@ Mr. John Smith - Thanks for that great write up on the board.
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Mr. John Smith, shares some good points, but IMHO the main reason is that its running Linux!
Far, far more feature rich and stable than anything currently out there for embedded. Many things that would take you hours to code is probably a simple apt-get install away from doing it.
So many language programming options to choose from like c/c++, node, python and more. Pick you poison and start coding.
Unlike what we are used to in our embedded world, where say we need to make something that needs wifi. Typically you either code your own driver for it, or they have one for another product they sell. Which then you stuck using only that wifi module, and most of the time it’s either not full featured, and or somewhat buggy or slow. Not the case with Linux, most of the off the shelf USB wifi devices at your local store will work just by simply plugging it in. In the rare cases it doesn’t, most of the time you just install the drivers for it. Think of Embedded Linux like your PC, Most of the stuff you buy you just plug it in and it works.
I started to learn embedded Linux some months ago, but with what I have learned and tried so far I am convinced that much of the Embedded world is going to switch to products like this. The time savings for competing a project far exceeds just about anything else out there.
IMHO, today most of the companies that make these embedded Linux modules, just don’t get it yet. They throw every dam connector on the board. That is great if your making a kit, but most of us are going to “embed” it into our product and need to have connectors in certain places and/or not have connectors. There are those out there like Gumstick and so on that don’t do this but the modules is far to expensive.
This is why I am very glad GHI has picked this up, and offered it in a sensible form factor. Though I differ from Mr. John Smith is one aspect and that is I would have preferred a module with some form of SM header option so I can remove or install the module should I need to. Something along the lines of say the Intel Edison connector.
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@ Gus or @ Gary, Do the castellated pins extend to pads on the bottom of the device?
@ VersaModule - Great points. Thanks for your input. Embedded Linux, hm. I guess I will need to start looking at it.
@ Mr. John Smith - [quote]Oh yes, and it doesn’t need an SD card[/quote]
That is really appealing. Much more durable.
@ terrence,
Derek Molloy videos really helped me get started in all this. duno if it will be useful or not, but he has quite a few videos on yourtube.
He also has a really great book called “Exploring BeagleBone: Tools and Techniques for Building with Embedded Linux” that I would recommend to anyone getting started in this. He is a teacher, so his book is really well written.
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@ VersaModule - Hey thanks for the links. I will check them out.
I am a c# dude, but python is ok as well. High level is better than low level languages as far as I am concerned.
If I start running mono/c# will there be drivers available for the many sensors and radios I want to use?
I am a C guy myself. I have only recently dabbled in Mono but like it so far. I cannot personally answer that right now because I have not tried any hardware with it yet. Hopefully someone else can comment on that. I remember seeing videos on mono where people where doing robotics stuff, and I also remember that you could add something like an I/O library to mono to have it do things like this.
Might be worth checking out this kit to get as it works with the RPI and I also have a few of their boards and this kit as well.
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=84. It’s a great and low cost kit to get started in this stuff.
Source code examples for them are on their page here.
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Should anyone start poking arround on their site be hooked on the low price of some of their modules, I want to caution you that there are some drawbacks with them so dont get to excited about the price.
I have these 2 from them.
#1) http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=109
#2) http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=96
#1) worked well, but after doing an apt-get upgrade and reboot it acts strange.
Personally I liked #2, its really fast, but it also gets really HOT. I would never put this in an end product for 2 reasons.
#1) gets to dam hot
#2) does not have eMMC.
This is why I am really excited about GHI’s OSD3358 System on Module. I have been searching and searching for a low cost module that has everything I have been looking for. Things like no hardware connectors & eMMC and extended temp range.So far GHI’s board seems to be the perfect match. I just hope the pricing wont kill it.
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@ Versa, - So what kind of price would kill it? For me anything above $100 dollars. Why? because at that price, I can afford to adopt an Intel Edision.
So far I like the idea of this product. I am working on a GUI application that I had the G400 slated for. As the requirements and number of screens has increased I have been concerned that the G400 might not have the horse power. I am investigating Win IoT on a Tordex module. I have the dev kit but haven’t fired it up yet. This OSD3358 is interesting.
Some pros I see:
- Easy to integrate into a product. So far only Edison is truly designed for embedded application. Edison however has no video option.
- Linux has lots of options and software available.
- Fastest GHI offering so far.
- External connections and peripherals can be added based on the application.
Some Cons I see: (This is from the perspective of an OEM shipping 1000’s of embedded products. One-off’s or hobbyist perspective would be different.)
-
Linux. (Yes its a pro and a con for me.) There is no single point of contact for problem resolution. It relies on code written by hundreds of individual developers over the course of many years. There have been a few instances over the last few years were security bugs have been undetected for many years. There has also been issues even this year with a developer who pulled his code from NPM and it left potentially millions of applications unable to build. My preference would be Win IoT, or some other captive OS that has a single point of contact.
-
It’s not a removable module. For most hardware designs this will be by far the most expensive component ($100+ is my guess.). It is a lot to commit to a low cost board that might fail because of a $3 component. It also requires a larger upfront assembly cost. When its a removable module you can have 500 boards made cheaply and only purchase and install the module closer to the time of shipping.
I am interested to see what the new Raspberry Pi compute module will look like. That just might be the perfect solution for my application.
However, since I am a sucker for any GHI development board, or just development boards in general, I will most likely be getting one.
:dance:
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I ran into a similar heat issue with an Olimex A20 based board. It just runs too hot and it ended up causing the LCD to fail as the temperature got to the point where the bonding failed.
I switched to a G400D based design but running into memory limitations. I like the Olimex because I could use Android and no issue with memory and graphics capability. NETMF module size means you have to break it all up and this gets quite messy when you are dealing with a GUI and trying to share data across the window views.
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This thread has some great points and we are taking a lot of notes.
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So the price is now increased to just below 100$ :whistle:
To get users up to speed with “custom” linux builds i would suggest
- Buildroot support
- visual DTS editor / DTB generator
And a bundle with a Price reduced VisualGdb license, or a voucher 8)
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@ skeller -
[quote]- It’s not a removable module. For most hardware designs this will be by far the most expensive component ($100+ is my guess.). It is a lot to commit to a low cost board that might fail because of a $3 component. It also requires a larger upfront assembly cost. When its a removable module you can have 500 boards made cheaply and only purchase and install the module closer to the time of shipping.
[/quote]
You raised a bunch of great points. This one really makes sense.
Gus make it so!
@ terrence - So there are pros and cons to having a removable module. If you really want it in a SODIMM package, then make a carrier board.
EDIT: GHI will prob make one that’s a SODIMM module as well, because they are known for having that variant to their products; give em time.
@ Mr. John Smith - So the Edison connector is more prone to vibrating out or loose.
SMT chip
or
Edison Connector.
SODIMM click in mode.
Solder on castellated pins module.
@ terrence - [url]https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/product-files/2227/ed_DF40_20140305-337786.pdf[/url] See Pg 2; Product Specifications, under point 4; Vibration Resistance. Unfortunately I can’t find any such info for SODIMM connectors. (It may be however be because of lack of trying).
@ Mr. John Smith - I can’t tell, is that the Edison type connector?