Omega GPIOs are the exact same as the Expansion and Power Docks. So if you solder on a 30-pin header, you will be able to use Omega Expansions with the Arduino Dock R2!

There is also a direct UART connection between the Omega and ATmega328p chip. We've also fixed some of the sketch flashing issues. Stay tuned for more details.

For question 3:
To gain some features, we had to restrict some of the GPIOs:
There is now a dedicated, hardware controller for SPI and we've added a second UART. Hence the loss of a few GPIOs. We think that the trade-off is definitely worth it though!

Kit Bishop

@Lazar-Demin Cool, Thanks
Have now signed up.

Laurence HR

In a June 19th mail, I read...

We're giving away an Omega2 to 10 Onioneers!
(and free Kickstarter shipping to all participating)

I really posted a project on Hackster, I will get a free Omega2?
But anyway. I will buy one (more), how can I get the free shipping?

Thanks, really the $5 price is so awesome, the cheaper linux board until now.

Kit Bishop

For what it's worth, I have also just published a project on Hackster (https://www.hackster.io/KitBishop/omega-arduino-expansion-c8ff3c?ref=user&ref_id=93973&offset=0) that covers my recent post: https://community.onion.io/topic/899/omega-arduino-expansion-board

Tom Karickhoff

@Lazar-Demin will OpenVPN be functional on the Omega2?

Lazar Demin

@Laurence-HR @Kit-Bishop Yep, you will get your free Omega2s!
We're gonna reach out later this week or early next week. It's just been really hectic around here with the Kickstarter launch.

@Tom-Karickhoff We'll do our best to make sure it works. We've learned a lot about OpenWRT in the last year, so I'm confident that the amount of packages & software we support will continue to grow!

Coleston Pluzak

bought the 100$+ version with all sorts of bits and baubles. Can't wait to get this sucker and start doing stuff with it!

Laurence HR

@Lazar-Demin really great! thanks 4 that. Onion Omega is one of my favorites IoT Boards, and about the free shipping for backers (in this new campaign)? I really want back (two is better than one) This advantage will be aplied, on my backs (aparts from the free board)?

Tom Karickhoff

@Lazar-Demin Glad to hear that! Thanks for adding the UFE connector on this one! The Omega is getting very powerful for its size, and antenna options will make it a smaller alternative for many items already on the market.

Kit Bishop

@Lazar-Demin Thanks for the offer of an Omega2 - much appreciated

Butrus Butrus

@Lazar-Demin Unfortunately there is no pinout(*) description of the new Omega2 on the Kickstarter page - only some marketing shit and idiotic buzzwords ("cloud", "apps", and so on). So please, If you want people to support you, publish decent documentation first!!!

(*) It would be enough if you write down eactly which signals (as referred to in the datasheet) are you making available on the pin-header. (No, we don't need any "fancy" images like for small children. We need the information!)

Also, I would be interested to know if is it possible to build a working OpenWrt for Omega2 from the official OpenWrt sources or whether there are drivers/patches outside the official tree (and if so - are all those patches open-source)? I don't want ANY binary blobs!!!

Also I definitely dislike the Idea that the pre-installed OpenWrt has some proprietary parts which will send data into a "cloud". This really scares me and thus I don't trust your version of OpenWrt at all.

So, unless you publish a proper documentation (pinout + how to build and install vanilla OpenWrt by yourself), I won't consider buying/supporting Omega2. Sorry!

Luciano S.

@Butrus-Butrus said in Omega2 Kickstarter is Live! An IoT computer for just 5 bucks!:

So, unless you publish a proper documentation (pinout + how to build and install vanilla OpenWrt by yourself), I won't consider buying/supporting Omega2. Sorry!

Very impressive your blackmailing :baby_tone1:

They really don't need you ....kkk

2,044 backers
$75,975 pledged of $15,000 goal
33 days to go

Lazar Demin

@Butrus-Butrus I understand your concerns, but the Omega2 is still in preproduction so certain things will be different in the production models. It would be pretty disastrous if we prematurely published a pinout and the final product turned out to be different.

However, all of the supported protocols and signals are listed under the The Omega2 comes in two Versions section on the Kickstarter campaign page.

The default OpenWRT can most definitely be installed on the Omega2, and we will be publishing that info in the coming weeks. If you don't see it before the end of the campaign, feel free to reach out to me here.

As for our Cloud services, the Omega is not sending any data to the Cloud, it just lets our servers know that it's online, allowing you (and only you) to manage, remote-control it, and send compiled binaries to it from our online UI at cloud.onion.io
The Cloud was designed for security from the very beginning, so nobody but you can access your transmissions or data.
If you simply don't trust it, the default OpenWRT version doesn't have our Cloud client, so no worries there

We are a group of adventurous makers who want to make tools that make it easy for others (and ourselves) to build some awesome projects/devices/gizmos. We definitely welcome all feedback and work hard to incorporate it into our products. The Omega2 is a prime example of that. We hope that you join us on this adventure.

Guest

@Lazar-Demin Yours was a very civilized answer can't say the same for others no matter what emoji is attached.

srikrishna Acharya

What about the LORA expansion.. is there any update related to that.. please let me know.. I am planning to do some 400 acres campus wide deployment of these Openwrt modules.

Luciano S.

@Butrus-Butrus said in Omega2 Kickstarter is Live! An IoT computer for just 5 bucks!:

... only some marketing shit and idiotic buzzwords ...

@Guest , very civilized this statement ... if you and your friends get finally a bit more adult i will stop to comment.

Btw, beside the Submit button it also has a Discard button ... after rereading a comment as @Butrus-Butrus made, it might be better just discard and start over after cool down a bit ....

Rafael Gonzalez Pacheco Lopez

@Lazar-Demin Hi, very big fan of your first product and I will definitely be on board for this next one but I have a question.

I'm at work so I haven't had the chance to read everything but, will this board be backwards compatible with my existing omega (1) modules?

Thanks in advance

Lazar Demin

@Rafael-Gonzalez-Pacheco-Lopez That's great to hear!

Yep, the Omega2 is compatible with all of the Docks and Expansions that shipped with the original Omega!

Check out the FAQs at the bottom of the Kickstarter page for more info!