Talk:Hardware

As a comment on the arduino, while it is an attractive solution, it is still quite expensive, and perhaps not worth the trade-off for the more limited functionality. Another possible solution is to use an older router, such as the linksys WRT54GL. while this is not an open source hardware solution, it is a possibly cheaper one, which would provide the required functionality, and is itself a mature platform with a significant open source firmware community behind it.

75.177.140.164 05:28, January 28, 2010 (UTC)

For this project, it would probably be best to just use the arduino designs built on to the printer's motherboard. We could maintain compatability, but only use $5-$10 in parts, a drastic savings.

Mark Murnane 20:35, January 28, 2010 (UTC)

Would the Arduino/AVR be responsible for all printer operations? ie will it be responsible for communication with the PC, decoding the formatted message, whether postscript or whatever, serving a web page as has been suggested, etc? that may be possible, but it would require quite a bit of coding.

75.177.140.164 05:44, January 29, 2010 (UTC)

An AVR is completely capable of doing all that. Like I said elsewhere, there are AVRs that have a built in USB module, and with SPI you can easily communicate with an ENC28J60 to provide web hosting.

I would recommend the ATMEGA128RFA for it's biult in wireless, high numbers of IO, price ($7.80 in low quantities) and easy of use. I think it would more than suffice for all aspects of the project, and is also a good price.

Mark Murnane 00:29, January 31, 2010 (UTC)

I would avoid any in the RF series because they are so new, and I don't see why we need the wireless. It's not 802.11, it's 802.15(afaik), meaning we would just have another USB dongle with an 802.15 chip. Seems like an overcomplication.