Sub $500 Robot and $587 need to cut costs

MetalHead wrote:
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I dismissed netboot because I may want to run it somewhere without a server, and maybe just a machine with network and ssh. Booting off a floppy is kind of limited, but I think my EPIA board will boot off USB ram sticks and they are fairly cheap. What do you think?
I just don't want to require Linux guru status to create the thing
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I have seen it, I can't seem to find it again, it is from, again I think, ET in taiwan. South east asia and europe has them cheap. I can't find a distributor here. The closest one is Futurlec, but they only carry one card, the ET-PCI8255 card.
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mlw wrote:
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It would be worth trying. If you can get it to work, it should be bigger, faster and lower power consumption than a floppy. I have not messed with them enough to know about configuring them to boot linux, most of my experience is in the BSD flavors. My only experience buying them was around $20US for a 64mb stick a few months ago.
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Setting up netbooting under the older systems was a fair pain. It should be scriptable now and with the DHCP system and TFTP (I know it's a major security hole) it shouldn't require too much expertise.

MetalHead wrote:
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I've seen 128M sticks for $9.99us, its insane.
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Net boot is very cool, but dhcp, bootp, and tftp is too much to ask of your audiance.

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Thailand http://www.etteam.com/ need to be able to read Thai (which I can't)
http://www.etteam.com/product/1008.html
South east asia and europe has them cheap. I can't find a
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could also hang a few 8255 (or similar) chips off the parallel port to expand it. They are cheap enough.Futurlec sell them for US$3.90 but should be able to get them cheap, surplus.
Could also do the same with some of the usb chips / modules.
Alex

MetalHead wrote:
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moderate skill
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video, network and sound
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wheels
warehouses, ebay, yardsale)
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with rebate
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you
be
Would it be possible in a simple robot to use a USB memory sticks as a hard drive?
I know it is possible to install some version of Linux on one of these things.
I use one of these all the time instead of a floppy disc.
John

Is possible. You need a BIOS on the motherboard that supports boot to USB drive.
You can also get Windows stripped version, that will fit on a key (I think 128megabyte) and will boot fine. Not for XP as far as I know.
Rich

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
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I wouldn't touch Windows in an embeded application.

Me neither. Just an interesting note.
I thought it was a neat novelty.
Rich

JGCASEY wrote:
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I have a couple of IDE to Compact Flash adapter for my robot Stuart and they work fine. I've run it off of CF cards and a 4GB hard drive in compact flash format. -- D. Jay Newman http://enerd.ws/robots /

D. Jay Newman wrote:
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Cool, what did those run you?

mlw wrote:
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I think that the adapters were less than $20 per from Logic Supply (http://www.logicsupply.com /).
I suppose that you could make your own; it's a very simple board.
The CF disk drive was the expensive one at over $200.
However, with Stuart I was concerned with battery power because I'm not overpowering (24 or 48 volts) and then going down with a DC-DC converter. -- D. Jay Newman http://enerd.ws/robots /

Does anyone know where to get a net-boot that will fit on 1.44 3.5 floppy?
Rich

This website will create a boot floppy image for pretty much any network card. I haven't tried it myself but I have seen several reputable websites refer to it. http://www.rom-o-matic.net /
MCD
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So what is this robot supposed to be capable of doing? A performance design goal/statement is really necessary so the hardware requirements will be known. Then you can see if it can be done under $500 retail (or do "one time" "special" deals count?).
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If you are going to use these types of I/O boards, then preprogrammed PIC should be OK too.
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Si Ballenger wrote:
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The "what it can do" is an interesting question. I have a "gut" idea, but you are right in that it should be written down.
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No, the have a programmatic state that is separate from the main CPU.
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