Flipper Zero is one of those things that I would love to try, but I can't justify the price when I know I'll get minimal usage out of it before it just sits on the shelf.
I still love seeing what everyone does with them though.
Same. I opened the purchase page multiple times already, but I always close it because I realise that I have no use for it. Everything cool that you could potentially do with it is illegal.
>Everything cool that you could potentially do with it is illegal.
How so? Think of it as a lock picking tool. Sometimes maybe you loose your keys to your bike lock or garage. Wouldn't ti be better if you had the tools to pick your own locks? That's not illegal.
Worth to specify exactly where in the world you make this claim.
In a lot of countries, carrying around tools that can be used exclusively for burglary can be illegal, and also picking locks (even your own) can be illegal unless you have a license.
As always, it depends on where you are :) Best to lookup your local laws if you're a person who like to carry lock picks around.
Just as an example: in Alberta, Canada, it is illegal to carry lock picks without a license, no matter for what purpose.
In the United States its always legal to carry lockpicks if you have no criminal intent. But there are a few states where you can be arrested and must prove your lack of criminal intent to avoid a conviction (carrying lockpicks in those states is prima facie evidence of criminal intent so the ordinary burden of proof is reversed).
As a non American, I was unable to learn what this was about due to a forced Regional Popup which made me to go a local reseller (which of course, did not have any listing for the brand new item)
A GPIO add-on with a case instead of the original exposed circuit board is cool, but the focus on gaming seems really bizarre to me. If I want to play games I could get a color handheld for a fraction of the price that will run a much larger variety of games.
Contrary to what their marketing says, I don't think this is really meant to be for gaming. It's a cool use case, and useful escape-goat, but for the functionality it packs, using it just for gaming would be a waste, especially considering the flipper's intended audience.
Instead, I'd see it as extended platform attached to your flipper, presumably access to much wider software ecosystem (basically anything that can run on a raspberry), new sensors and new connectivity options, all in the name of extending the original functionality.
For example, with the new module you can use it as a cheap oscilloscope on-the-go, as mentioned in the blog post. Not sure when I've ever needed that, but I'm sure it's useful to someone.
The Flipper Zero is essentially a swiss-knife of portable penetration testing, I'm sure the new connectivity options adds some more features to that concept.
"Video Out port: DVI-D signal in 640х480 px, 60 Hz. The port supports a well-known video standard that we can't name due to copyright limitations The first letter is H, and the last one is I."
"We can’t name the port’s standard due to strict copyright limitations. Getting certified to use the name seemed like too much work. We were too lazy to do it :) "
IIRC the bit-banged RP2040 DVI implementation plays fast and loose with the spec in places, so it might not qualify for HDMI certification anyway even if they were willing to pay. It's generally close enough to work but there's compatibility issues with some monitors.
Those screenshots remind me of my attempt at Doom-style 2.5D raycastinb engine in MacPerl on pre OSX vintage Mac. I wonder if I have any of that Perl4 Quicktime code archived here, and if so, whether I could get it running again?
website breaks if you are in a foreign country, it has a popup asking you to goto another store site, with no way of being able to click to stay on this store.
Awesome that they got 60Hz DVI video output working on the RP2040, presumably via the PIO peripheral. That's one of the coolest peripherals I've worked with in awhile, I love how flexible it is.
A few years back someone was bit banging DVI and 720p 30fps video straight off the RP2040 GPIO pins with just inline resistors between not and the HDMI cable.
Over 41% of the web runs on nginx. A web server made by a Russian. With your logic you shouldn't be browsing the web. Both nginx and the flipper zero are open source, many people don't even run the official firmware.
I still love seeing what everyone does with them though.