Comments on: At last — a cheap lo-pow mobo with GRUNT

By: ash

ash — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a linux distro that seems to be focused towards running nicely on the Beagle and other small devices.

By: PirCapAdi

PirCapAdi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I know, but after selling the PICO ITX due to its greedy power requirements I need a new high level controller for my robot. Will just have to bite the bullet on this one.

By: robotman

robotman — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

You're right on the money there, Kym. Steering clear generally of anything coming out of Intel is the best policy, especially all processors/modules/what-have-you based on the x86 core.

Being an assembly programmer with experience of the x86 family, and being able to contrast that with my experiences of many other processors, the x86 is totally a-la-stinky-poo. I still rue the day that IBM purchased all those cheap 'n nasty 8088 chips (for it's new 'personal computer') from Intel, those very same chips that Intel couldn't flog off to a dead horse for love nor money.

Oh, and I wouldn't stress about not having an FPU. I have this hypothesis that one day all of the robotics researchers will come to the realization that all of the maths that is actually required can be done using integers - I mean, that's how the atoms of the universe do it, and those same atoms make brains, don't they? The roboticists are just approaching the problems from the wrong end - they are trying to calculate the starting points by working backwards from the end points. Take nature's approach and build up to the end points using basic (integer) starting points. Well, that's my general approach. (Yes I do use and rely on analytical maths, but that's only done at design/compile-time, not at robot run-time.)

By: kym

kym — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Yes.
If you can wait (say) 2 weeks I’m getting an order together with someone else.
I’ll wait to see if anyone else on AusRobotics is interested, but I’ll put you down for 1 board.

By: PirCapAdi

PirCapAdi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Put me down for 1, and I will confirm tomorrow but I am almost 100% sure one of the guys at work also wants one.

By: PirCapAdi

PirCapAdi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Just confirmed, you can add two boards next to my name.

By: RobotsAustralia

RobotsAustralia — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Interesting! Over the last few days I have been having a look into a few options for a linux capable processor board. They all seem to have pros and cons, with power of course being the trade off. On the one end the pico-ITX boards and even mini-ITX boards with the Intel Atom (see this link for a new interesting cheapo mobo);
http://www.ozdirect.com.au/product_info.php?source=shopbot&products_id=53981
Of course the 4W CPU power claims for the atom seem to translate into a lot more total board power once you plug everything in and use the onboard peripherals.
On the other end the gumstix boards look pretty tops, and would definitely be total low power usage. Big plus there is the addition of the robostix AVR based board which would provide a easily configurable general purpose interface for encoders, other sensors or whatever. The negative would be the lack of a FPU, slowing down enormously any code requiring floating point. Also ease of connecting usb web cams and getting them going comes into it as well.
———————————————————————–
http://robotsaustralia.googlepages.com

By: kym

kym — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry, Adi.

The order has been cancelled.

After dithering around for a couple of weeks, DigiKey finally seemed to relent (for a 2nd or 3rd time — I kinda lost count) and said they could ship all 5 boards in the 1 package, but by that time 2 of the original 5 orders had backed out .

At that point DigiKey indicate I could not NOW change the order from 5 boards to 3 boards and still get the “one postal charge” thing.

By: PirCapAdi

PirCapAdi — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Cool, no problem, waiting for my replacement cc, should be here today or tomorrow, will place an order then.

By: Dingo_aus

Dingo_aus — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’m definitely looking at getting one.

It looks like a Digi-key only product at the moment.

Any here looking to do a bulk order to save on the ridiculous postage from Digi-key?