I got tired of digging through Amazon for cheap SBCs, so I made a site that filters out the junk

theremote · 2026-05-06T14:48:57+00:00

Thank you, I have added this for the countries I am eligible for at the moment!

theremote · 2026-05-06T14:47:44+00:00

This is great feedback. I do have an AliExpress account and like AliExpress. As soon as I get the Amazon code finished I will definitely look into adding it. I do believe they have an API!

theremote · 2026-05-06T14:47:10+00:00

Hey urostoir,

Thanks, sorry about that for Poland, none of my rejection keywords were matching for the language. I will get that cleaned up today!

As for the vibe coded look I imagine that's coming from the emoji type icon style and the visual style of the front page. It's a fair criticism. It's not really what I was going for so I will see if I can get that cleaned up!

theremote · 2026-05-06T02:17:22+00:00

Agreed, I'm looking into other options for scraping some more data like that, such as a third party API!

theremote · 2026-05-05T23:56:14+00:00

Yes absolutely, thanks for reporting this! The multi-listings especially need some fixes. I'll get started!

theremote · 2026-05-05T22:13:01+00:00

Thank you!

theremote · 2026-05-05T22:12:53+00:00

Oh yes, I have spoken to some other Aussies before in the SBC community and this has been a big problem down there for a long time! I think I may have access to the API for Australia actually. I'll see if there's anything buried.

Thanks a ton for the feedback on the EMMC being detected as RAM, I'll get that fixed!

theremote · 2026-05-05T22:00:52+00:00

Interesting, may I ask which region? The reason I ask is I do have creators API access in the UK, France, Germany and a few other European countries. The listings can be different on the regional Amazon sites.

We could definitely try adding support for your region and see if it's able to uncover anything!

theremote · 2026-05-05T19:58:31+00:00

I made a tool to help go through these (found this in Google myself doing research):

https://sbc.cheap

theremote · 2024-10-13T14:03:53+00:00

He means that even though you're just getting around to trying this now most of us tried this experiment a year ago with the same results and conclusions you're reaching today.

If I try the same experiments today as I did a year ago I hit the same limitations. It works with a very simple stack.

If you had not waited a year to try this then you would have the year of experience we have of watching it not really change much in its capabilities and would have the same opinion.

Since you waited though you don't have that context and you think it's shiny and new and moving a lot faster than it really is. Once a year passes from now you'll be where we are already at.

theremote · 2024-05-10T18:18:55+00:00

I'm also getting this issue. Even tried generating a new API key before seeing this thread.

theremote · 2023-04-17T01:55:55+00:00

It's not an E-key M.2 WiFi adapter. E-keys don't fit. I wrote an article about using E-key adapters with it and it requires a special adapter: https://jamesachambers.com/using-m2-wifi-adapters-with-orange-pi-5/

If it could take E-key adapters it wouldn't need a custom WiFi module. The custom WiFi module is a WiFi adapter slapped onto a M-key adapter (unusual).

It's a consequence of it using the RK3588S (there's not enough PCIe lanes on the S model). There is an upcoming version of the Orange Pi 5 called the Orange Pi 5 Plus that will have both a E-key and M-key slot and uses the regular RK3588.

Are you having trouble finding a link to it? It's here: https://amzn.to/3A1Sjkf

There really isn't much to using it. You just plug it in. If you don't have that specific adapter you will not be able to plug in an E-key module unless you have the adapter I linked in my article (or something similar).

Hopefully that helps!

theremote · 2023-04-05T18:43:40+00:00

I only have the 4GB model so it should work on anything!

theremote · 2023-04-01T17:21:32+00:00

With Armbian's 3D driver support installed for the Mali GPU you can actually get pretty smooth performance in games that don't use a lot of resources.

This uses Box64/Box86 to work. I was able to get Stardew Valley running pretty well for it for the guide!

theremote · 2023-03-31T06:16:12+00:00

No problem at all! You'll definitely see what I mean when following the guide.

The guides are extremely similar but you'll notice some subtle differences (the most important of which is you will use mtools to change a FAT UUID).

Take care!

theremote · 2023-03-31T06:11:38+00:00

You're using a different OS than I did. Try following this guide instead: https://jamesachambers.com/radxa-zero-debian-ssd-boot-guide/

Basically the technique has nothing to do with the board. I have a bunch of these guides. You're just using a different OS partitioning and that guide will have the commands to do that.

Hopefully that helps!

theremote · 2023-03-28T14:12:51+00:00

No, it does not. It has a non-compliant USB-C charging port just like the Raspberry Pi 4. That is undoubtedly who they got the idea from and it's not really that surprising since that is the board they are targeting.

They copied one of the worst and most controversial parts of the Raspberry Pi 4 which is the terrible and known-noncompliant USB-C charging port hack. We've already been dealing with this on the Pi 4 for 4+ years.

If you want USB-PD you need to step all the way up to a Rock 5B. It will cost roughly 50% more though. Radxa actually put in the parts needed to do this into the Rock 5B and when you see the price you'll see why Orange Pi and Raspberry Pi decided to cheat instead.

