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I am working with some "low power" applications in which a 3.3V micro controller with some electronics around it logs some information for 20 minutes, and then the information needs to be processed. The processing step is too expensive for a micro-controller to perform, so I need a micro computer that does these calculations once in a while. I do not need USB, nor HDMI, nor ethernet etc, from the micro computer. All I need is 1) the ability to talk to the micro controller through I2C / SPI 2) the ability to work with a 3.3V input 3) the ability to run a command-line only Raspbian OS or something like that, so that I can run some Python scripts.

Any idea what kind of hardware I can use for that? Is a RPi suited? I think this is somehow related to Can I power Raspberry Pi (newer models) from 3.3v Supply Alone? , but I am a bit unsure of what the conclusion is. Should I rather use another RPi-similar micro computer? If yes, what would you suggest?

Zorglub29
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If you need to run Python on a low-power system, see if pyboard, teensy or a similar Cortex-based microcontroller board is enough for both data acquisition and processing. You will never reach the power levels of such boards if you include a Pi (or a different SBC) in your system.

I'm pretty sure you won't be able to power newer Pi boards (Pi 3/ Pi 4) with only 3.3V without modifications: they won't boot with such a low voltage. The only Pi that seems to be able to work with 3.3V (by shorting 3.3 and 5V pins together) is the original Pi model A which uses linear regulators for internal power distribution (and, more obviously, a full-size SD card).

Dmitry Grigoryev
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