SparkFun Forums

[TSPRAP]

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 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!

[wittend]

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.

[NateW]

I have two, I agree they're pretty cool. 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. (not that there'd be anything wrong with that...)