Re: Rebuilding wearable...

From Wear-Hard Mailing list Archive (WH) Maintained by R. Paul McCarty

On 4/21/06, Vitorio Miliano <> wrote:
> Daniel Parrott Ashbrook wrote:
> Do you get OQOs for less than the $1900 retail price?

No, we have to pay full price. Then when you add $1500(?) for a
MicroOptical SV-6 and what, $300? for a Twiddler, and $200 in
batteries, yeah, they're not cheap systems.

> That should be http://platformx.sf.net/ and it's a really neat platform!
> It's also $600 for the basic kit (CPU board, daughterboard, null modem
> cable, PSU and CD).  Do you get them for less than that?

Oops, thanks for the correction. We didn't have to pay full price
since we (and another professor's group) are doing a lot of
collaborative work with Intel.

> The dual-CF expansion board is due "soon," supposedly, but you'd still
> have to dangle storage off the USB host in that instance if you're using
> one for USB and one for VGA.

True, but at that point it would be very viable. I've actually got a
friend (JD Bakker, of LART fame) working on an expansion board for the
gumstix including VGA and USB host, but he's awful busy these days so
it's hard to say when/if it'll actually happen.

> Still, wouldn't the greatly reduced cost and availability of schematics
> (ensuring the hardware's longevity) of the Gumstix make it a more
> appealing platform for long-term development?  If OQO shuts down or
> ProjectX is cancelled, you'd have to shift development platforms again.
>   Wouldn't using Gumstix make development sustainable?

Yes and no. First, the schematics for the Gumstix core boards aren't
available, just the expansion boards. And second, at Tech, we have the
benefit (especially right now) of having a lot of money to buy toys
with. So we're always on the lookout for new things, meaning that we
might shift platforms anyway if something else comes along. Basically
all we need is something that runs Linux and lets us somehow do
Twiddler input, VGA output, and have some storage. Bluetooth is very
nice for connectivity through cell phones, but not a 100% necessity.
While the OQO and Stargate are the only commercially available
platforms we've seen right now that meet those requirements, new
embedded systems are coming along all the time.

Ultimately, I think our ideal platform will be a cell phone or
something cell phone-like. Motorola's got some Linux-based phones
we're taking a look at, but of course they don't have USB host or VGA
out. They do have Bluetooth, and we're looking at how best to make a
Bluetooth Twiddler, but without a hands-free display solution they
won't be completely replacing my day-to-day wearable.

dan

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