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I'm interested is it possible to install and use Android Things(former Brillo) on custom produced hardware?

I can see from the official documentation there is preselected and certified SoMs listed, but I'm interested in using my own hardware.

Is it possible to have best of both worlds - use the familiar to me Android & Android Things but run it on proprietary hardware?

If not, what other options do I have - I researched about micropython, but apparently it seems it also comes with designated board(pyboard).

So my question is what are options to not thinks too much about the firmware on the device(and write C code), but focus on more higher-level business logic and programming languages(Java, Python).

hris.to
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  • You can run Android on any platform, where Linux can run. Take a look at [this](https://elinux.org/images/7/71/03-android-inside.pdf) and same documents. – Andrii Omelchenko Jan 28 '19 at 11:29
  • Hello Andrii and thanks for the comment. I'm not sure this will work on low level SoC and MCUs, which is the target of Android Things? – hris.to Jan 28 '19 at 11:46
  • Supported platforms for Android Things you can find [here](https://developer.android.com/things/hardware/). My first comment is about pure Android, not Android Things. As [Nick Felker](https://stackoverflow.com/users/1491707/nick-felker) wrote Android Things isn't open source. – Andrii Omelchenko Jan 28 '19 at 11:54
  • MicroPython runs on various devices including ESP8266 and ESP32 - I guess there's no definitive list, because as an open source project each port is in a different state of completeness/stability, but if you click through from the page you linked to the [forum](https://forum.micropython.org/) you can quickly figure out what there is, and people have definitely run it on their own hardware designs. Also the CircuitPython fork by Adafruit is supported on various of their boards. – nekomatic Jan 29 '19 at 11:27

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Android Things isn't open source, so you can't put it into that isn't officially supported.

If you're looking for custom options, you will need to find a compiled language like C that works for that board. While C may be a bit intimidating, you may be able to find languages that compile to similar machine code. Rust and Go may work on microcontrollers too if you check.

I'm not too familiar with micro python. It says that it compiles to bare metal/machine code, so I believe you should be able to use it on other boards. While they may officially support the compiler for one board, the community may have support for additional microcontrollers.

Nick Felker
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