Another beginner needs help with the hardware side of things

Hi everyone, So, I've got an idea for an embedded linux box (who doesn't?) but I'm a complete novice when it comes to embedded anything. I'm a programmer/ linux-in-general kind-of-guy though.

So, I want to develop a linux based wifi router to sell to the general public. Since this is such a common product, and since I've got no experience working with embedded linux, I was hoping that there would be a pre-made board somewhere out there for me that I could just slide into my own pretty case, add my own programming and be away. Does anyone know if this is the case? Or will I have to go through all the hardware design myself? It's just going to be a router, so I figure I need hardware with a smiliar spec to the LinkSys WRT54G.

I'm also looking for some sort of costs to see if this idea is feasible. LinkSys sell their router for about $50 . How much would it cost be for to build a similar type of thing?

Thanks for any help you've got.

Dave

Reply to
linuxdave23
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NOTE: Posting from groups.google.com (or some web-forums) dramatically reduces the chance of your post being seen. Find a real news server.

You're posting from a search engine - didn't you try to use that before posting? Maybe you want to look at something like '

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' right off the top of the head. The 'RB433' family (triple 10/100 Ethernet only router) appears to be using a locally fabricated board - no idea where they're assembling the stuff, but they're in Riga, Latvia.

Have you tried buying one of their routers and 'popping the cover' to see what they did, and where they got the hardware?

Rules of economics - volume, cheapest costs possible. As a really crude guestimate, look at the parts cost to be APPROXIMATELY a tenth of the retail price. Other places where money is going to be leaking is the profit to the retailer, shipping/insurance to get the product out to those retailers, _warranty_costs_ (unless your hardware and software is really perfect), packaging, "documentation" (hah!), the cost of quality-control inspection, labor to assemble the product, and the cost of money needed between you buying the parts, and the retailer paying you for the product. Oh, and don't forget the advertising costs and any costs associated with having a place to put the stuff together. You want to look at those costs very carefully, especially relating to the skills of the assembly people. There really is a trade-off between having drug-crazed monkeys doing the work for two bananas a day and the cost or re-work/returns/scraping poorly built stuff.

Old guy

Reply to
Moe Trin

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