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Soon-to-be wearable? Advantech PCM-5822 based

From:
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 11:21:56 +1000

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the help with previous questions, I am just about ready to
purchase the main components for my wearable. If anybody has any thoughs
about my choice of components or sees anything that I have overlooked then
please comment, otherwise I have just posted this for general interest.

PCM-5822 is more or less my final choice at this stage from the reports I
have received. The Advantech site says that the TV-Out only supports Windows
95/98/NT so I presumed it requires drivers. I'd be surprised if the
composite did not just pumped out the same as the VGA signal regardless of
video mode (text / vga). At least that's what the one on my ATI card does.

In regards to the GT-270 the resolution isn't a scratch on genuine 640x480,
but people were reading 640x480 on the M1 running 320x240 with increased
font sizes weren't they?
PLM-S700 was my initial choice, but from what I have read it sold for
US$1000 or so (that's way out of my price range), nobody sells them in
Australia anymore and I haven't seen any on eBay anywhere in the last two
months.
Daeyang Cy-Visor is way too expensive again, and from what I've seen it's
huge! the official photos are very clever at never showing a profile view
but there's no way I'd be able to make it look reasonable (let alone close
to covert) for wearable use.
GT-270 looks like about US$275.00. If I have to pump up the font sizes then
so be it. NTSC resolution isn't too far off 640x480 is it? If the previous
note on this topic was to warn me that I am going to end up squinting at
this thing for the next year or two then please try and slap some sense into
me again and I'll buy an LCD to strap onto my wrist or something...

Final idea for the display is to get a GT-270 and test it out without
modifying it. I -think- I should be able to get readable 640x480 out of it
(even though its only TV resolution), but if all else fails I'll sell it on
on eBay and look for better solutions (probably wrist mount LCD or similar).

Australian Online Store with PCM-5822-DOA1
http://store.advantech.com.tw/australia/product.asp?pfid=460&mscssid=E7JXLT7
1GRCA9MHR4TQN6P4HW8500439
AUD$894.00 = US$475.75

US Online Store with PCM-5822-DOA1
http://www.advantech.com/usstore/product.asp?pfid=460&mscssid=GXVT9BMUKDSR2J
NV00SHR0XAJDK2EUPB
US$390.00

Australian Online Store with PCM-3112-0000
http://store.advantech.com.tw/australia/product.asp?pfid=190&mscssid=BNVTS9R
X7RN39PVP2WC7VS6PPH9H9EP0
AUD$387.00 = US$205.83

US Online Store with PCM-3112-0000
http://www.advantech.com/usstore/product.asp?pfid=190&mscssid=AHWK9BMUKDSR2J
NV00SHR0XAJD8M5V9B
US$175.00

Assuming I buy both the PCM-5822 and the dual PCMCIA PC/104 card (price
difference between brands for the PCMCIA is minimal so might as well make
them both Advantech), there's a difference of US$116.58 betweem getting them
here and in the US. Adding a SODIMM and perhaps a CompactFlash card would
justify making out a money order and paying for registered airmail but
unfortunately I don't have any friends / relatives in the US so I'll buy
them here.

I have some basic electronics knowlege and hooking up a regulator shouldn't
be any trouble, I've never previously been concerned with the efficiency of
them though. I plan to run it off a single 7.2V battery so I'll look out for
the Datel UNS-5/3-D12.

>From what I read InfoLithium cells are the only choice for wearable
batteries. They are pretty expensive, I'll only be able to afford one. I had
a look on eBay and there are millions new and used available (not one in
Australia of course) although I can't tell what the difference between the
versions / models are.

Speech recognition was high on the priority list, I didn't think the CPU
time would be a concern, but I'll have to enquire about the 300Mhz version.
Has anybody used any distribution of Linux on these advantech PCM-5822
boards? Are drivers available for the TV-out, sound and video cards (and
pcmcia?) etc...?

Can't see the Cisco 340 Aerolan stuff anywhere online in Australia, I
suspect a few phone calls would reveal it somewhere. On eBay there's a kit
with a Proxim RangeLan PCMCIA card and base station which support the 11mbps
speed. I'm looking at around US$250 for that (I presume the Cisco equivalent
would be similarly priced). PCMCIA to PCMCIA wireless ethernet isn't much
use. I don't own a laptop and probably won't anytime soon (definitely not if
I lash out on all this gear). I will live with Cat5 for the moment, maybe
wireless later.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1267792885

I'll add a notebook hard drive to it. No floppy / cdrom or others of course.

Thanks,

Nick

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