Super low powered PC?

Hi all,

I'm just investigating options for a low-powered windows PC that would run a piece of software for controlling a DSLR camera over a few months.

I've been using a tablet to date, which draws around 0.6A as the software is very low maintenance and not taxing on the processor.

As the tablet screen is always on, I figured there must be a better and lower powered option out there.. There seems to be a lot of chinese 'mini pcs' on ebay such as the 'meego', or more recognised brands such as the Intel Compute.

Does anyone have an idea of one of these 'pcs' that's reliable, and super low power draw?

Cheers!

I don't think you will find any PC's that use .6A worth of power... Raspberry Pi maybe, but you need a monitor and some programming..

If by controlling a DSLR you mean snapping pictures at regular intervals and saving or uploading the photos elsewhere automatically, have you considered an Android device? There's more then likely an app that does just that, and you can get a really cheap Android cell phone on eBay to perform the task. The older phones would be just fine with a 5V 500mA power source.

Yeah I considered a cheap phone, but unfortunately there is no android apps that will control a dslr with the kind of fine control I need

Would a compute stick work?

Considered setting up an Arduino?

For under $100 you can build an AMD AM1 system.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128696 board 34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113366 dual core 32.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113367 dualcore 29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113365 quad 40.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231718 1x4Gb ram 1600 $22

You've been using a tablet as in a Windows tablet? Or some kind of USB charged, android / apple tablet? It draws 0.6 amps at... 5V? or 115V?

If you need an x86 PC running windows, I think an atom based netbook with the screen off would draw an awfully small amount of power... around 13W or so if I remember correctly from when I had an aspire one. I also remember an old Pentium 3 1.2 GHz desktop I had that used only 30W from the wall socket.

didn't acer or someone offer ulta low powered ubuntu netbooks aimed at the third world with access to little or no power?

I've been having more indepth looks at the compute sticks - I think they will end up drawing more power than the tablet unfortunately.

A fully fledged PC would be nice, but it would draw way too much power.

Yeah it's a windows tablet, specifically a 'fusion5' one. It seems the only tablets that are windows and have a dedicated charging socket, are the 10 inch ones. It's a shame as if it was the 7inch the power draw would be less. Also the screen has to be permanently on for the software to carry on running, though I'm trying to see if there is a way to turn the screen off without the tablet sleeping.

It was 0.6amps at 5V. I think the tablet will be the best options still.. if I can get the screen off it might drop the power consumption further. I've also been using a wifi router that draws another 0.6a or so, but there now seems to be a few tablets on the market that have 3g sockets built in too, so that would eliminate the problem.

At ~2.5W, even if you can get a 1W option, that's only a saving of 1.5W.

At the average energy price of $0.10/kWHr in the US, that amounts to a difference of around $1.31 per year (8760 hours * 1.5W / 1000 W/kW * $0.1/kWHr = $1.31).

The price of any new device you buy will be able to pay for the difference for many many years.

Even if you are doing this for the environment, the disposal of the old device, the manufacturing of new device, and transportation for both are probably much worse for the environment than the extra 1.5W.