What's so special about the I.MX6 board in the Solo?

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They can still be found on Ebay but they are definitely a finite resource and will inevitably hit a price spike the way the gimbal did and eventually they'll go away. That gets me to thinking. Isn't it just a Linux based SoC?

Why couldn't you use a RaspberryPI loaded with the proper Linux version and OpenSolo to serve in place of the IMX6? Add a Wi-Fi card and a Navio2 (or your preferred FC) and you've got a modernized sololink system that is no longer in danger of becoming endangered.
Someone educate me.
 
The IMX6 has image processing chips built-in. They are used to handle the Solo video and the code is written for them.
Is that code part of OpenSolo? Could it be tweaked to work? Forgive my ignorance but software is not my cup of tea. Surely RPI can process video.
 
unknown, what is known is that the gimbal code was never released.
I thought about the IMX8, but have no idea how you would port the software over to a newer version of the board, or if it could even happen
 
Is that code part of OpenSolo? Could it be tweaked to work? Forgive my ignorance but software is not my cup of tea. Surely RPI can process video.

Anything can be re-written but it is not going to happen. The code is what is running in the IMX6's, both on the ground and in the air vs what is running on the Pixhawk.
 
The RPi is running Raspbian Linux (from Debian) and i.MX6 is running Yocto Linux--two very different flavors of Linux. Like the rest have pointed out--we are missing some essential source files to make it happen.
 
RPi Doesn't have to run raspbian -- it can run other OS to include a version of Windows as well as Yocto Linux. I've compiled programs on my RPi and run them on the IMX6 so their also binary compatible so in theory you could run an RPi in it's place. The main problem with that is the video. RPi only has HDMI out, while IMX6 has HDMI Input. You might get something to work off of the RPi's camera in but this is going to take some OpenSolo rewrite to get it to work with a different port. In my opinion it's a LOT of work to save a few bucks at least at this point.
 
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