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adacomputer [2009/10/20 22:48]
ladyada
adacomputer [2009/11/16 17:20]
ladyada
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   - **Must have hardware/​motherboard parallel port (printer port).** Parallel ports are the pinkie toe of electronics hacking. Youd think they'd be gone by now but nooo, they'​re still there, hanging around and often necessary for using older software/​hardware/​schems. I use them a lot for talking to laser and label printers, CPLD/FPGA programmers,​ bitbanging all sorts of stuff, programming chips via PonyProg, etc.. USB-parallel converters aren't good enough due to the slowness from the USB layer. Hardware parallel ports are just damn handy!   - **Must have hardware/​motherboard parallel port (printer port).** Parallel ports are the pinkie toe of electronics hacking. Youd think they'd be gone by now but nooo, they'​re still there, hanging around and often necessary for using older software/​hardware/​schems. I use them a lot for talking to laser and label printers, CPLD/FPGA programmers,​ bitbanging all sorts of stuff, programming chips via PonyProg, etc.. USB-parallel converters aren't good enough due to the slowness from the USB layer. Hardware parallel ports are just damn handy!
   - **Must have hardware/​motherboard serial port** (COM/Modem port). Two if you can. These are more common than parallel ports. You can use USB-serial ports for most things but sometimes you need the hardware speed of an onboard serial port especially if you're doing some funky bitbanging.   - **Must have hardware/​motherboard serial port** (COM/Modem port). Two if you can. These are more common than parallel ports. You can use USB-serial ports for most things but sometimes you need the hardware speed of an onboard serial port especially if you're doing some funky bitbanging.
-  - **Should be small**, we dont got a lot of room here at adafruit.+  - **Should be small and quiet**, we dont got a lot of room here at adafruit. And nothing is worse than fan noise.
   - **Doesnt need hardcore video** Not a lot of game playing around here, mostly working!   - **Doesnt need hardcore video** Not a lot of game playing around here, mostly working!
   - **Processor type** Can be Intel or AMD. Both are fine by us. Lately we've liked AMD a lot.   - **Processor type** Can be Intel or AMD. Both are fine by us. Lately we've liked AMD a lot.
   - **Lots of USB ports.** Both on the outside and on the motherboard. Especially for the shipping computer theres just tons of stuff that needs to plug in - programmers,​ barcode scanners, scales, backup usb keys, Arduinos. You can also use hubs.   - **Lots of USB ports.** Both on the outside and on the motherboard. Especially for the shipping computer theres just tons of stuff that needs to plug in - programmers,​ barcode scanners, scales, backup usb keys, Arduinos. You can also use hubs.
   - **Whole machine for $500 ** Not including monitor, key/mouse, etc. We wanted it lean and clean.   - **Whole machine for $500 ** Not including monitor, key/mouse, etc. We wanted it lean and clean.
 +
 +Of course you should recycle what you can. In this case we had already recycled all our hard drives, CD rom drives, etc into other machines!
 +
 +If you have some other suggestions,​ feel free to edit the wiki page. Thanks!
  
 ====== What we got ====== ====== What we got ======
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 The computer has 2 serial ports on board (COM1 and COM2). Unfortunately theres no punchout so you'll want a bracket. They'​re called "​Serial Port Brackets"​ and come with a 10-pin IDC cable The computer has 2 serial ports on board (COM1 and COM2). Unfortunately theres no punchout so you'll want a bracket. They'​re called "​Serial Port Brackets"​ and come with a 10-pin IDC cable
 {{:​09480a.jpg|}} {{:​09480a.jpg|}}
 +
 +Unfortunately,​ ours were miswired, and had '​alternating'​ pins soldered instead of '​incrementing'​ - you can fix this pretty quickly with some soldering. ​
 +
 +{{:​mboardcom.jpg|}}
  
 If you're feeling adventurous,​ you can actually get two of these and a Keystone 9200-15 (double DB-9 bracket) and double up for both COM ports! If you're feeling adventurous,​ you can actually get two of these and a Keystone 9200-15 (double DB-9 bracket) and double up for both COM ports!
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 Personal machine: $200 + $150 + $80 + $30 + $50 + $20 + $10 + $20 = $560 - Nicer processor & 4 G RAM & wifi Personal machine: $200 + $150 + $80 + $30 + $50 + $20 + $10 + $20 = $560 - Nicer processor & 4 G RAM & wifi
 +
 Business machine: $200 + $40 + $40 + $30 + $50 + $10 + $20 = $390 - Cheap processor & 2 G RAM & no wifi Business machine: $200 + $40 + $40 + $30 + $50 + $10 + $20 = $390 - Cheap processor & 2 G RAM & no wifi
  
-I rounded up because I didnt include shipping. The keyboards and monitors were recycled. We've been happy with this set up, hopefully it will be useful for someone :)+Which means that we met the budget of $500 (averaged together) 
 + 
 +I rounded up because I didnt include shipping. The keyboards and monitors were recycled. ​ 
 + 
 +We've been happy with this set up, hopefully it will be useful for someone :)
  
/home/ladyada/public_html/wiki/data/pages/adacomputer.txt · Last modified: 2016/01/28 18:05 (external edit)