Hi All,
Thought id quickly introduce myself as a new member! Im a Masters student at Reading University UK studying Computer Science and Cybernetics so the thought of getting all this funky hardware for such a silly price seemed like a fantastic idea!
I know that on Sunday, Tesco were selling the E3 for £30. Today when I went in there to pick one up, they had gone up to £50! After a small amount of googling i found that Currys, Dixons, Argos and Toys r Us are all still doing it for £30 - I will go and get one tomorrow morning.
I am interested in the software side - being able to run own custom software on it [ip video phone, skype, home automation controller, maybe even a normal phone and networked answer machine!] - the possibilities are quite interesting to what you can do with quite a cool bit of IO hardware in a convenient form factor. But the other great use is just for components - even the screen and camera are pretty good items to get for 30 quid!
Thats all for now - but if anyone has any suggestions on what i should start to investigate first with this beast as there is no point us all working on exactly the same thing. My low-level firmware is not great (willing to improve), but i'm ok(ish) with the hardware side and pretty hot on the higher-level software.
Chris
On 23 Jan 2006, at 01:37, Chris Tingley wrote:
Hi All,
Thought id quickly introduce myself as a new member! Im a Masters student at Reading University UK studying Computer Science and Cybernetics
This is way off-topic, but can you tell Kevin Warwick to shut the hell up please?
Thanks, -J.
So,
Managed to pick up the last E3 from Argos this morning for £30 - all seems in order, it even came with a free game pad!!
Had a chat with a couple of knowledgeable guys from the department to strengthen my understanding of embedded linux etc. They had a little read up on some of the components used in the E3 and seem to believe that it is definitely possible to get a kernel and file system on the beast!
Now starts the learning curve. I presume that the general aim is to overwrite the linux kernel and then mount a file system (perhaps through a usb memory device rather than using the onboard flash?) which will then allow software to be run on the system. I also assume that if the kernel is compiled with the correct libraries for the processor being used, then stuff like lcd and camera support (and ethernet - see below?) will work pretty easily. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Also, does anyone know if the mainboard has ethernet capacity - i know there is no ethernet port - but does the board support this? If it does, i imagine it to be a trivial task to solder a RJ45 socket on. I presume that this would also allow booting over a network??
As I mentioned before, my linux knowledge is pretty poor, but I feel sure that I can get to grips with it pretty quick, so I ask again if anyone has any good material to start reading from?
Chris. PS. Didn't see Kev today, but I'll be sure to pass the message on!! :)
Hi Chris,
Although the vast majority of the content was beyond me, I'd personally recommend reading the archives of the mailing list (http://www.earth.li/pipermail/e3-hacking/) from March and April 2004 and possibly beyond, if you have not already done so. Sounds like it would not be so much beyond you ;) The posts shed a lot of light on what I thought I was discovering for the first time, includes the first mentions of running code on the E3, and also I think it is mentioned how they do ethernet at Amstrad (some USB adaptor AFAIR)
I've got to trawl through May and beyond before I start trying to contribute to the list again!
As an aside (and shoot me down if it is mentioned in the later archives ;) if anyone has any suggestions of what I should plonk on the other side of a PBX to talk to the E3, could you give me a quick point in the right direction? I got a lot of asterisk to do in the next couple of weeks and if I can cover that bit at the same time it would be nice.
Cheers, James
As I mentioned before, my linux knowledge is pretty poor, but I feel sure that I can get to grips with it pretty quick, so I ask again if anyone has any good material to start reading from?
On Tue, Jan 24, 2006 at 07:37:27AM -0000, James Tinmouth wrote:
As an aside (and shoot me down if it is mentioned in the later archives ;) if anyone has any suggestions of what I should plonk on the other side of a PBX to talk to the E3, could you give me a quick point in the right direction? I got a lot of asterisk to do in the next couple of weeks and if I can cover that bit at the same time it would be nice.
A 56k modem that will answer and do PPP should do the trick.
J.
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Chris Tingley -
James Tinmouth -
Jasmine Strong -
Jonathan McDowell