Hal Murray wrote: >> - some parallel port (or similar) should be made available, for >> children to play with in physics. I remember playing with a PC >> parallel port with some simple software to turn leds on and off. When >> you are a kid, being able to send commands to projects you create is >> great (think about modern legos, but using simpler stuff like leds, >> motors, etc) : it translate the "virtual part" ie the software you >> create on the computer to the "real world" where you make leds blinks >> in sequence, or a motor move. >> > ... > There are USB connectors. > > ... > USB to printer port adapters are also available. I've never played with one. > Prices are under $40. > > > There are also things like this with 24 GPIO lines. > USBIO24R > http://www.elexol.com/ > US distributor: http://www.orteches.com/ $75 > ... > > There is also the microphone input and audio output for A/D and D/A. I think > the XO hardware supports a DC coupled mode. > > We should work on a collection of hacks to demonstrate how they work and a > list of which ones are known to work. >
OLCP just had a summer intern, Arjun Sarwal, who developed some low-cost gadgets to plug into the mic port - temperature sensor, intrusion detector, etc. He plans to document them and set up a framework for documenting other similar hacks. We also talked about an OLPC digital gadget prototyping dongle with a USB-equipped microcontroller like those available from, for example, Atmel. Those chips cost a dollar or two and Arjun can get all the other parts really inexpensively in India where he lives. _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
