Single board computer udpate

[Damien P]

 I observe that there's a bit less vapour coming from the Rhombus A10 board... they have a PCB design now [1].  I find the trace layout pretty amazing - and this is a relatively simple board!

I came across this Cubieboard today [2].  It's not out yet by the looks, but it has the Allwinner A10 cpu, HDMI, a SATA port and a nice big pin header - with a 24-bit single port broken out for fast I/O!

For something that actually exists, there's this Olimex board [3] which looks like a nice Beaglebone alternative.  It has plenty of pins and is about $65 shipped from Dontronics [4].  It sounds like they want to make a similar design based on the Allwinner CPU, which would be a powerful board.

 1: http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/news/
 2: http://cubieboard.org/
 3: https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/
 4: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/olimex-imx233-olinuxino-maxi.html

[Andrew Helgeson]

In all the discussion about SBC's no one seems to mention the Beagle board much.

Has anyone here used one?

The new version has all the bits we wanted, ethernet, IDE etc.

Ok, they are nearly $300, but it's a kick ass chip!

Just wondering..

Andrew

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HackerSpace - Adelaide, South Australia" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/hackerspace-adelaide/-/UusJLI4ZJvAJ.
To post to this group, send email to hackerspac...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to hackerspace-adel...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hackerspace-adelaide?hl=en.

[Damien P]

On Thursday, September 27, 2012 8:57:01 PM UTC+9:30, Cyberteque wrote:

Ok, they are nearly $300, but it's a kick ass chip!

That's probably why!  By memory it doesn't have many expansion pins, which is why the Beaglebone came along.  There was also the Hawkboard for a while, which had loads of I/O pins.  The chip is probably a bit dated by now too.

[Damien P]

On Thursday, September 27, 2012 8:26:41 PM UTC+9:30, Damien P wrote:

For something that actually exists, there's this Olimex board [3] which looks like a nice Beaglebone alternative. 

These Olimex boards look pretty good if you want something like the Raspberry PI, but you need more I/Os and you don't need the high resolution output.  The basic model can be bought on ebay for about $35 [1].  The 64MB of RAM isn't the best but if you're not running a display that's more than enough.  There's no networking but you could add a USB wifi dongle.

Also, if anyone wants a microcomputer-style board, where you plug in a keyboard and monitor and program in BASIC, have you looked at the Maximite type boards?  They run PIC32s, and look pretty capable.  Too bad they use the old line-number type BASIC and not some structured language.  The Olimex ones start at about $35 from Dontronics.

 1: http://is.gd/QL79cG
 

[Andrew Helgeson]

Hmmm, dated is a relative concept!

My rover may yet end up with a 6502 onboard!!

The Beagle Boardxm is a different beast altogether.
As to IO pins, that's what Arduino's and PIC's are for.

I guess for the dollars I could get an eee box, hang an Arduino off it.

Andrew

On 27/09/2012 9:27 PM, "Damien P" <ath...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thursday, September 27, 2012 8:57:01 PM UTC+9:30, Cyberteque wrote:
>

> Ok, they are nearly $300,...

That's probably why!  By memory it doesn't have many expansion pins, which is why the Beaglebone came along.  There was also the Hawkboard for a while, which had loads of I/O pins.  The chip is probably a bit dated by now too.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HackerSpace - Adela...

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/hackerspace-adelaide/-/mkCbGqE_BwoJ.

To post to this group, send email to hackerspac...@googlegroups.com.

To unsubscribe from thi...

[Damien P]

On Thursday, September 27, 2012 9:40:55 PM UTC+9:30, Cyberteque wrote:

The Beagle Boardxm is a different beast altogether.

As to IO pins, that's what Arduino's and PIC's are for.

Maybe you want to sample stuff from an A/D converter at more than 1Msps; that's one thing an 8-bit micro will struggle with.  It would also be cheaper to use one of these boards instead of a wifi or ethernet shield - and easier to get running, since you have an entire Linux system - although it would probably use more power.

[Damien P]

They apparently can't afford to keep up demand, so the Cubieboard is on IndieGoGo:

http://igg.me/p/260598

It's based on the Allwinner A10 CPU, which is very powerful and has loads of features, and is apparently pretty well supported by Linux.  It has a SATA port too, which should make it good for a media centre.  it doesn't quite have the hype though, so software support may be a bit less than a Raspberry Pi.

[Ken]

Location:Shenzhen, China.

Looks like a straight commercial enterprise.
Is that kosher for crowd-sourcing?

I prefer my vapourware to be more amateur.

Ken.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HackerSpace - Adelaide, South Australia" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/hackerspace-adelaide/-/We6VFmubLfoJ.

To post to this group, send email to hackerspac...@googlegroups.com.

[Steven Pickles]

Most of the crowdsourced game projects are coming out of not-normally-indie, professional development houses. Crowdsourcing allows them to be independent for a particular release. That was actually the whole idea behind the Double-Fine Adventure (one of the first high profile game projects to be funded on Kickstarter), because they wanted to make a documentary about their process, but wouldn't be able to do it under their normal publisher contracts. They decided to crowdsource a game to produce so they could film a documentary of the development process :)

pix