Where Can You Buy Cheap, Tiny Motherboards? 60
Adam Ernst asks: "I'm trying to build a low-end tablet PC type device for giving tests to students in a classroom. The touch screen TFT wasn't hard to get and the WiFi shouldn't be too hard either, but the most difficult part has been finding a motherboard! I tried Via's Mini-ITX, but it was too tall at about 1.5 inches. The motherboard needs to be just three quarters of an inch tall; the length and width can't exceed 8 inches each, but the smaller the better. No fans allowed--this has to be silent. The -only- requirements feature-wise are that it is able to connect to a TFT-LCD, has either USB, CompactFlash, or PCMCIA for WiFi, and has enough power to run Red Hat or SuSE (the only Linuxes my IDE supports). No ports, no ethernet, not even sound. Preferably it would take straight power (just one wire in and one out, at some set voltage) so I don't have to mess with power circuits. Of course, the most important factor of all is cost, since it's for schools (preferably less than $100 in small quantities ~90 units)."
Soekris Engineering? (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.soekris.com/
They could probably build you a board, though it will not be less than $100.
Good luck.. I am looking for a similar board though I need 4 serial ports on mine.
3/4 Inch Tall? (Score:2)
I think your only hope is motherboards for laptops.
Re:3/4 Inch Tall? (Score:1)
Re:3/4 Inch Tall? (Score:1)
Also, there's companies out there making custom laptops these days. Surely you'd be able to buy parts from them at the right price.
Re:3/4 Inch Tall? (Score:2)
The only memory modules I've ever seen that fit this description are SO-DIMMs. As far as I know, these are only used in laptops and embedded systems. Definitely not in a generic motherboard that you'll be able to use for building a cheap homebrew system.
I'll have to agree here that a laptop motherboard is your only viable alternative for getting something down to a 3/4" profile.
Assuming
PC104 (Score:5, Informative)
Ive actually been compiling a small start off list, as I was researching them for robots.
http://www.advantech.com/products/sub_category.
http://www.bwi.com/
Also, I have various manufacturers of small form factor PCs that might be worth looking into (last ditch effort, ask where they get parts, or glue the lcd to one of them):
http://www.iwillusa.com/products/ProductDetail.
http://www.norhtec.com/products/index.h
http://www.openbrick.org/
http://www.littlep
Two options (Score:3, Informative)
Ummm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ummm... (Score:2, Informative)
Adam Ernst
Re:Ummm... (Score:2)
Re:Ummm... (Score:2)
Re:Ummm... (Score:1)
Although the encryption on the Wi-Fi would have to be fairly strong otherwise the next class period's students would have a good time trying to intercept all the exam questions and
Why WiFi? (Score:2)
Egyptian Technologies... (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry, I don't have a web address for them, but I know they have exactly what you're looking for - cheap, thin, low power, no ports, and is very flexible in terms of what you can do with it. I think they called it "Paper".
MOD PARENT UP (Score:1)
Re:Egyptian Technologies... (Score:2)
Re:Egyptian Technologies... (Score:2)
Re:Egyptian Technologies... (Score:1)
Nowdays with the advent of keyboards and printers, modern students are forgetting what it means to write. After years and years of typing on keyboards, I wonder how many of you fellow slashdotters have legible handwriting.
Back then you needed just a quill and paper to rig up a test..... now you
What about... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:What about... (Score:2, Insightful)
Cars cost soooo much money! Why not ride horses?
You'd think that a nerd-centered site like slashdot wouldn't have so many of these attitudes...
Re:What about... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about... (Score:1)
Re:What about... (Score:1)
I don't know where this guy's product is going, but I hope he succeeds.
Re:What about... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Oh, yeah, that's all we need: to be late to work because your mode of transportation:
Re:What about... (Score:1)
It IS worth considering if the application is worthy and practical before proceeding. I mean, lets just say I'm the type that will do anything to get out of a test I'm not prepared for. One moderat
Re:What about... (Score:2)
This comment [slashdot.org] suggests that randomization to prevent cheating is a possibility. Scantron randomization would be labor intensive.
Re:What about... (Score:1)
I'm not sure on how scantrons work but i would imagine that you would have to make a key for each distinct copy of the test so yeah it would be labor intensize. However, there is software that exists that allows teachers to randomize the question and multiple choice answers (my dad is a high school science teacher) but I don't know exactly what it is called. This poses the problem of having to hand grade each test though. Most of my high school teachers crea
Some choices... (Score:3, Insightful)
Google has some interesting summary of educational computers:
http://members.aol.com/KMyersPsion/ed
What about old Iopeners? (Score:2, Informative)
If you're lucky you might be able to find enough of these used to build your project around them, at least if it's a limited batch of 20-30 units. They usually sell in the $50-$80 range on eBay and surplus stores.
Re:What about old Iopeners? (Score:2)
But these use trackballs built into keyboards.
If you're dead-set on touch-screen, you've
got some problems to solve.
As I understand it, LCD interfaces are not
well-standardized, and you need to match the
video hardware to the LCD. Perhaps a mini-PCI
card? But then you've just lost your network
solution -- unless you want to use the
serial port.
One ready-made option (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, just another (cheap) choice. I've got two of these and find them quite interesting.
Not at that price point (Score:4, Informative)
Like a previous poster mentioned, the only way you're going to find a device for around $100 is by buying bulk, used PDAs from eBay and they're still not going to do what you want them to. Hell, the PJRC [pjrc.com] costs $150 alone, and it's only an MP3 board.
Single Board Computers (Score:2, Informative)
I would also start checking out wearable computing sites and lists. The list to read is wear-hard [blu.org].
How about AMD Alchemy? (Score:1)
LogicPD makes an inexpensive, small board (Score:1)
Bitsy and friends (Score:2, Informative)
Wanna make it cheaper at a cost? (Score:4, Informative)
Check out the SOC that is SiS 550. Its one chip that has the whole mobo on it and you only need to add IDE, TFT and RAM. In alrge quantities it was around $50, so you can do that under $100 but not in ~90 quantities.
Dont even consider PC104. Gathering used PCs is a lot cheaper, even basic taiwanese ECS-type mobos are cheaper there. Dont worry too much about fan and size for schools, else the price shoots up.
If youre into building embedded systems that can run Linux and uses tiny-X, you're in my league. I'm aiming for ~$50 for large quantities in low res LCDs using ARM MCUs. The cheapest Ive come across are ARM7TDMI MCUs designed for printers by samsung (~$7 each) but the ideal was cirrus logic (~$20) and includes ethernet and is quite fast.
For flash use Intel boot block. Others are expensive and low performance. Should really use compactflash since that will help change programs/OSes in the final product. Currently I'm seeking lowcost keyboard and mouse manufacturers in eastern countries and their quotes in ~1000 quantities. It should be possible they could use my autocad designs in which case I could really build a customized system.
In the not-quite-so-small category (Score:3, Informative)
I believe the low-end ones are a little above $100 including CPU. A small Flex-ATX power supply runs $40. Smaller solutions (DC/DC power supplies plus 12V wallwart) run $70ish.
http://www.mini-itx.com/ has lots of Mini-ITX projects and info.
http://www.idot.com/ is a good place to get Mini-ITX goodies in the U.S.
Desert Sunrise (Score:1)
huh? why? (Score:1)
If the students are encountering the technology for the first time when you administer a test, you are asking for trouble. Stick to computers that they already know and use.
What about diskless? (Score:1)
KJ
Design it yourself at ExpressPCB.com (Score:2, Informative)
very last post (Score:1)