Recommendations wanted

Hello All, I am in the very early stages of planning a new product that will use distributed SBCs with digital I/O cards for control purposes. I am a programmer and will be writing the control software.

In the past I have used low cost SBCs from Acrosser running DOS with simple serial communications. Things have obviously moved on in recent years and I'd like to take advantage of a more versatile, yet robust OS. Hence I'm interested in Linux, although I know absolutely nothing about it, I've only ever worked with Dos and Windows. I'd like to use TCP/IP sockets and perhaps one or two useful services such as a FTP server. I don't require a graphical interface.

There are so many versions of Linux, SBC manufacturers and digital IO cards that I don't know where to begin looking. I'm hoping that people from this group may be able to point me towards proven combinations of hardware and software that meet my requirements.

My requirements are simple:

1) Low cost. Both of hardware and OS. 2) Compatibility between OS, SBC and the IO cards. 3) Reliability 4) The availability of programming tools.

I don't need much processing power, if I can get away with using a 386 based system then I'll do it! Does anyone have any recommendations?

Regards, Warwick Stock (The Win32 programmer looking to defect)

Reply to
Warwick Stock
Loading thread data ...

You might want to look at PC/104. It is a PC compatible machine in a small form factor. There are hundreds of boards out there, ranging from 386 to high speed Pentium machines. Alot of manufacturers supply a Linux distribution pre-installed on the boards flash memory. Check out products from Ampro, Diamond Systems, Technologic Systems, Tri-M, ...

Mark

simple

cards

this

based

Reply to
Mark J

What digital IO cards/interfaces do you need? we have a small embedded linux board with onboard digital IO.

formatting link

perhaps that would be suitable.

The OS and programming tools are free, and depending on quantity, you may consider the hardware low cost too.

please let me know if you are interested further.

regards,

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Damion de Soto - Software Engineer  email:     damion@snapgear.com
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Damion de Soto

formatting link

We have plenty of low cost SBC solutions.

Good luck,

Brian

Reply to
Brian

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.