Leveraging Cheap PC Hardware? 9
dsginter asks: "Now that PC hardware is dirt cheap (under $100 for a Duron 700, motherboard, LAN, modem, sound, etc), I would expect to see more in the way of leveraging this sort of hardware for uses outside the home and office. Is there any vendors out there who address the need for cheap 12 volt DC power supplies? How about vibration tolerance (besides Flashdrives how are you getting the processor and accessories attached reliably)? PC/104 is comparatively expensive so it would be nice if there were some solid-state, 12-volt, embedded (and possibly even real-time) Linux projects out there. Example: with RAM as cheap as it is, you could make a portable digital video camera for very cheap. Are there packages out there or is this strictly DIY?" So where can you go if you are looking to purchase decent hardware for your embedded projects? Are any of you attempting to assemble projects like this? If so, what kinds of things are you working on?
Re:It's just not the same (Score:2, Interesting)
Last time I checked, RAM was volatile...
Well yes, obviously. You could, however, maintain the data by running a small battery charge through the chips. Why would this be benificial? Because RAM is cheap. I was on eBay a few weeks ago, and I picked up 512Mb of RAM for UK£68, including shipping and handling. Compare that to, say, CompactFlash. I can't even *find* a 512Mb CompactFlash card. Even if I could, you can be sure it would cost more than £68.
If I could have a camera that would loose your photos after 3 days without charging, but that had five hundred and twelve megabytes of storage space, I would happily get one. It'd be cool!
Michael