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#148526 - 13/03/2003 13:01 One of the coolest things I've seen in a while
trs24
old hand

Registered: 20/03/2002
Posts: 729
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
This showed up on /. today. It's not that expensive, either! I'd love to get my hands on a few of them.
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#148527 - 13/03/2003 13:14 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: trs24]
elperepat
enthusiast

Registered: 11/01/2002
Posts: 211
Loc: Qc, Canada
Yep, I agree. the downside is that the price is for 10,000 units... Who else want some??? ;-)

Imagine, a car full of those for... .... I don't know... ... but all off them linked to the empeg ;-) wow

There's also the drawing of a developper kit on their website... That would be interesting, but as I understand it, you only enter contest once and they pick a name from the people that entered that week... So I will wait 'til it ain't on /. anymore ;-)

If anybody find a distributor for those (in smaller quantity: up to 10 and not 10 000), could you please tell me. Digikey don't seem to even know the company...


Patrick
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#148528 - 13/03/2003 13:40 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: elperepat]
trs24
old hand

Registered: 20/03/2002
Posts: 729
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
You can also order in quantities of 1 to 10 of the following:
- XPort Sample case;
- 1 XPort enclosed
- Order quantities of 1 to 10

I emailed their sales team to find out the pricing.

- trs


Edited by trs24 (13/03/2003 13:43)
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#148529 - 13/03/2003 15:56 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: trs24]
snoopstah
enthusiast

Registered: 07/01/2002
Posts: 337
Loc: Squamish, BC
Anyone interested in that might also like to check out this.

Not quite as tiny, but a similar concept, and available for $30 in the 1-10 quantity region!

I've been meaning to get one for a while and see what it can do...
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#148530 - 13/03/2003 17:01 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: trs24]
jimhogan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 06/10/1999
Posts: 2591
Loc: Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
I emailed their sales team to find out the pricing.

Let us know. I've worked with a bunch of Lantronix and love their stuff. This looks so cool. Now what to do with it??
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'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.

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#148531 - 13/03/2003 17:22 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: jimhogan]
loren
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/08/2000
Posts: 3826
Loc: SLC, UT, USA
Now what to do with it??


Seriously. I'm staring at this thing... and i KNOW there's some amazing potential there... but i can't think of any real practical application that I would want to use it for...

what are you all thinking?
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#148532 - 13/03/2003 17:40 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: loren]
number6
old hand

Registered: 30/04/2001
Posts: 745
Loc: In The Village or sometimes: A...
Well Jim,
think of each of these devices as a remote serial port for the Empeg.

You know how there is all these amazing things we want to do/plug into our Empegs, but we are limited as we only have the inbuilt serial port to connect them all to?

Well this bypasses that limitation, and provided we have a "in car" ethernet connector fitted to our sleds [and the right software], we can have as many serial devices on the Empeg as we want - each one doing one thing:
like:
GPS data stream from the GPS,
OBDII interface data,
External display interface
External buttons or control devices

the list is potentially endless....


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#148533 - 13/03/2003 19:07 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: loren]
trs24
old hand

Registered: 20/03/2002
Posts: 729
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
i can't think of any real practical application that I would want to use it for
What excites me about devices like this is the fact that they take us further in a direction where interconnectivity is simply assumed rather than something that is achieved. I wonder how compatible this device is with certain SBC's.

- trs
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#148534 - 13/03/2003 20:02 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: number6]
jimhogan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 06/10/1999
Posts: 2591
Loc: Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
like:
GPS data stream from the GPS,
OBDII interface data,
External display interface
External buttons or control devices

the list is potentially endless....


Yup! Actually, I'm not as puzzled as I make out. NMEA sprung immediately to mind...along with wheel sensors....and on and on.

I'm just a little foggy on how to make it all work!

My past experience with Lantronix was in interfacing serial lab devices over a hospital's IP network. Their stuff really did work well. I look forward to getting my hands on some of these.....(Hey! potential Alcan sponsor!!)
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Jim


'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.

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#148535 - 13/03/2003 23:49 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: loren]
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5914
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
Seriously. I'm staring at this thing... and i KNOW there's some amazing potential there... but i can't think of any real practical application that I would want to use it for...

what are you all thinking?


I'd love to combine a few of these with one of the cheap RS232 temperature sensor kits I have been using recently to create an Ethernet enabled sensor.

Anyone one know if it supports power over Ethernet ?
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#148536 - 13/03/2003 23:51 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: andy]
number6
old hand

Registered: 30/04/2001
Posts: 745
Loc: In The Village or sometimes: A...
Power over ethernet - no, the 4 wires not used for Ethernet are terminated in the device but aren't connected - personally I'd love to see a couple of them available for this purpose.
The onboard micro also runs on 3.3V so you need to have a power convertor to 3.3V from a higher voltage as well.
And it can suck the juice - up to 210mA - some of that probably to run the Ethernet magnetics etc.



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#148537 - 13/03/2003 23:54 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: number6]
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5914
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
It still looks very interesting. It appears to be more of a real computer than some of the devices that people on Slashdot have been talking about when they say "it's been done before".
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#148538 - 19/03/2003 17:51 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: andy]
trs24
old hand

Registered: 20/03/2002
Posts: 729
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
Xport finally got back to me about the pricing. They only came back with the price on the Dev kit - not exactly what I asked for - but here it is:

--------------------------------------------
Tim,

Thank you for your interest in Xport! In response to your email, the price
on the Xport Dev Kit is $140US. You can place your order thru our
distributors:

SYMMETRY ELECTRONICS
Contact: Mark Bayers
Phone: 310 536 6190
Email: [email protected]
http://www.symmetryelectronics.com

ARROW ELECTRONICS
Phone: 800 833 3557
http://www.arrownacp.com
--------------------------------------------

A bit more than what I anticipated...

- trs
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#148539 - 19/03/2003 18:53 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: trs24]
Rod
journeyman

Registered: 04/05/2000
Posts: 84
Loc: Australia
Pricing in Australia is $70AUD for the XPort and $250AUD for the dev kit. No minimum order quantity.

Rod.


Edited by Rod (19/03/2003 18:54)

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#148540 - 19/03/2003 20:25 Re: One of the coolest things I've seen in a while [Re: loren]
mlord
carpal tunnel

Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14472
Loc: Canada
What to use it for?

Well, an immediate use for me is remote ethernet access to console ports on servers..

Cheers

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