4 ms·

I have the opposite experience. I work extensively with SBCs both as a user and a software developer. It is a pain in my butt when there is no ethernet port. T

I have the opposite experience. I work extensively with SBCs both as a user and a software developer. It is a pain in my butt when there is no ethernet port. There are a lot of applications where wifi is not a better solution than ethernet. I work on robotics and wifi doesn't make sense. We are pushing a lot of data around in near real time and the SBCs are permanently mounted close together. Why use wifi there? We see better performance (network and power consumption wise) and simpler setup with ethernet. We usually will have a half dozen SBCs on a switch and then in some cases a wifi access point that is optional. When we are debugging in the field we turn on the AP and stream data back to a tablet or netbook to observe, but otherwise it is off. The other problem with not having connectors on the board is dongle and price creep. If I have 6 SBCs, and each one needs some kind of networking adapter external to it, all of sudden my nice neat solution is a mess of wires. And the price jumps from $89 to $139, multiplied by however many I am using.

aaronblohowiak 17y ago
What about USB networking? No Ethernet at all, just USB port to usbu port
- weaksauce 17y ago
  Ethernet is cheap and ubiquitous and works well if you need wired networking an ethernet network goes about 300'. There is a signal propagation limit in the usb protocol that makes it unable to go over ~16feet without adding repeaters and there is a max of 5 repeaters. from http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5 http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5 : Q2: Why can't I use a cable longer than 3 or 5m? A2: USB's electrical design doesn't allow it. When USB was designed, a decision was made to handle the propagation of electromagnetic fields on USB data lines in a way that limited the maximum length of a USB cable to something in the range of 4m. This method has a number of advantages and, since USB is intended for a desktop environment, the range limitations were deemed acceptable. If you're familiar with transmission line theory and want more detail on this topic, take a look at the USB signals section of the developers FAQ. Q3: How far away from a PC can I put a USB device? A3: With the maximum of 5 hubs connected with 5m cables and a 5m cable going to your full speed device, this will give you 30m of cable (see section 7.1.19 for details). With a low speed device, you will be able to get a range up to 27m, depending on how long the device's cable is. With a straightforward cable route, you will probably be able to reach out 25m or so from the PC.

aaronblohowiak 17y ago

What about USB networking? No Ethernet at all, just USB port to usbu port

weaksauce 17y ago
Ethernet is cheap and ubiquitous and works well if you need wired networking an ethernet network goes about 300'. There is a signal propagation limit in the usb protocol that makes it unable to go over ~16feet without adding repeaters and there is a max of 5 repeaters. from http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5 http://www.usb.org/about/faq/ans5 : Q2: Why can't I use a cable longer than 3 or 5m? A2: USB's electrical design doesn't allow it. When USB was designed, a decision was made to handle the propagation of electromagnetic fields on USB data lines in a way that limited the maximum length of a USB cable to something in the range of 4m. This method has a number of advantages and, since USB is intended for a desktop environment, the range limitations were deemed acceptable. If you're familiar with transmission line theory and want more detail on this topic, take a look at the USB signals section of the developers FAQ. Q3: How far away from a PC can I put a USB device? A3: With the maximum of 5 hubs connected with 5m cables and a 5m cable going to your full speed device, this will give you 30m of cable (see section 7.1.19 for details). With a low speed device, you will be able to get a range up to 27m, depending on how long the device's cable is. With a straightforward cable route, you will probably be able to reach out 25m or so from the PC.