Uploaded January 2016 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In this video, we take a first look at the C.H.I.P. the 9$ computer which I think it may change the way we make things. It is a very powerful computer that has everything you need embedded!
Back in May, I backed a campaign on Kickstarter. A campaign about the first computer that would cost under 10$. That campaign raised over two million dollars to bring the project to life. Since I was one of the first backers of the project, I received my 9$ computer a few days ago and since then I use it daily to see if it can change the way we make things.
The C.H.I.P. is a very small but very powerful board. In order to see how small it is, check this out. It is smaller than the Raspberry Pi A+ and even smaller than the Arduino Uno. Despite its small size, it offers:
• A 32 bit CPU running at 1GHz
• 512MBs DDR3 RAM memory
• 4GBs of Flash memory
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 8 GPIO pins, SPI, I2C and so on
• Composite Video output
• It can run on a LiPo Battery
• It can charge lipo batteries
• Runs Linux
That's a really impressive hardware if you consider the price of it! It costs $9 but adding the 20$ shipping cost makes it a bit more expensive. Even with that price this board is amazing! What else can a maker ask for that price? But let's now see how to use the board and the software of it.
Let's now see how much current it needs in order to operate. As you can see, when the processor is working it needs up to 3W of power to operate, that's 600mA of current. When the processor is idle the current draw drops to around 400mA. That's a lot of current compared to an Arduino but at the same level with a Raspberry Pi. Due to the high current draw I thought that the temperature of the board might be high. So, I used this IR thermometer I built with Arduino in order to see the temperature of each IC on the board. As you can see, some parts of the board get hot after a few minutes of operation. The Processor is covered by this plastic case, so I can't measure its temperature directly but the plastic case is warm.
In this video, we take a first look at the C.H.I.P. the 9$ computer which I think it may change the way we make things. It is a very powerful computer that has everything you need embedded!
Back in May, I backed a campaign on Kickstarter. A campaign about the first computer that would cost under 10$. That campaign raised over two million dollars to bring the project to life. Since I was one of the first backers of the project, I received my 9$ computer a few days ago and since then I use it daily to see if it can change the way we make things.
The C.H.I.P. is a very small but very powerful board. In order to see how small it is, check this out. It is smaller than the Raspberry Pi A+ and even smaller than the Arduino Uno. Despite its small size, it offers:
• A 32 bit CPU running at 1GHz
• 512MBs DDR3 RAM memory
• 4GBs of Flash memory
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 4.0
• 8 GPIO pins, SPI, I2C and so on
• Composite Video output
• It can run on a LiPo Battery
• It can charge lipo batteries
• Runs Linux
That's a really impressive hardware if you consider the price of it! It costs $9 but adding the 20$ shipping cost makes it a bit more expensive. Even with that price this board is amazing! What else can a maker ask for that price? But let's now see how to use the board and the software of it.
Let's now see how much current it needs in order to operate. As you can see, when the processor is working it needs up to 3W of power to operate, that's 600mA of current. When the processor is idle the current draw drops to around 400mA. That's a lot of current compared to an Arduino but at the same level with a Raspberry Pi. Due to the high current draw I thought that the temperature of the board might be high. So, I used this IR thermometer I built with Arduino in order to see the temperature of each IC on the board. As you can see, some parts of the board get hot after a few minutes of operation. The Processor is covered by this plastic case, so I can't measure its temperature directly but the plastic case is warm.
