On Sunday, January 11, 2004, 2:34:13 PM, Francois wrote: FG> Nice use of low-cost off the shelf equipment. Thanks. That was the idea. :) If anyone's interested, rough costs were: ~$200 for the Zaurus SL-5500 (I don't think the 5600 is worth the price differential, essentially just for the faster CPU), ~$200 for the Frogpad, ~$150 for the USB host adapter, ~$170 for the XBOB/cable/PSU, and ~$375 for the Eyetop, for ~$1095 all told. Not currently hooked up, the P5 Glove was ~$25, and if you include the USB hub Francois mentioned, that's another ~$25, and the bone conduction headsets were ~$105-$135. It's ~25% cheaper than the Xybernaut Poma went for (~$1500), but it's also text-only. However, it's easily 100% more expandable, and there's a little room to cut costs if you're handy with a soldering iron: don't include the glove or hub or headset, wire up the BOB-3 chip yourself (-$50), and build your own Frogpad or chording keyboard equivalent out of a PIC and a regular keyboard (-$150), which could bring the cost down to ~$895. FG> I'm not all too familiar with the zaurus 5500, but if i were going FG> to keep the zaurus assembled, I would move the serial display to a FG> small usb serial converter. You know, you work on something for so long, and sometimes you totally miss an obvious thing like this. It's a good idea. I may end up going this route, but there's at least one reason why you wouldn't want to do this. If you plan on stripping the Zaurus down, including losing the LCD and chiclet keyboard, then if you want a console, it's best if you use the built-in serial port as a serial console. The USB subsystem gets started so late in the boot process, that if something stops you from booting before you get to it, you'll never know. The serial console gets started almost right away. This isn't a problem if you're leaving the unit assembled, of course, because you'll still have the screen as your console. FG> last week i started experimenting with alsa drivers for bluetooth FG> headsets. currently it only supports 8khz sound in and out, but FG> it's bearable, wireless, and nobody looks twice at you while FG> wearing it. Oooh! Very interesting. Thanks for the link! It would be wonderful if I could cobble Bluetooth into these bone conduction headsets, but again, the power issue. FG> but what really caught my eye is that it came with the thinnest FG> usb extension cable i've seen in a while The Zip-LinQ retractable cable that the Frogpad came with is super-cool and useful. I want a bunch of these. FG> bluetooth also opens up the ability to use a cell phone or bt FG> keyboard as an input device It's also worth noting that the upcoming Zaurus SL-6000, along with all the other improvements, will support a sled that adds a second CF slot and battery, have a 640x480(!) transflective LCD touchscreen, have an external speaker and mic (the 5500 does support audio input if you use a four-conductor 3.5mm jack), be ruggedized, and will support being a USB host without any extra hardware. Most interestingly, it will also come in three models: the base model, a model with built-in 802.11b, and a model with 802.11b AND Bluetooth. Combine the highest-end model SL-6000 with an upcoming Bluetooth Frogpad, a Bluetooth headset, and a Bluetooth cell phone (for when you're not near a wireless access point), and you're running out of reasons to use the USB host adapter. You don't even necessarily need to use a BOB-3 for serial text display (using a USB-serial adapter, as there's no serial port, which also means you'd have to leave it assembled to have a console for emergencies); if there are Linux drivers available for the LifeView FlyPresenter CF (VGA/TV output CF card), that could go in one of the two CF slots to provide true video output! Can't do that on the 5500, because you need the CF slot for the USB host for expansion. Should be out in the US/Europe sometime this Spring, and pricing has not yet been announced, but the three models sell for roughly $650, $700 and $750 in Japan, respectively. I'm not planning on getting one until I'm well underway with software, but this is a VERY desirable unit for wearables, I think! And it'd be really, really interesting if Tekgear or someone offered an M1 with a serial adapter, using the BOB-3 tied right into the RS-170 driver board. Thanks, Vito -- Subscription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with subject of "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" toWear-Hard Mailing List Archive (searchable): http://wearables.blu.org Please, *PLEASE* don't subscribe through a forward/expander/false domain
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