Raspberry Pi Alternative Has Built-in Touch Screen

DFRobot, known for their LattePanda single board computers (SBC), has introduced a new SBC called Unihiker. Priced at $79, it is more affordable but less powerful compared to their Delta or Sigma series boards. Unihiker is a Debian-based SBC that shares similarities with the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W rather than the Raspberry Pi 4. It features a 2.8-inch touchscreen and is powered by an Arm CPU and RISC-V based microcontroller. The board includes a quad-core Arm Cortex A35 processor running at up to 1.2 GHz, 512MB of RAM, and a 16GB eMMC storage. Despite its small size and single USB port, Unihiker can be connected using a USB C cable, providing a locally available device with a fixed IP address. It also offers wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 through the onboard Realtek RTL8723DS module.

Programming Unihiker offers flexibility, with beginners recommended to use the block-based coding environment called Mind+, while advanced coders can write code using various languages such as Python, Jupyter, or the built-in IoT service utilizing the MQTT protocol. Unihiker includes an onboard GD32VF103C8T6 microcontroller, based on RISC-V architecture, running at 108 MHz. Additional hardware can be connected through three three-pin I/O ports, two I2C connections, and a micro:bit compatible GPIO. The board also features onboard peripherals like a microphone, light sensor, buzzer, 6-axis motion sensor, and LED.

DFRobot provides a comprehensive wiki with detailed features and a getting started guide for Unihiker. Priced at $79, the SBC is currently available for purchase.