It’s been a little over a month since Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton launched a crowdfunding campaign to build a free and open source modular PC system which includes an EOMA68 PC card (with a processor, memory, and storage) and a series of accessories including desktop and laptop docks.
The campaign has raised over $60,000 so far, which is less than half way to the goal of $150,000. But Leighton tells me that if he raises around $100,000 he expects to be able to begin production of the items people are ordering: the higher dollar amount was chosen under the assumption that more people would be making pledges for higher-priced items.
Leighton has also added a few new options to the campaign — including one that could let you use your phone as the brains for the laptop or desktop shell.
The new $35 pass-through card option is basically a card that takes HDMI and USB output from your phone (or other device) and sends them to the micro Desktop, 15.6 inch laptop, or any other device designed to support an EOMA68 PC card.
In other words, it’s sort of like a NexDock or Superbook, except instead of a laptop shell, you get a card that you can insert into a laptop shell (which you can buy, build, or 3D print yourself).
Leighton notes that this could be an option for folks underwhelmed by the specs of the first-gen EOMA68 PC card, which features an Allwinner A20 ARM Cortex-A7 dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and 8GB of flash storage. You could support the campaign by ordering the pass-through card and then you could use it while you wait for Leighton to develop a more powerful card.
Another new option is a $20 breakout board aimed at folks that want to use the EOMA68 PC card to build their own projects, but who don’t want to have to poke holes in the case to access GPIO pins.
Leighton has also added a few new operating system options: you can order $65 EOMA68 cards with Fedora 24 or Devuan. That’s in addition to the Debian or Parabola options, which were already available.
Note that there’s a $10 shipping fee for the EOMA68 PC card, breakout board, or pass-through card.
In other EOMA68 news, Leighton has been continuing to work with his prototype hardware and has posted some updates regarding software. There’s now support for a GPL-compliant video driver (which means that you should have no problem playing 1080p, 60 fps video in supported formats — including MPEG2, H.264, and VP8), and early support for the Linux 4.7 kernel (which is faster, but less stable than the 3.4 kernel).