The PIXO Aspire is a roughly $35 USD vape that can almost play DOOM, with [Aaron Christophel] finding that the only thing that realistically stops it from doing so is that the Cortex-M4-based Puya PY32F403XC MCU only has 64 kB of SRAM. CPU-wise it would be more than capable, with a roomy 16 MB of external SPI Flash and a 323×173 pixel LC touch screen display covering the other needs. It even has a vibration motor to give you some force feedback. Interestingly, this vape has a Bluetooth Low-Energy chip built-in, but this does not seem to be used by the original Aspire firmware.
What [Aaron] did to still get some DOOM vapors on the device was to implement a screenshare firmware, allowing a PC to use the device as a secondary display via its USB interface. This way you can use the regular PC mouse and keyboard inputs to play DOOM, while squinting at the small screen.
Although not as completely overpowered as a recent Anker charging station that [Aaron] played DOOM on, we fully expect vapes in a few years to be perfectly usable for some casual gaming, with this potentially even becoming an original manufacturer’s function, if it isn’t already.
Why the hell does a vape need a Coretex M4 CPU and an LCD screen?
An 8 bit OTP microcontroller and a couple of LEDs should be more than sufficient.
Microcontroller????
just use a 555 and call it a day
555???
Just use a couple of transistors and you’re done
A 555, how about a coconut radio ala the professor on Gilligan’s island?
Use MEMS relay logic and ditch silicon entirely.
most MEMS devices, including relays, are built on a silicon wafer. This wafer serves as the foundational substrate for the device.
Roll some tobacco leaves and light one end. Hydrogencarbon magic instead silicon magic. Play doom with stick on heads of your opponents. Bwahaha.
Add Wi-Fi and it will be able to run ads. Literally stick them up your nose and be the envy of the modern corporate world.
Now that would be something. Cheap ones got a wait a couple seconds to hit it. Like the ads at a gas station.
Some ones you can get in AUS already do that, they don’t network but just have a bunch of preloaded ads, just selling more vapes though. They let you put your own image on it if you get the app (which probably does network/update it with anything at that point)
Needless to say, I didn’t buy/use or do any of that but my friend has a bunch of them lying around I’ve been wanting to mess with. Everything but the display module is single use but you can only buy both together lol.
Because they can. I expect the BOM to come out to an equal price, and someone in marketing wanted colors and that newfangled multimedia that’s all the rage now.
As the device uses pods and hence isn’t single-use you can have at least some fun with the holder itself.
The Puya chips are probably very nearly as cheap as the OTP 8 bitters these days and they really are overkill, especially with unused Bluetooth and the screen but, weirdly, I think it might actually have a positive effect on the e-waste problem because the screen etc adds perceived value to a product which might just mean people hang on to them longer.
If the LCD controller is ST7789 (I probably missed that detail) supporting 320x240x18 bit, there’s an extra 50 kB available through RAMWRC, RAMRDC commands, and perhaps some more when dropping to 8 bit or monochrome.
I think this lends itself to use as a prop for a dystopian movie.
An asthma inhaler that only gives a puff or two before a character pops up on screen wanting your credit card number.
That or a Trek style isolinear chip.
Plug in into a row of receptacles.
Plug into one socket, it shows an image of someone’s soul that has been captured.
Remove it and vape…as the vape dissipates, the image on the screen seems pulled towards the mouthpiece.
Sound of screaming added in post.
Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy? Cortex M4 with FPU and DSP features and a colour LCD wasn’t enough, they put a BLE chip but didn’t even bother using it…
And my boss tells me we can’t put a reverse polarity diode because the BoM is already too expensive
A reverse polarity diode doesn’t increase sales.
This looks like a potentially very interesting IOT platform device with a lot of features for lower cost than I can build one myself.
We should really stop promoting running anything on vapes. This just encourages more waste.
It’s a reusable vape, not the disposable kind. You think they’re putting color screens on disposable ones?
Yes.
Unfortunately I’ve seen at least one.
Yes.
Most of the disposable vapes that have “xl” capacity have a screen now, some have more than one. Some of the info on it is charge, puffs etc.. but they also usually have an animation (often of space, oddly) when you draw. My coworker smokes them constantly and I’ve torn a few apart to salvage batteries.
Just quit vaping
They can make nice greebles.
Since vapes usually rely on a condenser microphone to sense air movement, I wonder if the Bluetooth could be used to turn the vape into a listening bug.
There are no microphones in vapes. It’s just a pressure sensor in a similar package to the ones typically used for electret microphones.
We have found a new common misconception!
First one’s free kid
Turns into
Want us to share the cost of this puff? Watch this ad for a new car!