Hello users, I already like this place. I apoiligize if I seem like a child in a toy store,
Before we start, Iām dyslexic & I apoligize for my horrific grammer;
Iāve always liked the idea of microcontroller programming & home automation so as soon as I found out it was availible for C# coders to start, Iāve pulled up the research books. I am a single parent & have 0 money, little time & absolutly nothing in my life for myself fun wise. So, Iām looking to buy a microcontroller but as Iām sure it has been said before, I canāt deciede on which one. I do plan to try and become a respected member here & this is not a passing phase so to speek.
Iām stuck between the FEZ Panda II or the FEZ Cerbuino. I have been looking at many, many different components but I canāt afford to waste my money so I have to ask.
I plan to buy a board I can use for the big projects I have planned later, hence why I decieded against the Netduino branch.
I need Wifi capability, communcation with my device.
I need GSM (calls, text & data) so it can access the internet, call & text another phone, by itself.
I need SD card capabilites. (8GB)
I need to be able to control a number of motors. (Good old tanks tracks & a gripping arm.)
I need to be able to have it battery powered.
Iād like to spend as little as possible.
Eventually I plan to be using a touchscreen for user input, a speech recongition & a camera too but this are not a priority right now.
Iām not worried about making it look pretty & I understand, no-one gets everything they ask for. Iām fluent in C# & through reading & my grandad (Electrician 40+ years) Iām coming to grips with the electronics side of things very quickly.
So what would the community recommend?
Thank you for reading & any input is appreciatted. Please answer with the point in mind that is probably the only thing I will buy myself in the next 5 years.
Motors for tank, robot armā¦ Cellular dataā¦battery powered. This all adds up to someone make a remote presence to harrass a dog or cat while at work.
software wise, unless you need anything in the premium library I think cerbuino is the way to go. It has 3 gadgeteer sockets and a wack of general Io. Personally i dont care about the duino shield comparability but the cerbuino is pretty tough to beat price wise for an entry/generalist gadgeteer board (doesnāt need the red power boards like the other solutions.
You didnāt say how much processing youāre doing which may be a reason to go more upscale. But if youāre starting out, why not setup the visual studio express and gadgetteer emulators (free), start coding and ball park your target application to see if you can fit it in the Cerberus family max footprint.
Panda2, popular - cheap. But no gadgeteer makes it a no starter for me.
Panda II is based on USBizi100 chip; this line, while still supported, is unlikely to get a supported NetMF4.2 codebase for it, so itās somewhat āend of the lineā. Itāll still work in 5 years time, but youāll be pretty much locked into the NetMF4.1 codebase.
Cerbuino is the ānew bloodā, but is an open source offer, which means that the firmware isnāt as complete as the 4.1 codebase of USBizi family, but itāll have longer legs; thereās a good amount of momentum to fill the gaps at the moment, so youāll see some good things coming to the Cerberus family soon. The one thing you wonāt get is wireless; thereās an NDA requirement that means the code to manage the RS21 interface is closed to all but GHI, but the XBee type wireless 802.11 may be possible (not sure). PPP (for GSM) is also something Iām not sure what will be on offer in this line.
Either way youāre likely to get a more than useable device, and something that will be great to tinker with.
Add into your profile your location, you might find someone close by to share info with.
Dr9, now youāve mentioned it, harrasing pets sounds very, very fun. Iāve been 70/30 towards the cerb all day & thank you for confirming it. I am planning some āheavyā work for my board & eventually believe Iāll have to move up to some of the beasts Iāve seen around. Iāll have a play with the emualtors tomorrow.
Brett, thank you for the warm welcome. I had read about the Pandas firmware ādying outā so to speak, that di worry me a bit.
If I had GSM Data capabilites then I suppose I could go without wifi. The heart to most my ideas are a phone connection of sorts so I might ignore the wifi until Iām rich. Iāve been looking at http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/cellular-shield-with-sm5100b-p-490.html & drooling but Iām sure with my luck, it just wonāt work.
