GumStix?

A post by a fellow forumer got me interested in these “Gumstix” embeded devices. They use an Intel PXA255 Xscale proccesor that runs at either 200Mhz or 400Mhz. Built-in LCD controllers, linux, ethernet, USB,Bluetooth, CF, MMC, and many more features. What I really like is the price… Starting at $99! It would be AWSOME if SF sold these as they would probably make a Baseboard with a proto area, Camera conector and all the little gadgets SF sells. Once I get some Paypal revenues from “free sites” I will probably end up buying either a Basix 200 or a Connex 200 and make my own eval board with everything pulled out…and possibly post the Schematics on open circuits :wink: The best thing is that, as far as I can tell it is cross platform in the programming sense…they even have a guide for Mac OS X!

They are cool. I have three of them. The biggest difficulty I have with them is that they are so small and pack so much electronics in such a small space that they are easily damaged.

I am very clumsy, but I think that all of mine still work. Mounting them securely so that the Molex connectors don’t work loose can be a challenge. I find that making little edge rails out of the kind of styrene plastic I-beams that are sold for model railroaders works pretty well.

I have two, I agree they’re pretty cool. :slight_smile: The Gumstix people sell a couple of expansion boards with solder pads and/or thru-holes and/or headers that you can use to hook the Gumstix up to anything you need, so no need to wait for SparkFun to get involved. :slight_smile: (not that there’d be anything wrong with that…)