Re: [HBRobotics] mini-itx for my home made turtlebot?

[KM6VV]

Works for me!

I bought the DM2800MT, and an inclosure. I'd added SSD and WiFi board.

Alan KM6VV

On 1/20/2013 12:05 PM, jason d wrote:
> I've been running my turtlebot off an old Lenovo laptop that's big,
> heavy, and gets about 20min off of it's battery. I think it's time for
> an upgrade. I was looking at getting a mini itx (
> http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-D2500HN-Mini-ITX-Motherboard ) and
> powering it off a 14.4v battery. Does anyone have any other
> recommendations or thoughts?

[Electronic Kiwi]

I'm running the older Intel D945GCLF2 Mini-ITX on my bot.  I have a standard laptop hard disk - it seems to work OK for the in-car PC people so hopefully it will work reliably enough for me (but I keep backups in case vibration or shock kills it).  I tried to run from a USB-stick but resorted to the HDD.  If it fails I will probably get a SSD (they are cheaper now) depending on how long the standard HDD lasts.

My main recommendation is to get a good power supply.  I initially used a cheaper power supply but I now use a M3-ATX supply as it has a lot of features for a PC running from a battery supply (such as an in-car PC), including operating down to 6v.  In hindsight this was a good decision as it lets me run from the 7.4v LiPo batteries I am now using on my smaller lighter MkII robot.  (The same type of battery I use for my drive motors, although I have two separate batteries on the robot to keep the electronics supply clean.  With a PSU like the M3-ATX intended for in-car use this might not be necessary but I have other electronics that are not powered via the PC).  I also purchased a Y-PWR hot-swap power switch so I can switch between battery power and mains power without stopping the PC but I haven't installed that yet.

[jason d]

Thanks.  I was looking at the PicoPSU for the power supply.  Looks very similar to yours but it doesn't work below 12V.  I had planned on using a USB stick too.  What problems did you run into with it?

[James Ronald]

Jason,

Just in case you didn't notice; the DN2800MT has the PSU built in. You just supply 8-19VDC to the 5mm/2.5mm barrel power jack. There was some discussion regarding this board back in September or such.

http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-DN2800MT-Mini-ITX-Motherboard

- Jim

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[jason d]

Jim,

Thanks!  I think I'm going to go with that one. 

[James Ronald]

Jason,

Keep us posted...

- Jim

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/hbrobotics/-/dT-6Ywwrw88J.

[Bob Smith]

I bought one of these and am a little disappointed
by it. I wanted a quiet desktop mostly for web
browsing, but dual head displays do not work under
Ubuntu 12.04 and DDR3 1333 memory is seen as only
1066 MHz.

The power supply seems to work OK and it does take
4 GB of RAM.

Bob Smith


James Ronald wrote:
> http://www.mini-box.com/Intel- DN2800MT-Mini-ITX-Motherboard
> <http://www.mini-box.com/Intel-DN2800MT-Mini-ITX-Motherboard>

[Austin Hendrix]

Linux should support dual-head on the Nvidia ION chipset, if you install the binary nvidia drivers. I've seen this work well on the ION-based Asus netbooks; I believe the appropriate package is nvidia-current.

The specs shows the memory support as "Single channel DDR3 1066/800 MHz", so it shouldn't be a surprise that memory only operates at 1066MHz.

Overall, sounds like a nice little desktop!

-Austin

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[jason d]

I did pick up the DN2800MT motherboard and a 5Ah LiPo to run the turtlebot.  I spent most of last week getting the power and everything nicely mounted to the boards.  I have the create running off it's own internal battery and everything else running off the LiPo.  I had planned on running off a live USB but ended up just using the old turtlebot laptop HD since it was all set up already.  It's up and running now.

One thing I forgot to get was a low voltage alarm for the LiPo.  I'm thinking of just using an attiny to monitor the voltage on one of the cells and switch an LED on if it drops too low.

I'll try and get some pictures of it a little later. 

[KM6VV]

What battery voltage (cells) do you have and what alarm module are you
getting?

Alan KM6VV

[jason d]

I got an 11.1V battery.  I just finished building the low voltage alarm.  I used an attiny to read in the battery voltage through resistor divider to get the voltage into range of what the micro can read.  Then I just have it blinking up a green or red LED at different rates based on what values it gets from the A/D converter,

[jason d]

Here's some pictures of it.

[KM6VV]

Thanks for the pix!

I put all my itx stuff into one of the cases. What are the two little
rectangular boxes at 1 o'clock and 7'oclock on the underside?

Saw the wired PS2 on your bot; did you know that Logitech has the
Gamepad F710, which is wireless. Just plug in the little USB dongle
into the mini-itx. ROS electric has the code for it already. It works!

Alan KM6VV

On 2/3/2013 6:15 PM, jason d wrote:
>
>
> Here's some pictures <http://imgur.com/a/xCDmE#1> of it.
>

[jason d]

Those are just the ends of a wifi antenna that I tore out of an old laptop.  I was thinking of making my own case out of laser cut acrylic but for now I'll just leave it like that. 

Thanks for the tip on the Logitech.  That might be one of my next upgrades.  It would be really nice to not to be attached to the robot while driving it around.     

[James Ronald]

@Jason - Looks nice.  I laser cut my desks out of 5mm acrylic. They look nice, but I have not dared to cut holes in them to pass wires through.

@Alan - Do you have a source for the Logitech F710 wireless game pads?  I spent some time a while back looking and could not find anyone that was still selling them.

- Jim

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[KM6VV]

I ordered mine from Amazon.  About $56 I think.

If you want a camera, look at the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000, also on Amazon.

Alan  KM6VV