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I am looking for a Single Board Computer which would be used for the following purpose:

1) Scan a QR code through a QR code scanner attached to it.

2) Send the text of the QR code scanner to a backend and retrieve data, which would be displayed on a display attached to the SBC.

3) The SBC would be continuously functional and will have to be robust enough to run 24/7 in an external environment.

4) Should be capable enough to power a QR code scanner.

The SBC would connect to the backend through WiFi. Raspberry Pi satisfies a lot of these criteria, but I am a bit apprehensive about how robust it could be. Any suggestions for what SBC could be potentially used for such an application?

Gautam Ramakrishnan
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  • What QR scanner are we talking about? Besides having Wi-Fi and the ability to interface with the scanner, I'm not seeing too many requirements; robustness is effectively just a function of the case at this level. – JMY1000 Jan 23 '20 at 06:33
  • Any USB QR scanner which must be powered by the SBC should do. I mainly need it to be robust enough to for outdoor use 24/7. – Gautam Ramakrishnan Jan 23 '20 at 08:40

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You get any robust SBC. The handheld scanners already convert the QR code to text so you don't need to worry about vision recognition. It might be easier if your scanner has a virtual COM mode rather then the usual keyboard simulation.

If you truly want to play with vision recognition then nothing beats nVidia's Jetson - SBCs with integrated nVidia GPU. AFAIK similar hardware is used both in Nintendo Switch and Tesla's autopilot.

Personally I'd get an SBC based on an i.MX processor since they have good Yocto support, including Qt. Something like this: https://www.digi.com/products/embedded-systems/single-board-computers/connectcore-6-sbc

That said, the only issue with Pi's robustness, as far as I'm aware, are power cuts - if you power it off when it's writing to the SD card it might damage the filesystem. And being rated only to work in non-freezing temperatures.

jaskij
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  • Thanks a lot, I think my issue with robustness is more clear. I could probably prototype on the Raspberry Pi and move on to an SBC you suggested. – Gautam Ramakrishnan Jan 29 '20 at 03:15
  • @GautamRamakrishnan a lot also depends on performance - I have a 500-MHz i.MX 6 at work and node.js startup times are atrocious. – jaskij Jan 29 '20 at 09:27