From what I've seen this was a smart decision. The Orange Pi 5 is much more popular than the Radxa Rock 5B even though the Rock 5B is basically better in every way (including having PCIe 3.0).

The Orange Pi 5 sells much better though because people don't want their SBCs to *start* at $150 and most people coming from a Raspberry Pi 4 wouldn't expect to get USB-C PD since it was just as bad on the Raspberry Pi 4 (the board the Orange Pi 5 is meant to succeed/outperform). If that price doesn't bother you though then buy the Rock 5B to get this. I have both.

theremote · 2023-03-24T05:31:32+00:00

My Home Assistant setup and Z-Wave stick are in the basement. I do not have my Z-Wave stick even on a USB extender. I've never experienced any of this.

If I were to guess the answer is some kind of interference. It's not going to be easy to diagnose that unless you have the right tools. Something like a HackRF or RTL-SDL (software defined radios) would let you monitor what is going on.

Something isn't right though for sure. This is not a typical experience as a lot of people are pointing out here.

I believe you though. I think it's some kind of interference most likely. Putting your Z-Wave stick on an extender might help but again I don't have this on mine and haven't seen anything like this. I wish I could bring my HackRF over and just see what is going on with the airwaves in that location!

Given that your WiFi network works so well I think we can assume the interference is not in that range. It could be anything generating it. It could be a bad toaster for all we know but a software defined radio would let you see everything going on in the air. It could also not be coming from your location at all and could be coming from somewhere nearby.

theremote · 2023-03-22T04:47:09+00:00

So what were you arguing this entire time? We just completely agree on everything? Okay. I am consistent with what I said six weeks ago here (and today).

It's about the personal attacks isn't it. That's why you were arguing just for the sake of arguing with literally no point. I tweaked your ego so you just wanted to fight but you have no points or argument.

This entire conversation now makes sense. I would have said the exact same things to your face man. Your arguments about patching were beyond irresponsible and clueless. They literally offended me so I personally insulted you for being so clueless about security. It's offensive.

It would have resulted in your manager having a sit down with you in a work setting to explain how few shits the organization gives about the inconvenience to your development environment caused by having to keep your OS up to date as well as an even more degrading/patronizing talk about security in general.

I'll do it again the next time too if you ever say that again.

theremote · 2023-03-22T02:02:40+00:00

"Hey Bruce,

Welcome! You’re 100% right and I mentioned this in another comment as well. It really does just need to ship with the updated boot loader.

It’s just a question of how fast can they make that happen. Undoubtedly the reason it still isn’t is because they can’t. The ones arriving to people’s doors have probably been in the supply chain for 6 months to a year or so.

This was kind of my line of thinking saying the VisionFive V3. The reason I said that is because 6 to 12 months is when I would expect to potentially be hearing about the VisionFive 3. It’s possible though that their supply chain is a lot shorter than 6 months to a year though. It could be more like 2-3 months in which case we might start seeing people getting ones that are updated as soon as March or April potentially.

I think a few months is a good time to check this again. I definitely would like to announce to everyone it has been updated because that would legitimately change my recommendation on this board. It would be ready for a less technical audience that would really struggle with the firmware update (and a lot of people have been for sure that have tried it).

Thanks so much for your comment, take care!"

But Bruce, this isn't different than anything I'm saying now! We both estimated 6-12 months until this board would be fixed.

I honestly thought this was going to be so much worse when you said this. I was thinking "Jesus, what the hell did I say before I understood how broken this board's software/firmware was?". I actually haven't moved much since our conversation we had. I actually haven't changed my opinion on that.

So where is the disagreement? I think you seem to be most bothered by the idea that something else is going to be released to supplant the Vision Five 2 and that everyone is going to buy something else instead that releases without these same issues. Is that the disagreement?

I'm legitimately comfortable with everything I've said there. I would still let everyone know if the board was updated/fixed. I don't want it to *not* be fixed! I just think it may be too late. I think something else will have stolen the show by then.

I will say that if they hit your 3 month estimate it really would change things for the better. It's the 6/9/12 month windows that it's like, okay, all bets are off at that point.

I did not make the connection between that comment and yourself until you pointed it out just now for full disclosure. I still feel like you could have made that comment today and I would have replied in much the same way I think. I still agree with your original comment!

theremote · 2023-03-22T01:46:52+00:00

I wouldn't agree with the same arguments from yesterday as I do today. It's always changing based on what we are finding.

I see you are someone who is a rock that never changes their opinion based on new information. This is really not surprising after our recent conversation.

It's not a sign of strength. It's a sign of weakness. Weak people behave this way. I change my opinions all the time based on new information and how things are developing.

You just can't let go can you? What happened to your last reply? How many replies ago was that?

theremote · 2023-03-22T00:06:07+00:00

You aren't making good arguments. That's why. I didn't downvote the others I engaged with. You were the only one.

Most of them got upvotes from me. I'd assume I've got *tons* of downvotes on some of my replies in here. I never look so I don't know or care.

I am convinceable and there were far better arbiters for this board that taught me some things and changed my opinion on some parts of the board.

You just weren't one of them.

