I've looked around quite a bit, but I don't see anything in particular that fits my needs. That's why I've come here for suggestions!

I'm looking for a nice and cheap ARM development board that has wifi on board OR can use a USB wifi stick (>1 USB Host). In addition, it needs to be able to support a LCD display.

The important part is the USB Host - it's crucial for a project I'm developing. (Hence why I've said a USB wifi stick can be used if necessary.)

The price point should be generally low - I'm aiming for <$35, preferably <$25 (but of course the world isn't cheap!).

There is Raspberry Pi, but it encompasses too much - I don't need/want HDMI, RCA video, or LAN. (Audio is a maybe, though not through a port - direct hookup is all I may need, as a "bonus" feature of the project.)

A small form factor, therefore, is something I'm aiming for. It should be at most the size of the Raspberry Pi (credit card), but smaller is better.

Shipping should be included within price.
Is this for the same or a similar project to the one you posted about previously? (Your sub-$99 tablet project) It sounds like something like a Beaglebone would do the trick for you, but that's four times as high as your price limit, so that won't help. I don't know of anything very capable and cheaper than the Raspberry Pi. TI's new Stellaris kit has a USB-host-capable 32-bit ARM SoC on-board, but I don't think its 256KB flash size is capacious enough for Wifi drivers.
KermMartian wrote:
Is this for the same or a similar project to the one you posted about previously? (Your sub-$99 tablet project)

Nope. This is a totally different project with different needs. There will be a LCD screen, but it's just for seeing a status, and it will not be big enough to do anything a tablet or iPod Touch can. A touchscreen, maybe, but only if it's usable on such a small scale, and it will only be used to do some configuration. (Basically, a small resistive screen is enough.)

KermMartian wrote:
It sounds like something like a Beaglebone would do the trick for you, but that's four times as high as your price limit, so that won't help. I don't know of anything very capable and cheaper than the Raspberry Pi. TI's new Stellaris kit has a USB-host-capable 32-bit ARM SoC on-board, but I don't think its 256KB flash size is capacious enough for Wifi drivers.
Looking at the Beaglebone, it's pretty good except that it's $89, and it has an unnecessary Ethernet port. The only other complaint is that it only has one USB host, but with a (good) USB hub this issue can be remedied. (USB keyboard/mouse combo + USB wifi, the former for setting the software side up.)

As for the other one, Stellaris doesn't seem to be a good platform since it looks rather slow to be running any form of Linux. Razz I'm aiming for a Raspberry Pi like board, except without the bells and whistles.
Ah, I didn't realize running Linux was part of your requirements. That changes things. Both the Raspberry Pi and the Beaglebone run Linux like champs, but anything cheaper that I know of does not. Is this going to be a one-off project? If it's something that you plan to have a lot of made, it's worth your cost to think about designing a custom board around some cheap and capable SoC.
KermMartian wrote:
Ah, I didn't realize running Linux was part of your requirements. That changes things. Both the Raspberry Pi and the Beaglebone run Linux like champs, but anything cheaper that I know of does not. Is this going to be a one-off project? If it's something that you plan to have a lot of made, it's worth your cost to think about designing a custom board around some cheap and capable SoC.
Ah... well, if I were to ever sell this, it would be tricky, because the use of this is quite questionable... Razz Making a custom board and SoC is probably out of my skill set - I've only just started taking Digital Electronics at my school! (Not to mention that even trying to prototype such a thing is hard as well, due to the chips usually being packages as SMDs.) I'd say this is more of a "see and DIY" kind of project. Smile

Well, I guess it doesn't hurt to mention what this "project" is about: basically, I'm attempting to get iPods and iPod Touches to sync wirelessly. Linux's libgpod is very capable at syncing, so I would like to use Linux on the board. The onboard/USB wifi is obviously for the "wireless" aspect of syncing, and the USB host is for allowing a cable to connect the iDevice, having a regular iDevice pin wired to the USB host, and/or flash drives to upgrade the firmware. It mainly is a software project, aside from the iDevice connector pins soldering, LCD connection, and making a case.

That said, would you have any suggestions of a development platform that I could use for this? The CPU can definitely be different (I'm not writing ARM assembly, after all), as long as it can run Linux with decent speed. Smile
I did some looking around, and almost everything I'm finding that would be moderately applicable to your project is at least $115 or more (other than the Pi and the Beaglebone, that is). I think you might need to just bite the bullet and deal with the fact that the Pi is over-spec'd for your application. Smile
KermMartian wrote:
I did some looking around, and almost everything I'm finding that would be moderately applicable to your project is at least $115 or more (other than the Pi and the Beaglebone, that is). I think you might need to just bite the bullet and deal with the fact that the Pi is over-spec'd for your application. Smile
Yeah, I guess I'll have to use the Pi. (Even if it is a little too pricey/specy for the project.) Smile
Indeed, there's hardly anything cheaper Smile
At slightly higher price tags, the capability level can be increased somewhat, e.g. with the BeagleBone black or the CubieBoard & CubieBoard 2. Those have more I/O, and the Cortex-A8 chip can do hardware floating-point, unlike the older ARM11 of the RPi.
  
Register to Join the Conversation
Have your own thoughts to add to this or any other topic? Want to ask a question, offer a suggestion, share your own programs and projects, upload a file to the file archives, get help with calculator and computer programming, or simply chat with like-minded coders and tech and calculator enthusiasts via the site-wide AJAX SAX widget? Registration for a free Cemetech account only takes a minute.

» Go to Registration page
Page 1 of 1
» All times are UTC - 5 Hours
 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

 

Advertisement