Onion Omega board was first introduced in 2015. The tiny OpenWrt Linux board featured an Atheros AR9331 processor with GPIO headers, and various baseboards and add-ons. The company has now launched a Kickstarter campaign for the second versions – Omega2 & Omega2 Plus – with a faster processor @ 580 MHz, compatible with docks and add-ons boards used for Omega, and a much lower price with $5 for the Omega2, and $9 for Omega2 Plus with more storage and memory.
Omega vs Omega2
Omega2 & Omega2 Plus specifications:
WiSoC – 580 MHz processor, possibly Mediatek MT7688 MIPS processor used in LinkIt Smart 7688
System Memory
Omega2 – 64MB
Omega2 Plus – 128MB
Storage
Omage2 – 16MB flash
Omega 2 Plus – 32MB flash + micro SD slot
Connectivity
Built-in – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi with on-board and external antenna support
Via add-on boards – Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS, and 2G/3G
Expansion – 15x GPIO, 2x PWM, 2x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 1xI2S
Power Supply –
Dimensions – A fourth the size of the Raspberry Pi, and less than a third the size of the Arduino UNO
Omega2 with Dock and Arduino Shield
Although the module can be used own its own, it’s much easier and fun to use with docks with the Expansion dock, mini dock, power dock, or Arduino dock shown above, and combined with one or more add-on boards adding relays, OLED displays, servo board, Ethernet, Bluetooth, GPS, or 2G/3G cellular connectivity. The developers also partnered with ControlEverything to provide for sensors add-ons.
Omega2 runs Linux, likely OpenWrt, and can be programming with visual editor like Node-RED, as well as programming languages like C, C++, Node.js, Python, and php. You can checkout their github repositories to see what they’ve done for the original Omega board.
The campaign has reached its funding target within a few hours. Beside Omega2 and Omega2 Plus board, you may also consider get a bundle with a dock of your choice for $20 or $24, and various other kits are also offered as rewards. Please note that shipping is not included, and they’ll ask you to pay shipping later when the board is ready to ship with the price for the board only expected to be around $2 for most people, but it can be as high as $15 to some countries. Delivery is scheduled for November 2016.
Thanks to Freire & Nanik for the tip.
Tweet Onion Omega board was first introduced in 2015. The tiny OpenWrt Linux board featured an Atheros AR9331 processor with GPIO headers, and various baseboards and add-ons. The company has…