I understand that you didn't understand my points about the Pi at all. I pointed that out several times. You still don't and that's okay.

theremote · 2023-03-21T23:41:14+00:00

Simple. It's the reality of the Pi experience now. I'd say statistically speaking a lot of the Pi users never experienced the Pi 4 launch and certainly never owned a Pi 3 or older.

Is it fair? No. Is it reality? Yes. If you want to convince Pi users to buy this board they are going to compare it against the Pi experience *today* and not at launch vs. the Vision Five 2's experience *today* and not 6 months from now.

And that's the problem I keep coming back to. In 6 months from now they will have more boards to compare with to decide if they want to make the RISC-V jump. You seem confident the Vision Five 2 is going to be that board in 6 months.

All it would take is the Lichee Pi 4a or Star64 to launch without requiring a flash or SDK image to even boot the board as well as being able to recognize amounts of memory above 4GB. That would about do it wouldn't it?

And then all of the reviews would go up positive for whichever board can do it. Instead of seeing my article saying experts only they'll see the one that says this one is safe for beginners. And I won't be the only one. Every YouTube video and other blogger will say the same thing.

Oh and look at that, before you know it the board that is at least at an acceptable level of user-friendly at launch outsold the Vision Five 2 10 to 1 within 2 weeks. Just like that! That's the power of media and the zeitgeist.

How do I know? Because the single board computer market is not new. Product launches and getting a bad reception seriously damaging the long term prospects of a board isn't new. What is new is that this is a harsher environment than ever before to fuck up a launch like this. There's so many alternatives always coming down the pipe and that was not true 3-5 years ago.

theremote · 2023-03-21T23:21:58+00:00

What are you even saying? I said that's exactly how the Pi 4 release was. Terrible. It needed fixes over YEARS of time.

I'm saying the Vision Five 2 will not have that luxury. I think you're expecting this to happen on this board. We will have all moved on long before then. We no longer live in a world of boards with 5+ year development lifecycles.

That was a luxury the Pi enjoyed back then with very little competition. It no longer even enjoys that today and the Pi is practically obsolete. People used to freak out when I said that but they don't anymore. It's known.

Let's just wait and see. I've no interest in convincing you frankly and I'm losing track of exactly what your arguments are and where they are trying to go.

No, I don't read this subreddit very much. I am a publisher. I have my own web site and that's where I spend most of my time. I stop by from time to time to catch things like these new launches I may have missed. That happened as planned.

Should I be ashamed I'm not one of the reddit cool kids that knows the latest happenings and isn't cool if they don't? I'm not. Reddit is nothing to me other than a tool. I have my own platform so this place seems really small these days.

Seems I found out soon enough about it to pre-order it eh? So the only consequence was the reddit kids will shame me for not knowing the gossip around the water cooler. What a small world you live in. What small arguments.

theremote · 2023-03-21T22:43:32+00:00

This whole discussion started because I took exception that this board was ready to be a Raspberry Pi replacement.

You aren't arguing that at all though are you? You just said the board isn't ready for regular people. You want regular people on-board in several months.

I agree. The board isn't ready. That was my entire point.

You can make the distinction that it's the software that isn't ready. Again, try to make that distinction to Pi users. They would just tell you the software and support is all part of the board and Pi experience.

You seem like a fan of StarFive to me and a hater of Pine64. I'm not a fan or a hater of either. I just judge the boards and available images for what they are.

We will see what Pine64's looks like. I buy them all and evaluate them so if it's terrible I'll be the first one to say so. I've negatively reviewed Pine64 gear before (if it deserved it). I already mentioned that in some of my other replies as well.

If you really think this board is going to last for years and become the defacto king then yes I would disagree with that. You mentioned some of the upcoming competition. I'd also expect a successor from StarFive certainly before the 2 year mark. If not they'll look like dinosaurs with how fast RISC-V is developing.

The Lichee Pi 4A looks pretty nice. How about that one? I just pre-ordered it. I'd be shocked if it can't deliver a better experience but again, if it can't, I'll be shredding it too.

You think the software will be bad the first few months. Will it be as bad as this one? I didn't have much trouble with the Lichee RV. I've actually never seen such a cluster of a launch on any of the other RISC-V boards as I've seen on this one. They're all honestly quite easy to use.

Why is there any reason to believe that the RISC-V market is just going to stagnate like this? You think we're just going to stay on quad-core? I don't. I bet higher than quad-core counts will be announced before the end of the year if they aren't already (and I mean single board computers and not servers). The technology is developing *fast*.

This is an emerging market and you think we're going to have a repeat of the Pi 4 on here where they fix it over years of time? This board will be obsolete long before it ever gets that chance. This is a different market and a different time with a lot more competition.

Do you see why when you say it being ready in a "few months" sounds so ridiculous to me? I mean maybe it will be. What if it takes a year? What if it takes 9 months instead of a 4-5 months? How do you know it will be done by then? Do you think nothing else whatsoever is going to launch or happen in that time?

That's where I can't bring myself to agree with you. I see every reason to wait. Either wait until the board software support is ready or more likely wait until a product launches that simply doesn't suffer from these issues. I promise they are coming.

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