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Interesting. I'm going to automate my new greenhouse with two Ardiunos + some single-board, low power computer like this one. Arduinos will drive motors (wind
by mkup 15y ago
Interesting.
I'm going to automate my new greenhouse with two Ardiunos + some single-board, low power computer like this one.
Arduinos will drive motors (window openers, fans etc), analyze data from temperature/humidity sensors in real time, i.e. "convert" USB port to a bunch of 5-volt analog and digital signaling lines. 8-bit realtime architecture is well-suited for that purpose.
32-bit ARM-based computer will drive Arduinos via USB, keep logs on SD card, act as http server, keep me informed via email, maybe even tweet, and also download weather forecasts from the Internet. New code will be uploaded to it via ftp. 32-bit multitasking architecture is well-suited for that purpose.
I was looking at different ARM-based single-board computers recently, all of them are with ~$150 price tag. This one seems much cheaper. I'm not sure about its aptitude as a cheap computer for third world countries, but it is indeed usable as "next-level Arduino". Because 8-bit realtime and 32-bit multitasking architectures ain't mixable anyway.
- pingswept 15y ago8-bit realtime and 32-bit multitasking architectures ain't mixable anyway. That is some wisdom, right there. I'm working on an ARM board (http://rascalmicro.com http://rascalmicro.com) that plugs directly into an Arduino. If you're serious about building this system for your greenhouse in the next few months, I'd love to have you as a beta tester. My email is in my profile if you're interested. If not, good luck with the vegetation.
- ph0rque 15y agoApologies if you've answered this elsewhere, but what is the Rascal Micro ballpark price? Is it going to be similar to Raspberry?
- pingswept 15y agoThe Rascal will cost around $150, though I'll lower the price if I can figure out how to do it. I'm a little skeptical of the Raspberry Pi being sold at $25 in reasonably small quantities. But, if they can pull it off, I'll be delighted, because it will mean I probably can too. One of my beta customers has a demo up at http://angerlights.com http://angerlights.com that is pretty amusing and demonstrates the Rascal's basic functions. All the code is on Github too: https://github.com/rascalmicro https://github.com/rascalmicro If you want to try a Rascal in person, and you happen to be in New York, I'll be doing a demo at the Open Hardware Summit in NYC in mid-September.
- wccrawford 15y agoThat sounds really cool. I don't have any projects in the pipeline that could benefit from it, but I'm looking forward to hearing the price of it.
- pingswept 15y agoThanks. See the comment above.
- Cymen 15y agoHow about PogoPlug? They are ARM-based, run Linux and cost around $50 per unit and a unit means finished (power supply, networking, USB, etc).
- nitrogen 15y agoI'm curious where you found the $50 unit price. Is that for larger quantities? On the pogoplug.com site they sell for $99/ea.
- maratd 15y agoJust bought one here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/400238049812 http://www.ebay.com/itm/400238049812 $35.00 You can grab it for $50.00 off the buy.com website.