Cheap (really really cheap) linux development environment

[Devon Jones]

I was talking with Zach last night, and the gOS Linux board came up when
we were chatting about controller boards for rep rap. I thought I would
post this, because this is truly a dirt cheap machine that may be useful
for multiple projects:

The gOS Develop Kit

- VIA pc-1 Processor Platform VIA C7-D 1.5GHz CPU
- VIA CN700 Chipset Motherboard Retail PC2500E
- 1 GB DDR2-667 Memory
- 10/100 Ethernet
- Audio
- 2 x PATA, 2 x SATA
- VGA
- 4 x USB
- line in/line out/mic
- 2 x ps2
- parallel port
- serial port
- IR

$60

That's a hell of a lot of computer for 2x the price of an Arduino

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4842001

[Zach 'Hoeken' Smith]

wow... that is awesome.  i think i'm going to pick one up here after next payday. very cool!

[emperor_dane]

The 1gb of ram is an extra 17 bucks, i dont think its included.
eitherway, for a small ( 7.5" x 9") board its pretty cheap.

With regards to a small board for controlling something, normally pc/
104 boards are used (normally for industrial controllers) , they have
alot of external stuff, some have io dedicated for driving lcd
pannels, others have onboard ethernet. (they can run slimmed down
linux kernels)
see pc/104 wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC104

if your looking for really really super cheap, check out some older
boards on ebay: (20 bucks buy it now)
(http://cgi.ebay.com/Winsystems-PCM-SX-33-8M-ST-New-SBC-Pc-104-Pc-104-
PC104_W0QQitemZ180180166932QQihZ008QQcategoryZ97184QQcmdZViewItem)


again, they are no where nearly as powerful as a 1.5ghz mainboard, but
you probably dont need all that much horsepower to run a homegrown 3
axis c&c machine.
-Dane

On Nov 15, 3:46 pm, "Zach 'Hoeken' Smith" <hoe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> wow... that is awesome. i think i'm going to pick one up here after next
> payday. very cool!
>

> On Nov 15, 2007 3:17 PM, Devon Jones <soulcatc...@evilsoft.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I was talking with Zach last night, and the gOS Linux board came up when
> > we were chatting about controller boards for rep rap. I thought I would
> > post this, because this is truly a dirt cheap machine that may be useful
> > for multiple projects:
>
> > The gOS Develop Kit
>
> > - VIA pc-1 Processor Platform VIA C7-D 1.5GHz CPU
> > - VIA CN700 Chipset Motherboard Retail PC2500E
> > - 1 GB DDR2-667 Memory
> > - 10/100 Ethernet
> > - Audio
> > - 2 x PATA, 2 x SATA
> > - VGA
> > - 4 x USB
> > - line in/line out/mic
> > - 2 x ps2
> > - parallel port
> > - serial port
> > - IR
>
> > $60
>
> > That's a hell of a lot of computer for 2x the price of an Arduino
>

> >http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4842001- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Devon Jones]

emperor_dane wrote:
> The 1gb of ram is an extra 17 bucks, i dont think its included.
> eitherway, for a small ( 7.5" x 9") board its pretty cheap.
>
> With regards to a small board for controlling something, normally pc/
> 104 boards are used (normally for industrial controllers) , they have
> alot of external stuff, some have io dedicated for driving lcd
> pannels, others have onboard ethernet. (they can run slimmed down
> linux kernels)
> see pc/104 wikipedia:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC104
>
> if your looking for really really super cheap, check out some older
> boards on ebay: (20 bucks buy it now)
> (http://cgi.ebay.com/Winsystems-PCM-SX-33-8M-ST-New-SBC-Pc-104-Pc-104-
> PC104_W0QQitemZ180180166932QQihZ008QQcategoryZ97184QQcmdZViewItem)
>
>
> again, they are no where nearly as powerful as a 1.5ghz mainboard, but
> you probably dont need all that much horsepower to run a homegrown 3
> axis c&c machine.
> -Dane
>

At least in my case, my CNC is run off the parallel port, so as long as
I can get a real time kernel on there, this thing will be great for EMC2.

Devon

[e c kern]

a few random thoughts:

1. all mhz are not created equal.  do not expect a 1.5ghz via to keep up with a 1.5ghz intel/amd chip.  it won't even be close.

2. it looks like this has onboard video with shared memory.  i don't have experience with this personally but i have heard that shared memory video can screw with hard realtime performance.

3. few hobby robot projects require the horsepower of an actual pc.  for something like a rep-rap i would greatly prefer the realtime aspects be handled by an embedded controller.

-chris.

[raphael]

I agree. I think an arduino is actually a better way to approach this.

e c kern wrote:
> a few random thoughts:
>
> 1. all mhz are not created equal. do not expect a 1.5ghz via to keep up
> with a 1.5ghz intel/amd chip. it won't even be close.
>
> 2. it looks like this has onboard video with shared memory. i don't
> have experience with this personally but i have heard that shared memory
> video can screw with hard realtime performance.
>
> 3. few hobby robot projects require the horsepower of an actual pc. for
> something like a rep-rap i would greatly prefer the realtime aspects be
> handled by an embedded controller.
>
> -chris.
>
> On Nov 15, 2007 4:21 PM, Devon Jones <soulc...@evilsoft.org