Raspberry Pi Computer for $5

[C855B]

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3008850/computer-hardware/raspberry-pi-zero-the-5-computer-has-arrived.html

I'm thinking about distributed MRR applications such as servo switch machines and signal controllers. Biggest challenge there is interfacing. Oh. And software to make it work.

Something else worthwhile is the Raspberry Pi 2, with the bare but functional board for $35, with double the power of previous generations. Enough to run JMRI? Hmm. I last checked a few months ago, and somebody was successfully running JMRI on a Raspberry Pi, but there was the usual Linux burden of a $#!+load of dependencies to resolve. Maybe that's been improved.

[railnerd]

The "Jessie" release of the Raspberry Pi version of Debian Linux has a ton of stuff preinstalled, including Oracle Java 8.  This makes getting JMRI to work much easier.

My RasPi Zero is supposed to show up on this coming weekend... should be very interesting.

-Dave