I have need for a medium sized board for a data control/logging application. I started looking at the Arduino project and while it is very attractive for a number of reasons, the data memory available is a serious limitation. Part of the requirement is to have a reasonable set of web pages and to support multiple modules connected to a I2C bus and eventually a one wire bus. The ethernet and wire libraries added to those requirements make data storage tight. Even the 16K of the Mega may give me problems and there isn't a realistic ethernet solution for it.
I looked at the Beagleboard as a very attractive alternative, except for the lack of an ethernet port. I know a port can be added via the USB but that appears to add another $20 to the project. So I have a solution (Arduino Duemilanove and ethernet shield) that is ideal except for data storage and a Beagleboard which is an enormous overkill for data storage with a somewhat higher price.
I have to think there is some product I'm not finding out there that will give me a reasonable amount of RAM, an ethernet port and a bit of digitial I/O (I2C) for something less that $170 but I haven't found it. I'm hoping there is something that has less than way too much (Beagleboard) and far too lotle (Arduino) for something inbetween price wise.
Here's a list of requirements
Ethernet port and software to drive it.
64k of ram
digital I/O (prefer an I2C port with software, but a couple of bi directional I/O lines will work)
Price below the $170
Programmable in C or C++ via a Linux cross compiling environment.
Reliable supply source.
I don't care if the development platform costs more since I'll only need one or two of them, however the finished product needs to be inexpensive.
Anyone have suggestions as to what way I might proceed? I'd roll my own but the development money isn't there for such an ambious project. The resulting product has a limited market so there won't be a tremendous volume to spread the development money across.
Thanks,
Jim.
I looked at the Beagleboard as a very attractive alternative, except for the lack of an ethernet port. I know a port can be added via the USB but that appears to add another $20 to the project. So I have a solution (Arduino Duemilanove and ethernet shield) that is ideal except for data storage and a Beagleboard which is an enormous overkill for data storage with a somewhat higher price.
I have to think there is some product I'm not finding out there that will give me a reasonable amount of RAM, an ethernet port and a bit of digitial I/O (I2C) for something less that $170 but I haven't found it. I'm hoping there is something that has less than way too much (Beagleboard) and far too lotle (Arduino) for something inbetween price wise.
Here's a list of requirements
Ethernet port and software to drive it.
64k of ram
digital I/O (prefer an I2C port with software, but a couple of bi directional I/O lines will work)
Price below the $170
Programmable in C or C++ via a Linux cross compiling environment.
Reliable supply source.
I don't care if the development platform costs more since I'll only need one or two of them, however the finished product needs to be inexpensive.
Anyone have suggestions as to what way I might proceed? I'd roll my own but the development money isn't there for such an ambious project. The resulting product has a limited market so there won't be a tremendous volume to spread the development money across.
Thanks,
Jim.