.netmf pda

Hi,

Does a PDA running .NETMF sounds like a good idea and brings lots of ideas for cool projects?

Have you seen Pyxis2? And look on the forum for coming GadgetOS.

NETMF is made and targeted for embedded devices, which means, IOs, I2C, SPI, USB…etc. It is not the right tool for browsing the web or playing movies. Not that you can’t, it is just not the right tool.

There is also a partial web browser I was working on but abandoned before finishing CSS or starting JavaScript

My Android phone/PDA has a 1Ghz processor w/ 32GB RAM and can do just about anything my PC can do… That’s the right tool for that job. There’s just no comparison with a NETMF device.

[quote]32GB RAM[/quote]??

Not even our servers have that much… ;D

RAM is cheap these days :wink:

Flash is “cheap”. Ram not so much…

Hi,

I admit that I should have explained this with more detail. ???
Although I feel that most of the guys that answered haven’t read it with an “open minded” perspective. I mean when I called it PDA it was in the broader sense, more like in “Personal digital assistant” not exactly PDA == iPhone or like.

I’m perfectly aware of the “constrains” of .NETMF and was not suggesting a device capable of Internet browsing, reading PDFs, working on a spreadsheet and alike.
I feel that that .NETMF (in particular GHI devices) have very good user interface capabilities not being exactly limited to “dumb black boxes”. Otherwise it would have been a waste of time developing support for fairly large LCDs, touch screens and the great new Glide.

Having said that, I’ll give it another try.
Almost everybody has signed for a delivery in one of those devices that UPS drivers carry, right?
I would call that a PDA and the features it has are perfectly within the constrains of .NETMF. At least I believe so.
My original thought was of a .NETMF capable device with a PDA form factor, sturdy and nicely manufactured. This would allow people to develop customized solutions based on that form factor using .NETMF. Does this makes sense?

With that said, NETMF is perfect for handheld devices. Like for inventory tracking or the devices you see with UPS/FedEx guys.

Well, I’m working on something like that also.

Small. Cheap. Easily adaptable to customer demands. 3.2" touch LCD. LiPo powered. Expandable to include GPRS, GPS, 433MHz radio etc…

I’m currently testing the power supply side in my hexapod robot.

just to add to the pack…

handhelds are currently used in :
Fast Food restaurants… McDonald’s for example.
Standard Restaurants… take orders and and keep track of inventory
Bars: take orders and keep track of inventory.
warehouses: inventory control.
gas stations: inventory controls.
Hospitals: patient and inventory controls…

just about anywhere you go… now a days.

pick a market, design you solution, get Rich ;D and come back here to brag all about it… we love to hear how people are making money with .netMF Devices :smiley:

good luck.

With the proliferation of cheap tablets, smartphones, and notebooks, I think it’s going to be hard to break in as just a generic input device. I believe where NETMF shines is when other pieces of hardware are integrated with it that cannot be easily integrated into one of the other devices and where a simple UI is preferred.

I wish someone would upgrade the slow computers they’re putting in gas pumps these days…UGGG!

I have thought this would be neat for a very long time.

Maybe not so much a PDA, but rather a mobile device that just happens to be in a PDA form factor and includes everything needed to be mobile (GPS, BT, WIFI, etc) with IO broken out to some connector somehow. This would make any mobile project about 100x easier to prototype than trying to haul stacked PCBs around.

My specific application was for a bike computer, but it could also be used for stuff like mobile scanners or a mini POS machine etc…

Sounds like what we really need is a really cool PDA form factor case for a Gadgeteer.

You could do that with female headers going down the sides of some shield that adds an LCD on top and possibly some wireless stuff on the bottom with antennas running out, but you still have the “issue” of it being a little bit thick after a case is added and room for a battery is allocated.

Yea, but we’re really talking about a hacker box. A little extra thickness can be tolerated.