I started out with FEZ devices like the Domino and Panda.
The Arduino form factor is a great starting point for prototyping and testing. One could wire stuff up to a proto bard or a bead board and get things working before one started schematics and PCB layout of the actual device.
With the USBizi chipset you could make a high quality device based on the GHI electronics NETMF port and maybe sell it in small quantities at sites like https://www.tindie.com/
This way of working seems to be history now and Im wondering what is the path from a .NET Gadgeteer set up to a complete standalone device?
If you use cerbuino to design them use the STM32 chip in your design them how is this different from before?
If you happen to use gadgeteer then you will take a similar path. Take your design that consists of modules then combine them all on one circuit board.
Is the STM32 chip is available with the GHI electronics NETMF port? Or does the users need to do a NETMF port them self.
(sorry for my ignorance, I havent been working with NETMF for a while, but hoping to get back into it)
The compiled port is available that you can easily load to the chip using a tool from STM. You can compile it with GCC as well.bThere are some flavors available.
It is unfortunate that GHI decided to stop the USBizi product line with no migration path. The STM32 chips are great but the software implementation does not exploit the hardware features (e.g. USB). This could be because the port is open souce.
These chips have decent memory to run the netmf core and come in LQFP packages that be hand soldered.
A lot of applications dont need the likes of EMX , G120 OR G400. A feature complete STM32 chip will be great.
It need not be open source or anything just feature complete and robust.
Gadgeteer is interesting but the sockets and flimsy cable connectors get tiring soon. I am happy to write code against vanilla NETMF and dont need another level of abstraction.
Thank you for this information.
Ill look in to this and see if I can get a chip soldered up on a breakout board and see if I can get it to work.
Where can I find the compiled port?
You can just use the GHI firmware directly. For the STM32 you would use the Cerberus firmware, this supports all GHI STM32 based devices like the FEZ Cerberus and the Cerbuino etc.
The only time you should need a custom build is if you want to enhance the firmware or you use different components like crystal speed, pin mappings etc. but if you stick to the GHI design the stock firmware should do the trick.
Gus also mentioned that they have USB host implementation for Cerb family and they need to test it. So It looks like we might be able to see it in our lifetime
@ Geir - In addition to what Chris said here is the link to the document that describes how to load the firmware:
Since this is in discussion right now, what do you guys use USB host for? Do you need it for a keyboard/mouse and for storage? And if for storage then why not use SD?
@ Rajesh - I like the idea of having some sort of usb host on cerb but and we should have something in the future but the switch from usbizi is not a bad idea at all. My openion
