In terms of "serious use" I think that depends on what you mean by "serious". E.g. my hone automation setup is not static, because I keep finding new little things I want to tweak, and often the ready-made solution lack options I'd like to have unless I'm willing to spend time tracking down very specific modules. My time is valuable to me - I'd happily pay extra for a modular system where I know if something is lacking a button for something I want I can literally just plug one in instead of having to search all over for a different model of something.

Of course this will not replace mass market "close enough" solutions.

But I think there are still more than enough people who want to tinker but don't want to have to whip out a soldering iron.

But I am not sure about the rest.

And what you don't see in demos like this are the practical limitations that the demo avoids. I didn't watch all the way to the end but I had questions about how the device communicates its limitations and handles situations where, for example, it cannot supply enough power.

EDIT: Though that does make a key weakness the fact that there doesn't appear to be any provisioning for locking down the blocks more aggressively to the board.

I'm betting that it will be cost-prohibitive to have this device as a permanent fixture for any one application outside outside of the sorts of things an rPi4 already does (Home Assistant server, etc). I don't think anyone is going to use it to control an LED with a slider, but for prototyping that sort of thing it has endless possibilities.

Hats off to Anil for the huge amount of work he put into this project.

First, a clarification: Since people have brought up the topic of "hard to believe one guy handled all aspects", I want to state that while this is my concept and my project (and I've devoted nearly every waking hour since 2020 to it), I'm no jack of all trades.

In the last two years, for example, I've gotten occasional but much-needed help (and knowledge) from two freelancing developers for some aspects that I don't have expertise with, including Linux intricacies, DMA-based firmware programming, UI design details, and some other subtleties. A more experienced PCB designer (colleague from past) has also helped me, particularly with the recent 6-layer PCB layouts. Plus, an assistant in the past has aided with the soldering of some tightly packed boards.

Last but not least, my SO has contributed graphics + Adobe Premiere effort for my videos; her equally important contribution was being a frequent listener, and sometimes a much-needed boundary, to my evolving thoughts through this project's journey.

As the project evolves to its next phase, I do hope to get more people into primary development of this modular ecosystem, in the form of both team members and eventually custom Block designers from the community, once I organize and release the necessary files + documentation for everyone to work with.

I'm perhaps late to the party, but I'll try to answer as many questions as I can on this thread now, including hopefully the ones posted several hours ago!

The algorithm that chooses the most likely/useful application for infinite possible combinations of modules would be an impressive feat for a single person.

The multidisciplinary coding required to get all of these pieces to work together in a hot-swap way would be an impressive feat for a single person.

The design and implementation of a single physical connection interface that can adapt or carry all these different protocols (USB, HDMI, etc) would be an impressive feat for a single person.

Not to mention the PCB design, 3D enclosure design, machine learning proficiency, aesthetic product design chops, and on and on.

All together, this is unbelievable. This is 0.01% level stuff. Mozart, Musk, Melville. Somewhere in that neighborhood.

However, the most complex and costly part is the PCB and circuit design. The PCBs used in the blocks are absolutely awesome.

Thanks to 3D printers that are cheap, the casing and other plastic materials are easy to make.

All that being said, this has very low chance of becoming a real world product. Real world is messy, dirty, wet and an absolutely shitty place for snap on electronics.

What would work, is better connector technology. It is obvious that even with all this simplification, this will still be a hobbyist product, rather than a serious mass market product.

As solo founder this is really motivational - I hope my upcoming project garners even half the interest once launched! So many hats.

- Joseph Brodsky

https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/dj7ilc/so_ive_been...

all posts about this project (around 30):

https://www.reddit.com/user/Solder_Man/posts/

My thoughts: Not immediately, but yes, eventually. Humans have an innate willingness and desire to tinker+make things. Those qualities have gone into hibernation due to the vast array of mass-manufactured, off-the-shelf devices in the last decade. But many (have and will) come to realize that the satisfaction ceiling is so much higher when you build something yourself, getting your hands dirty, and looking at the product of your efforts.

Just that reason is enough to give rebirth to the experimental/inventive attitude that pervaded the 20th century. But there's also the fact that a personalized something can allow you to do stuff that a typical consumer product couldn't.

Pockit just aims to enable and accelerate the above realization for hardware, the way that libraries and frameworks have done for the programming world.

If you're asking more practically - the success of Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Seeed, and others suggests there's at least potentially a market here sufficient to sustain a moderately sized business for long enough to be worthwhile.

Agree about the demo, too - there's some serious wizardry on display there. I think it's one of the projects that just gets more impressive the more time you've spent trying to do what they're showing off.

The people who could do that are the people who have time to spend hours watching Netflix series but usually they are the lazy type and not interested in that kind of things.

Unless it is used by a school most of those things end up in drawer not to be used again.

"Oh, look! Here's Ara. Back from the dead. It's a miracle."

Pockit Modular computing demo [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26590715 - March 2021 (33 comments)

Project Pockit, a modular ARM computer runnig Linux - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26547377 - March 2021 (15 comments)

SPI and I2C plus some generic pins. This are the typical interfaces used in microcontrollers.

If I were to build a “bigger” versions of this, I’d avoid PCIe altogether and jump to USB 3.x directly, since it’s a much better fit.

Tech is still fun. It might just be that you're getting older.

Arduino and the like are probably the least commercialised and they are ok. But everyone grows out of them.

https://www.seeedstudio.com/category/Grove-c-1003.html

Bunnie is probably one exception to that rule, though.

Not any in any, but some in some is already possible, some Renault cars share parts for example with Dacia. But other companies tweak their design each yer, they change how the head lights look, shapes change, then some other inside parts shape needs to change so you got people having to redesign, re-test each year new filters and piping/hosing (this is the ones I am familiar with), Other shitty thing that happens is patents, some company gets a patent for some pretty obvious thing, now if you want to make spare parts for those cars you need to work around dose patents - a lot of work and expenses to be able to offer a different choice to the consumer.

The reason the engines and other parts can't be share is design and recently DRM, for sure you won't be able to install unofficial wheels on your fancy car without breaking some DRM protection(but is for your safety /s).

What are the alternatives? Is there something like this I can get my hands on now?

>we should be designing things to maximize lifetime

The duality between these two competing (and defensible) positions is the crux, isn't it?

Similarly, the pockit has not that single use-case and you have to spent some time to adjust it to your use-case. However, especially with the Pockit-to-Pockit communication you can build so many cool things.

Maybe a PC is just a toy too, but IMHO it depends on how you use it.

Let's remind ourselves that this is a highly advanced proof-of-concept. If the issue really is simply the integrity of materials, that can be improved, and should not be considered a long-term limitation of the underlying technology: which is frankly too sophisticated from a design and software perspective to be set aside as a toy.

After all, the difference between a "Fisher-Price" drill and a "De-Walt" drill is the integrity of materials and underlying software. It is arguably a toy aesthetically, but (in accord with your argument) it is a few carbon fiber pieces away from becoming a useful generalized personal computing tool, the same way a drill is a useful generalized power tool.

When it comes to physical widgets, there's a limit to how many you could practically have on one device. I think the real value here is that it could be open to market to allow a real diversity of physical augments allowing people to improvise devices that are unlikely to be manufactured into a single form factor, but might be perfect for their niche use case.

I loved some of the insane designs prior to manufacturers deciding that the iPhone form factor was the way forward.

That said, Moto/Google did try something like this once, "Project Ara" which never really went much of anywhere. It led to a few modules being released for the Moto G and that was it. (IIRC)

No need for relays – you can replace the bulbs with smart lightbulbs that can be controlled via Zigbee. Ikea smart bulbs are high quality and good value.