Thanks for your advice, very useful. & for the tip about my location.
There are a few other UK folk around so thatās good news for you - although not sure where everyone else isā¦
Anyway, I donāt think you can go wrong with Cerbuino, the team here are always improving things. They donāt have the memory of some of their larger cousins, but then again theyāre pretty small in comparison too Itās so often a trade-off between features, memory, and sizeā¦ but itāll serve you well, I am sure.
There are always ways to work around some of the connectivity you need too, but they arenāt always smooth or clean, like the pre-built options are, depending on how your electronics and programming skills are - which I fail both of
I wouldnāt say āwonātā. RS21 isnāt the only (or cheapest, or easiest, or lowest-resource) option. If it sounds like Iām implying āstay tunedā, then it should.
Brett, Thanks, I thought Iād have to improve my equipment as soon as I saw some of the stuff availible! Luckly, Iām quite good the C#/VB/MSIL.
godefroi, I was just about to go to sleep but now youāve said that, I feel like a child the week before christmas!
I must ask as Iāve not read anything confirming it yet & donāt trust my own judgement, it is possible to use an SD card like computer would a USB stick right? Reading & writing data @ runtime, I mean. Has anyone found it very slow r & w to SD? & Lastly, has anyone used the reflection namespace? Iām dying to find out, it could mean memory for coding is infinite, thoereticlly.
Cerbuino is a good choice. My personal favorite platform is the Cerb40, though I also own a Panda II and a CANextra.
Reading and writing the SD card is just like doing it on a computer. The only difference is that thereās no C:\ or D:\ drive, just a root folder. Itās not ESPECIALLY fast, but itās generally fast enough.
As for reflection, most of it is there, but not all of it. I also donāt believe you can unload assemblies, just like you canāt on the desktop framework.
Ahh, I canāt see the Emit namespace working to well. My first plan is to try and convert the simple engine I made to run C#/VB from āscriptsā so it can be used to run code from the web or SD & use the web or my network to report any debugging straight back to my machine, such a fun day today.
Unfortunately this is not true in here, because to unload Assemblies you would have to unload the whole AppDomainā¦ (although you can create new AppDomains in NETMF but loading Assemblies into the newly created AppDomain proved to not work correctly in 4.1) i havenāt tried it with the latest 4.2 yetā¦
You may want to check out the wiki i wrote here, please feel to update and improve where you see fitā¦
and for your Debugging you may want to check out my Exception logger to give you an ideaā¦
Dynamically loading assemblies from SD or other storage works fine; see Pyxis2 for a great example of what can be done with that. Unfortunately, unloading them was not possible as of 4.1, as Jay Jay said.
The Cerb has a higher clock speed and thus will execute your code faster. Also, itās based on a platform that is beginning to take off as opposed to the legacy āAdruinoā compatible stuff that is being left behind. The Fezes still work awesome, an Iām sure at some point GHI is going to deprecate all of them and have a āblowout saleā. That will be the best possible time to purchase a Fez Panda
I doubt this will ever happen! Cerbuino can replace panda but not for every use. it is faster but panda is still premium and is very stable and well used by thousands. Cerb-family is still a baby.
Oh wow, some great replies & support. Iām not too worried about appdomains, I use a different method, Iāll post as soon as I can confirm itās working or not.
Jay Jay thanks for the great links!
Anyone ordered from the main site to the UK? I canāt sit still waiting for delivery! XD
I apoiligize if I seem like a child in a toy store,
Iāve been 70/30 towards the cerb all day & thank you for confirming it. I am planning some āheavyā work for my board & eventually believe Iāll have to move up to some of the beasts Iāve seen around. Iāll have a play with the emualtors tomorrow.
I had read about the Pandas firmware ādying outā so to speak, that di worry me a bit.
Iāve been looking at 
