homemade EFIS system and EMI

So far I have spent
$180 MB
$ 80 Power supply
$80 512Mb DDR ram
$90 on two USB flash cards
$30 data aquisition board materials
$30 odds and ends.
~$490
When I bought the EPIA the TC model was not out yet. This is what I
would have purchased these days saving $80 and a lot of headache. I
might end up buying this anyway and selling the old one on ebay.

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UJ,

Well, it doesn't come with a video card if that is what you meant,
however, that is a relatively simple matter to fix. PC104 video cards
are quite reasonably priced & even support 1/2 or 1/4 VGA standards.

Evan

UltraJohn wrote:
Blueskies wrote:



Check out this machine, only +5vdc required, linux capable...

http://www.diamondsystems.com/products/prometheus

I'm sure there are many more similar...


Looks to be a nice system to play around with. It has the possibility of
handling both the data interface and computations. The main problem I see
with this system is no windowing system ie KDE and I think that was part of
his need.
John


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It's a PC. He can install all the Linux junk he wants.

"UltraJohn" wrote in message
k.net...
Looks to be a nice system to play around with. It has the possibility of
handling both the data interface and computations. The main problem I see
with this system is no windowing system ie KDE and I think that was part
of
his need.

He could also go with the Athena card instead. That does have VGA on it. And
it's a faster processor.

"Evan Carew" wrote in message
...
Well, it doesn't come with a video card if that is what you meant,
however, that is a relatively simple matter to fix. PC104 video cards
are quite reasonably priced & even support 1/2 or 1/4 VGA standards.

I bought one a couple of years ago for around $1k (+/- a couple hundred
bucks).

Arcom also sells some very reasonable development kits.

"AINut" wrote in message
...

How much does one of these development systems cost?

jcpearce wrote:

I built a test linear regulator power supply this evening and the TO-3
regulator bringing ~12v down to 3.3 Volts nearly burnt a hole in the
test board. I looked over the wiring which was OK so it looks like the
thermal output of bringing 12volts down to 3.3 for 3 amps is just way
too high. So so much for that idea (unless I am missing something)

I may just end up getting on the EPIA TC models as UltraJohn mentioned
and hope that their EMI/RFI solution is better. The plane battery
voltage is ~12volts idle and ~14 volts running, what is a way of doing
the "power stabilizing" necessary for the EPIA TC which requires
11.6-12.4 Volts? If I just put a 12V linear regulator on there the drop
off in voltage would prevent the system running off battery.

You could use an external wirewound resistor(around 20 ohm), mount it to
your metal chassis, this should drop it to around 5v at 3 amp draw and will
make your voltage regulator a lot happier!
No matter how you look at it dropping 12+ to 3.3 v you'll have to disipitate
some heat somewhere.
John
Unless you use a switching regulator vbg.

Pete Schaefer wrote:

He could also go with the Athena card instead. That does have VGA on it.
And it's a faster processor.

"Evan Carew" wrote in message
...
Well, it doesn't come with a video card if that is what you meant,
however, that is a relatively simple matter to fix. PC104 video cards
are quite reasonably priced & even support 1/2 or 1/4 VGA standards.

Looking closer at it the biggest shortcoming I see now is the lack of ram
the card only handles 32mb and Linux is very memory intensive and running
only a 486dx-100 mhz chip with that kind minimal memory it will be
relatively slow. Do you really want to watch a video screen at 1/2 or 1/4
vga resolution? I think the card would be great for his data acquisition
card and use the via card for the processor. at least he'd be using the
same operating system and compilers for both. Less to learn and get
confused with, I get very confused!
John

Look again at the specs. The Athena has 128mb on board, and uses a
400-600MHz VIA Eden.

"UltraJohn" wrote in message
nk.net...
Pete Schaefer wrote:

He could also go with the Athena card instead. That does have VGA on it.
And it's a faster processor.

Looking closer at it the biggest shortcoming I see now is the lack of ram
the card only handles 32mb and Linux is very memory intensive and running

Pete Schaefer wrote:

Look again at the specs. The Athena has 128mb on board, and uses a
400-600MHz VIA Eden.

"UltraJohn" wrote in message
nk.net...
Pete Schaefer wrote:

He could also go with the Athena card instead. That does have VGA on
it. And it's a faster processor.

Looking closer at it the biggest shortcoming I see now is the lack of ram
the card only handles 32mb and Linux is very memory intensive and running

My reference was to the Prometheus board that was suggested, and it does
look like a viable source for the data acquisition.
http://www.diamondsystems.com/products/prometheus

I have not looked up the Athena. Who makes it? Even the 128mb is pretty
marginal for Linux except possibly in the straight data acquisition mode.
John

"UltraJohn" wrote in message
ink.net...
My reference was to the Prometheus board that was suggested, and it does
look like a viable source for the data acquisition.

Actually, no, you referenced my post about the Athena. Anyway, that's just
a quibble.

I have not looked up the Athena. Who makes it?

Diamond Systems. Same as the Prometheus. The Prometheus is actually pretty
old. They also make the Hercules, which won't fit in a standard PC/104 stack
chassis, but it has enough I/O on it that you probably wouldn't need to add
much of anything to it.

Even the 128mb is pretty marginal for Linux except possibly in the
straight data acquisition mode.

Most every display I've ever put or seen in an airplane has way less (by an
order of magnitude) memory that that. If you're hitting the wall for an
airplane display with 128mb, then you really need to rethink about how
you're running it. Maybe a stripped-down kernel just driving OpenGL stuff
makes more sense. A full-up Linux installation doesn't make much sense for
use in an airplane.