On 9/27/07, Gustin Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > > > > > The issue is that the board uses modules for the SD card and the USB > > drive. That means that you need an initrd with those modules to be able > > to boot from those devices. Either that or recompile the kernel, hoping > > that the device writer allowed for building the drivers into the kernel > > (I think they are written to only be modules) so that you can have MKDEV > > put the nodes into the /dev directory. Without that the board will not > > find its boot device - kernel panic. > > > - From looking at the site it would appear that you could boot from USB > flash. I am familiar with initrd since all the kernels I build boot > from initrd first. > > Honestly my biggest problem is finding a problem for this to solve.
In my experience, that road to embedded computing is a tough one. Picking a device and finding something for it to do is a path that is full of frustrations. As an example, you might want to add an LCD to this and hook it up to the network. Then use it to grab an RSS feed and display the data on the LCD using pushbuttons or a keypad to navigate the text. This board will do that just fine... but so would a PC... If you also wanted it to check the outside temperature, inside temperature, and cold water pipe temperature (say, to see if the pipes are going to freeze when you're on vacation,) you would soon find that this board wouldn't be the best choice (only 2 ADC channels.) Or, to use the PROGSIG robot as an example, the TS-7300 would be the best option (but still not very good.) It has the capability to do multiple PWM channels, but you would have to write and load a custom FPGA bitstream, and I'm still not sure it would work that well for controlling the various parts of a robot. Of course, you can always add on some things that you're missing, but that gets expensive, fast. The goal of this workshop is to show people how to get embedded linux set up, point them at how to tune it for size/speed/features, introduce a new (non-desktop) CPU architecture, and write code for an embedded system. > I > have a very particular perspective on computing, which revolves around > networking and commodity PC hardware. This is a newish world to me > (OpenWRT, NSLU2, and the Hauppauge MVP notwithstanding). > > Anyway, for the hardware, I will probably go with whatever Mark gets > (clock and temperature addons as well). VVVVV Important part So, to conclude my long rant, you should look at this as a rather expensive textbook (full of problems, examples, and interesting factoids,) instead of as a new toy that you are going to use in some functional fashion (e.g. OpenWRT, MVP, NSLU2.) That said, this is a really good "textbook." It is easy to use, relatively cheap, generic, and runs Linux! (or BSD.) ^^^^^ Important part Some suggestions of "fun" things to do with this board: - write a kernel module, maybe using the ADCs and a thermistor, to measure temperature. Then write a script to use this module to do something more interesting (graph/log/whatever) - write a module for your favorite scripting language to access some of the onboard hardware - maybe find a small control task for the device to do: read some inputs, trigger some outputs. Again, not a good thing to do after you already have decided on the hardware, but it's not impossible... just not always fun. Something like this could probably be done: http://www.lemis.com/grog/brewing/temperature-control.html - make a PID-looped coffe maker? - wait for the microcontroller workshop, and interface with a microcontroller. This is where the fun really begins, communicating with very simple devices that have massive I/O potential. Think: gigantic LED matrix display. -Mark C. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
