02 Nov 08 The Robot: Successful installation of Debian onto the Alix 3c2 board

Some hardware has arrived!

So my working space is a little bit of a mess at the moment. There’s no better way of getting started than just getting straight to the point.

The Alix 3c2 main board arrived in good health and works well. On the underside is a 512MB CF card and an Atheros MiniPCI Wifi. I’ve soldered single core wire to the I2C bus pinout. GND, CLK, Data & +3v.

I’ve also soldered bell wire across the power input. It accepts a wide input and so I’ve decided on 12v.

This is my prototype “power distribution board”. Currently it consists of 2 12V/2A regulators, some resistors and a 1000uF/30V smoothing capacitor. It provides 12v to the Alix board, and 12v to the motor controller. If both motors stall, they can use up to 6A, so whilst this is fine for testing the controller board, I’m going to have to replace one of the regulators with a transformer system to provide the necessary power to the motors.
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Tags: 12v, 38400 8n1, 3c2, 512MB CF card, alix, alix 3c2, atheros, atheros 5212, capacitor, card reader, clk, data, debian, debootstrap, gnd, Hardware, i2c, i2c bus, i2cdetect, Linux, minipci, motor, null modem, power distribution board, prototype, pxe boot, regulator, resistor, serial cable, serial console, smoothing capacitor, solder, transformer, wifi, wire

07 Oct 08 Linux Robot – Watch this space

I’ve been struggling to think of a good project to start on. I’m currently writing the APNIC Box series here, and I’m on part 4 of maybe 7 or 8 right now. I like to keep at least one personal project of interest on the go at a time so back to struggling for inspiration.. Feel free to tell me that this is an awful idea and suggest something else, but until I hear otherwise I’m going to roll with it.

Linux Robot – Requirements

Here’s what I’m thinking. Small embedded device, way smaller than the Mikrotik 532a used for the APNIC Box. The board will need USB [as we're going to use the 5v for charging later]. I’d like to start with a powerful enough board that it can be expanded later with relative ease.

The device will initially have few inputs and outputs. It will support miniPCI, USB, Serial Console, CF card, GPIO or some other good method for controlling a relay board and some motors. The device will have 4 small wheels, maybe rubber [old mouse] balls instead and some ultrasonic sensors, 4, 6 or 8.
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Tags: embedded, fm, Hardware, Linux, Linux robot, minipci, motor, oscillator, relay, Robot, sensors, servo, usb

01 Oct 08 APNIC Box – Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 2 – Hardware Modifications

Follow on from 01 Oct 08 APNIC Box – Linux on a Mikrotik 532a, Part 1

Custom Hardware Modifications

Here’s a labelled image of the inside of the device. You can also look towards the bottom left of the image for my simple solder modifications. Enlarge the image to see the labels.

1. External 2.4GHz/5GHz antenna. Same on opposite side.
2. 5V solder point
3. 5V connector for miniPCI USB card
4. 2x 2USB Headers. 1 Header in use providing 2x USB interfaces, one to regular host connector for mass storage or other usb connection. Other port for picoLCD on top
5. 512MB CF card
6. miniPCI USB controller

On the underside of the board there is a single miniPCI socket which houses an Atheros 5212 802.11a/b/g miniPCI card. It has two antenna outputs which run under the board and two the two external antennae. I haven’t taken a picture of this but if anyone really wants to see it, I will power down the device, get a picture of it and post it here.

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Tags: 2.4ghz, 532a, 5ghz, 802.11, antenna, APNIC, APNIC Box, atheros 5212, Linux, mikrotik, minipci, minipci usb, picolcd, routerboard, routerboard 532a, solder, soldering, usb interfaces, usb ports

26 May 08 Custom linux router, the story..

I have two separate internet providers, two separate static ranges, one from each provider, and a LAN. The purpose of the exercise here was to split traffic between the two providers on an equal 50/50 basis.
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Tags: Linux, mikrotik, minipci, openwrt, picolcd, router, routerboard 532a, usb, wireless