Bus

[Paul Tanner]

AL wrote:

>The idea here is a very simple micro bus aimed at embedded
>microcontrollers and using minimum extra logic/chips etc..
>
>It isn't really like a fully fledged bus like pc104/s-100 its much
>simpler, currently I envisage it using only 20 pins. This reduces
>complexity, chip count and cost. The bus peripherals (boards/shields)
>tend to be tiny e.g 1" square (although they can be bigger if using
>through hole rather than smd) this significantly reduces costs. A
>solenoid/relay or simple stepper motor driver board could be assembled
>for less than £5.
>
>The key is standardized very low cost bus shields that can be produced
>and replicated very easily, that is the design motivation, its aimed a
>OpenSource hardware production and should be able to leverage
>distributed production. My aim is to make tooling up for production of
>the shields relatively low cost and standardised so if anyone fancies
>it they can get involved.

Thx. This all makes sense. However, I do find it
frustrating with the likes of Arduino that you
have to build all the boring stuff like boxes and
connector panels. Maybe this one can solve those problems too.
Using off-the-shelf peripherals and tools is also
a nice option to have. This could perhaps be
achieved by means of a bus adaptor/ translator device?

> > BTW. Can anyone suggest a nice, small, quiet linux box that's
> > available off-the-shelf?
>Does it need to be Intel compatible ?

I was thinking of a media app and the catch here
is that I'd need the ability to record off
air. Hopefully the software could be compiled
for any CPU but lack of peripheral support (incl.
drivers) could be an issue. (My current home-made
PVR runs windoze, is too big and and chews up far too much power.)

For more general home control apps it wouldn't
matter as much. Having a proper O/S (linux)
would be useful though. Android? Peripheral
devices for that would probably have to be built anyway.

Paul

Paul Tanner - Virtual Technologies - http://www.virtual-techno.com
Tel: +44 1494 581979 Mob: +44 7973 223239 mailto:pa...@virtual-techno.com

[folkn...@googlemail.com]

On 15 Aug, 13:23, Paul Tanner <p...@virtual-techno.com> wrote:
> AL wrote:
> >The idea here is a very simple micro bus aimed at embedded
> >microcontrollers and using minimum extra logic/chips etc..
>
> >It isn't really like a fully fledged bus like pc104/s-100 its much
> >simpler, currently I envisage it using only 20 pins. This reduces
> >complexity, chip count and cost. The bus peripherals (boards/shields)
> >tend to be tiny e.g 1" square (although they can be bigger if using
> >through hole rather than smd) this significantly reduces costs. A
> >solenoid/relay or simple stepper motor driver board could be assembled
> >for less than £5.
>
> >The key is standardized very low cost bus shields that can be produced
> >and replicated very easily, that is the design motivation, its aimed a
> >OpenSource hardware production and should be able to leverage
> >distributed production. My aim is to make tooling up for production of
> >the shields relatively low cost and standardised so if anyone fancies
> >it they can get involved.
>
> Thx. This all makes sense.  However, I do find it
> frustrating with the likes of Arduino that you
> have to build all the boring stuff like boxes and
> connector panels.  Maybe this one can solve those problems too.
> Using off-the-shelf peripherals and tools is also
> a nice option to have.  This could perhaps be
> achieved by means of a bus adaptor/ translator device?

This is interesting and and may concur with some of my experiences and
I have already given a little though into how we could perhaps solve
some of these cases. Do you have any particular examples that you are
thinking of that we can investigate solutions for? I prefer concrete
ideas for testing designs etc.. that way we can see if the solutions
can fit real world projects. Displays are another area here
particulalry low costs ones for things like PID controllers i.e. just
7 seg led/lcd etc..

> > > BTW. Can anyone suggest a nice, small, quiet linux box that's
> > > available off-the-shelf?
> >Does it need to be Intel compatible ?
>
> I was thinking of a media app and the catch here
> is that I'd need the ability to record off
> air.  Hopefully the software could be compiled
> for any CPU but lack of peripheral support (incl.
> drivers) could be an issue. (My current home-made
> PVR runs windoze, is too big and and chews up far too much power.)
>
> For more general home control apps it wouldn't
> matter as much.  Having a proper O/S (linux)
> would be useful though. Android?  Peripheral
> devices for that would probably have to be built anyway.

Ok for an Intel compatible that runs linux with access to standard
drivers for things like audio I would go for an ITX board like this
one : http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12195 Linitx also do
ITX cases, you will also likely need one of these :
http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=12064 and memory etc.. The
result is a low noise, low power very compact pc that runs of 12vdc.
Installing Ubuntu or even more specialised linux will give you access
to all the programming languages & tools and driver that you will
need. There are even fanless ITX motherboards from this site if you
need them.