{"id":642,"date":"2017-02-07T16:19:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T23:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/?p=642"},"modified":"2017-02-07T16:23:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T23:23:20","slug":"onion-omega2-review-pi-zero-cool-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/onion-omega2-review-pi-zero-cool-trick\/","title":{"rendered":"Onion Omega2 Review &#8211; a Pi Zero with a Cool Trick"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><a href=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-654\" src=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-1024x622.jpg\" alt=\"Onion Omega2\" width=\"800\" height=\"486\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-1024x622.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-300x182.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-400x243.jpg 400w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Onion Omega2<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Omega2 is one of those increasingly popular single-board computers. It made its debut on Kickstarter last year. Is it any good?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll be up-front about it. I&#8217;m not the target market for the Omega2. It&#8217;s similar to a Raspberry Pi Zero, but with one big difference: the Zero is designed for, well, doing a lot of things. The Omega2 is designed for IoT.\u00a0Blasted Science has absolutely no interest in IoT whatsoever, but the price tag was absolutely irresistible at $5.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, the version I&#8217;m\u00a0reviewing is the $9 &#8220;Plus&#8221; version. The only difference is that the Plus variant has double the RAM and storage. This review should apply equally well to both models, though. Here&#8217;s the spec sheet:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_662\" style=\"width: 690px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-specs.png\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-662\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-662\" src=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-specs.png\" alt=\"Omega2 Specs\" width=\"680\" height=\"943\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-specs.png 680w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-specs-216x300.png 216w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-specs-288x400.png 288w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 680px) 100vw, 680px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-662\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slower than the Pi Zero, but you don&#8217;t buy these for speed, right?<\/p><\/div>\n<h3><strong>Shipping Woes<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>For a brief time, I was very disappointed in Onion&#8217;s shipping ability. It had been more than a month longer than they promised and I still hadn&#8217;t gotten our Omega2. However, it turns out it wasn&#8217;t their problem. I\u00a0had forgotten to fill out the delivery form on Kickstarter. Oops. My bad.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Setup<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Omega2 was much more difficult to setup than I thought. To power it via MicroUSB, you need dock, purchased separately. The dock costs twice as much as the computer itself, which is a big disappointment. If the Pi Zero can incorporate USB and keep the price under $5, it seems inexcusable to make it an add-on feature for $10. Being a tightwad, I passed on buying it and decided to build my own power supply. I already had all the parts except one: a voltage regular. <a href=\"https:\/\/rover.ebay.com\/rover\/1\/711-53200-19255-0\/1?icep_id=114&amp;ipn=icep&amp;toolid=20004&amp;campid=5338034714&amp;mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F10pcs-LM1117T-3-3-LM1117T-LD1117-3-3V-TO-220-Voltage-Regulator-TW-%2F131570795922%3Fhash%3Ditem1ea23b0592%3Ag%3AW0EAAOSwMmBVwBph\">I found a pack of 10 on Ebay for cheap.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The power supply isn&#8217;t complicated at all, and is <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.onion.io\/omega2-docs\/hardware-prep-no-dock.html\">well documented.<\/a> However, it still gave me a bunch of problems, which once again were likely my fault. The Omega2 would start booting up, but the power light would turn off after 10-20 seconds. After spending hours trying to isolate the problem, I discovered it was my power supply. As a quick hack, I swapped out a broken-out phone charger with 4 AA batteries. Success!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_655\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Power-supply.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-655\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-655\" src=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Power-supply-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Power Supply\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Power-supply-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Power-supply-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Power-supply-400x267.jpg 400w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Power-supply.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-655\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My messy, homemade Omega2 power supply. It&#8217;s simpler than it looks.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The setup process is surprisingly simple and well-designed. You interact with the Omega2 via another computer; connecting it to the Omega2 via Wifi. You simply point your web browser at a specific IP address and the setup can begin. All you have to do is give it your Wifi password, and you&#8217;re done. Optionally, you can update your device&#8217;s firmware and install the &#8220;console&#8221;. After that, you&#8217;re ready to begin using it.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Usage<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>One advantage the Omega2 has over any Raspberry Pi is that it comes with 32Mb of storage (64Mb for the Plus);\u00a0this allows it to run a full Linux installation out of the box, no microSD card required. While it&#8217;s by no means a sizable amount of storage, it&#8217;s enough for basic functionality. Fortunately,\u00a0it does have a microSD slot.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_656\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega-2-underside.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-656\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-656\" src=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega-2-underside-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Omega2 Underside\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega-2-underside-1024x683.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega-2-underside-300x200.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega-2-underside-400x267.jpg 400w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega-2-underside.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-656\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The underside of the Omega2<\/p><\/div>\n<p>You can interact with the Omega2 via SSH or serial, but I didn&#8217;t try either one. The simplest method of interaction is via the same IP address used for setup. If you choose to install the console, you get a good-looking web interface loaded with a few useful apps.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_660\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/onion-console.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-660\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-660\" src=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/onion-console-1024x597.jpg\" alt=\"Onion Console\" width=\"800\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/onion-console-1024x597.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/onion-console-300x175.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/onion-console-400x233.jpg 400w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/onion-console.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-660\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kinda reminds me of Ubuntu<\/p><\/div>\n<p>To reiterate, I have no interest in actually using this device for IoT. I poked around the various apps, but have no real use for any of it. I did install Python and test a few lines of code, but that&#8217;s been the extent of my testing so far.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Bottom Line<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Omega2 is a well-designed, low-cost Raspberry Pi competitor, although its cheap price rises quickly with the addition of basically-required accessories. It&#8217;s also pretty good at doing IoT things. Probably. I wouldn&#8217;t know. But it&#8217;s cool. It made a fine addition to my collection.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_658\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-c.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-658\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-658\" src=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-c-1024x740.jpg\" alt=\"Onion Omega2\" width=\"800\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-c-1024x740.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-c-300x217.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-c-400x289.jpg 400w, http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/omega2-c.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-658\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A pretty snazzy little machine. I bet it works just fine.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Various accessories for the Omega2 can be purchased at the official <a href=\"https:\/\/onion.io\/store\/\">store.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Omega2 is one of those increasingly popular single-board computers. It made its debut on Kickstarter last year. Is it any good?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[55,68],"tags":[4,37,36,59,28,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":667,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642\/revisions\/667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blastedscience.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}