New Kickstarter: UDOO Linux PC and Arduino development system on one tiny board
WBA Consulting
Posts: 2,934
Caught this today from a friend, it's at $180k and still has 52 days to go. I want a Propeller version!!!!!!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/435742530/udoo-android-linux-arduino-in-a-tiny-single-board
What's UDOO?
UDOO is a mini PC that could run either Android or Linux, with an Arduino-compatible board embedded.
UDOO board
UDOO is a powerful prototyping board for software development and design, its easy to use and with a few steps you can start using it and creating your projects with minimum knowledge.
UDOO merges different computing worlds in one; each world has its strengths and weaknesses, and all of them are useful today in education as well as Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and rapid prototyping endeavours.
UDOO is an open hardware, low-cost computer equipped with an ARM i.MX6 Freescale processor for Android and Linux, alongside Arduino DUEs ARM SAM3X, both CPU integrated on the same board!
UDOOs size is 4.33 inch x 3.35 inch (11 cm x 8.5 cm) and it has low power consumption.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/435742530/udoo-android-linux-arduino-in-a-tiny-single-board
What's UDOO?
UDOO is a mini PC that could run either Android or Linux, with an Arduino-compatible board embedded.
UDOO boardUDOO is a powerful prototyping board for software development and design, its easy to use and with a few steps you can start using it and creating your projects with minimum knowledge.
UDOO merges different computing worlds in one; each world has its strengths and weaknesses, and all of them are useful today in education as well as Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and rapid prototyping endeavours.
UDOO is an open hardware, low-cost computer equipped with an ARM i.MX6 Freescale processor for Android and Linux, alongside Arduino DUEs ARM SAM3X, both CPU integrated on the same board!
UDOOs size is 4.33 inch x 3.35 inch (11 cm x 8.5 cm) and it has low power consumption.
Comments
http://beagleboard.org/unzipped
We already have the Rasperry Pi. About as cheap as cheap can be. With a whole world of support.
All the new Propeller tools like propgcc and SimpleIDE and OpenSpin and spin2cpp run on the Raspi. Just hook it up to your favorite Propeller board you have a whole dev environment, free of the big box PC, ready to drop into your embedded project.
With the bonus that you can drop in whatever cheap ARM board comes next, I'm sure there will be many, or swap and change your Propeller board.
Edit: Toned down my, shall we say expressiveness, a bit.
Edit: Everyone loves an Arduino and it's IDE.
As mentioned below this solution is starting to look too complex and specific. I'd go with a Raspi compatible board with a Prop II on it. That way you get the ARM for heavy Linux lifting, networking etc and the Prop for serious real-time stuff which the Arduino ARM cannot offer. Given that the Raspi is so cheap just a simple piggy back Prop II board for it would do. With the bonus that Raspi already has a huge installed base (one million units) so there is a massive community and hence lots of support for it.
Where's the LIKE button when you need it!!
It is like a Cubieboard in that it offers more resources than a Raspberry Pi, and it will allow you to connect an Arduino DUE accessories.
But it won't directly program to an Arduino Due.
Arduino doesn't progam in Linux or Android, no cross-compiler.. right?
It is a hapless hybrid whatchamacallit.
Oh, it has wifi. And it is 4x Raspberry Pi as a quad.... And one can cross compile lInux or android. I guess I didn't understand it...
It really is a bit too much of this and that.
One might fall down this rabbit hole and never come out.
One of the main reasons for the success of the Arduino is that all the dev tools are cross-platorm and opensource. The programming language is C++ and the compiler is GCC (As in propgcc). The IDE is in Java, if I remember correctly. This may not matter much to the users but without that open source idea the Arduino would have been just another AVR board.
There is nothing Windows specific about the Arduino. You have always been able to bypass all of the Arduino specific libraries and stuff and use C/C++ for Arduino on Linux or Mac or whatever.
Yes there is an Arduino included. Perhaps just not the old AVR 8 bitter you are familiar with but the new ARM based Arduino. Did you miss where it says "Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU (same as Arduino Due)"
Yes your netbook can do whatever prop development you want, as can your Intel PC. But if you want a small self contained unit with the networking power of Linux and the real time handling power of the Propeller for you robot or embedded project what better, cheaper, combination than a Pi and a Prop?
This kickstarter project, for all it's complexity, cannot match that.
It has only been in the recent past that Arduino had an IDE in Linux. AVR could be coded in assembly in Linux, but not easily in C without the purchase of a cross-compiler. So it seemed that Arduino favored Windows and maybe Apple. GCC and C++ were not targeted for the AVR or ARM in Linux, you had to buy that.
I did check and now Arduino and Linux have Arduino solutions.
Yes, I intially missed hte SAM3X8E and I have revised my comments. But having never invested in Arduino hardware, buying this and waiting until September for it to arrive doesn't appeal to me.
I already have enough to learn with my Cubieboard, without figuring how to mate it with an Arduino.
But Sparkfun does have an ARM8 that emulates an Arduino interface for $59 USD right now. That seems a saner solution.
Cross-compiling from Intel versus Cross-compiling from ARM... It is all cross-compiling. And adding more layers of learning to get the job done.
avr-gcc has been around for ages. Not sure how long but I was using it to program avrs from Linux some years prior to my discovery of the Propeller. So that predates my first ever post here as "heater" by a a couple of years. I would go so far as to say that there would be no Arduino without avr-gcc. It's the cross platform and open source nature of the Arduino world that caught on with developers (And users, what with it being free).
As for the IDE it is written in Java and as far as I know has always run on Linux. I don't believe Arduino has "favored" Windows and Mac. They have gone out of heir way to make things cross platform. Although there are always those little Linux distro quirks that might have tripped things up a bit.
One has never had to pay for dev software for Arduino.
See Arduino release history here: http://arduino.cc/en/main/software
Back in 2005 it was all in place.
There are times that I do get AVR and ARM resources confused. And this new Ardunio chip seem to have migrated from AVR to ARM.
Anyway. I personally have no interest in waiting until September to buy an UDOO as I have the ARM9 that I am still trying to put to good use.
Wifi is always an attractive feature to me as it might allow wireless communication with a robot, but the Cubbieboard provided IR remote which is enough in some cases.
Sounds great: 512K FLASH, a little screen, SD card, lot's I/O gizomos.
But, horrible Windows only IDE and closed source compiler. A programmer tool that is only for Windows. Installing the drivers for which totally messed up the XP in a virtual box I had set up for it. It's been sitting in the junk box ever since.
Luckily there are many more platforms available for ARM now. Beagle boards, Raspberry Pi, VIA APC and so on.
As a Brit I have to say I'm pleased to see the Arduino guys taking on the ARM. I might have expected them to go on to AVR32 or some such.