Recommendation Requested: Substitute of Raspberry Pi Zero

[Manu Kohli]

Hello we are looking for a substitute of Raspberry Pi Zero that can handle following use cases. The substitute is explored because of shortage of Raspberry PI Zero in Indian market and jacked up prices. Else we are happy to use Raspberry Pi Zero.
1. Configuration of local server in the SD card , load of media in the local server and broadcast the media content using a local hotspot. So the card can be configured as media server and hotspot generator through which content can be viewed on mobile or computers that can connect through hotspot. ( Internet presence is not mandatory).
2. The Board should allow connecting of a USB device such as Hard disk. Allow scrolling of media or content on the hard disk. Display the selected content through the hotspot.

Please suggest your recommendations.

Regards
Manu

 

[Nerevarine]

What you are looking for is a NAS. Even some routers can accomplish this.
Let me know your budget, there are many ways to accomplish this.
1) Attach an actual NAS drive to a router via ethernet.
2) Use router's USB port for file sharing (NAS). Most cheap routers have USB 2.0.
3) Use raspberry pi alternative, ive searched for a lot for this usecase and my final conclusion is Rock64. Its the best cheap SBC for NAS. USB 3.0 + Gigabit Ethernet + ACWifi Router = Good NAS Setup.
There are other SBCs like Orange PI but dont bother with those, dev support is just as essential as hardware and these chinese SBCs have very little linux support.

 

[Manu Kohli]

Hello Nerevarine
The requirement is around 10K pieces and budget is bench-marked keeping Raspberry Zero ( retail price 700/- + SD card price ) in mind. Can you recommenced what we should do ?

Thansk
Manu

 

[Nerevarine]

Is your requirement based on small IOT devices, or are you okay with large laptop size device ?

 

[Manu Kohli]

It has to be small device and used in locations where internet connectivity is missing.

 

[Nerevarine]

Regardless of small, Raspberry Pi Zero is extremely underpowered to carry out NAS operations.
It has a single USB 2.0 bus, which would be shared with the network IO as well as storage IO.

What I can recommend is :
1) Get yourself a ROCK64 (2gb) - 32 + 11 USD = 43 USD
2) Get a proper AC Wifi Router - ~Rs 2k
3) 16 GB microSD with FreeNAS or OpenMediaVault Installed.
4) External Hard Drive with whatever capacity you require.

Put them all together, they can be enclosed in a small box or compartment.
With OMV, you have a lot more granular control over what files you are sharing and to which user. This is my final suggestion to you, because any thing else you try, be it with a lesser under powered device, or a high end single router that has NAS functionality, you will be giving up one thing or another.
Its better to have a bsd/linux system of your own where you can control every aspect of NAS. Remember, this is the cheapest solution that has the least bottleneck. Your USB 3.0 passthrough is still a bottleneck to a 1 GBPS network, but that is to be expected as HDDs cannot reach USB 3.0 speeds anyway.

Watch this, it will be very clear.

With that being said, if you would like a premium alternative, get a WD starter NAS :
*www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01CS9EJJ...24b-5c28-93c8-17c4c04d4c82&pf_rd_i=1375410031

These will deliver full speeds over a network, provided nothing is getting bottlenecked.

 

[Manu Kohli]

Ok Great Thanks for your suggestion. I will touchbase with you with few more questions after exploring your proposal.

 

[cute.bandar]

Best option would be to Contact pi foundation directly. For 10k pieces they could ship directly, and who knows may give a marginal discount. Make sure to work out taxes (10% ?) . Also if you are working in an ngo or something, the import taxes, gst could also be waived off. Probably need a proper CA to help with this. Remember pi foundation is also a charity

Other ideas:

- make your own with arduino . Could be impossibly difficult, or too costly to be practical.
- buy china clones ? Off the top of head only.
- discarded android phones. where will you get 10k though ?

Anything else that taxes attached would probably not be cheaper than the pi. So maybe look if there is some indian thing ?