Intel Edison

[Kjelt]

Also I measured it's draw at 280mA (1 ish watt @ nominal cell voltage)

Since it is named after Thomas Edison, does it at least glow in the dark? 

[johnnyfp]

No leds on it. So no.

[Kjelt]

I meant the processor, for 1W you could at least expect some glow 

[johnnyfp]

Well it keeps my cup of tea warm. Does that count?

[Kjelt]

Well it keeps my cup of tea warm. Does that count?

Certainly, it's the best application for this chip I heard so far you should write an application note 

[johnnyfp]

An234: Edison application note

Power up the edison by pluging into the simple edison breakout board and supplying 3.5v to vsys
Wait for the edison to boot.
Place cup of tea on top to keep warm.
If you require extra heat, enable wifi and bluetooth, they are .1ghz shy of a microwave oven.

As always don't try this at home.

[Rigby]

I have a couple of Edisons, a Galileo v1, a Sharks Cove board, and a Minnowboard MAX on order.  I have tons of ARM stuff and tons of FPGAs and Raspberry Pis and BeagleBone Black's in piles falling over all the time.

True, the Intel hardware is lacking a certain "je ne sais quoi" that more popular boards have.  I think there could be a place for them, though.  There are lots of places that use embedded platforms running Windows CE or Linux on x86 hardware that could use this stuff pretty readily.  I don't know the entire scope of the hobbyist community, and after using it a while I can say that it isn't of much use to me as it is now.

Who cares if can run native x86, there is no IDE yet and no documentation, or object base to build from. 

By default, the Galileo and the Edison run Linux, and there are lots of software chains and IDEs in existence for that.  They're x86 processors (though in the case of the Quark, with a limited instruction set) so the normal compilers should do the trick in terms of creating binaries.  The Arduino IDE can create binaries for it also, of course. 

In fact, Intel has a pretty good list of downloads for all this stuff, so saying that none of this exists for the Edison is Just Plain Wrong.  I'm not saying that the Edison is great hardware by any means, but the tools and resources are available.

[TunerSandwich]

That's not the case Rigby.  The on die quark is so far "disabled".  If I am going to compile in Arduino IDE....then why would I need this SoC?  I would use an Arduino.  Also it runs a beat down Yocto Linux kernel, which is beyond me.  Why not Fedora, or something a little more developed? 

NONE of the downloads are ported to run on the Edison.  Which is why I made the comment of "why do I have to reinvent the wheel". (The SDK is basically Eclipse....which is just the wrong tool for this hardware).

Also If they want the hobby market, most of those end users, aren't going to know what to do with this thing.  As a professional I know what to do with it, but why would I spend my development time to re-invent the wheel, on a crippled piece of hardware?  If I am going to spend that kind of time, I would rather use something with some real throughput and no interrupts.

The resources aren't there.  If they would give entry level users a .NET/VB micro framework, then they could do something out of the box.  Rather than spending a month learning how to compile industry standard tools, into a non industry standard SoC.

This product simply makes no sense, in any market.  Hopefully it matures into something, BUT that's too little too late.  I can grab a Rubix-A10 mate it to an Arduino and immediately build and implement a usable device in an afternoon.  Again the Edison just doesn't have a market.

As you said it isn't of much use as is.  There are lots of options out there that ARE useful TODAY. 

Intel pushed this out far too early, and it's lack of on board GPU makes it a bit "broken" compared to it's competition.  Also there is the horrendous idle power draw, which no software is going to fix.  It's just a bad move all around.

I will hang onto a few of them and see where they go....but that's just for fun and academic purposes.  Intels claims for the device are "reduce your development time to market".  They are targeting start-up developers, and the device simply doesn't deliver, coincidental to it's marketing hype.....

[TunerSandwich]

The comment about  "a race horse with high heels on" was a good chuckle.

I think the better analogy is a cheap hooker, with high heels on.....it makes her a tad bit more attractive, but when you remove the heels.....you realize what you got stuck with. 

Now here is a product (see link), that entry level users, and professionals can actually use, on day one....to "MAKE" something.  Granted it's once again not a real professional end of line solution, but I can make it blink, without having to sift through Intels mind numbing (and horribly organized) "support" pages.  Which are full on conflicting information and lack the actual specifications professionals need.  By the way the Edison dev board is EXTREMELY picky about what type of USB (micro) cable/connector you use to flash "firmware".  Try 2 hours of re-compiling and debugging just to realize Intels USB connector is shit...

For example, the new core M SoC's already have a 750 page specification document, and they aren't even available yet.  Also I can get a socket and pop one in and go to town breaking things, immediately.  The way it should be...

Either way here is a product that fills the niche' that Edison promised to fill.....and it actually works, but sadly won't warm my cup of tea (can't have it all I suppose)

http://smartrubix.com/rubix-specifications/

[TunerSandwich]

Here were some bits and bobs that were supposed to make the Edison into a nice little Precision PSU/DC/POL.  Little bit of PMbus going back out to the network for control and data-logging. 

The Rubix A-10 is next to the Edison Dev board (with an Arduino UNO clone under it).  Just to get an Idea of size etc.....

That DC CV PoL was up and running in a few hours on the Rubix......and never was on the Edison (lazy!!!!) 



P.S. the seebeck is in there as a bit of a joke.....I figured why not mount it on top of the Edison and grab some of that watt back and make something "glow"

[andy_shev]

That's not the case Rigby.  The on die quark is so far "disabled".  If I am going to compile in Arduino IDE....then why would I need this SoC?  I would use an Arduino.  Also it runs a beat down Yocto Linux kernel, which is beyond me.  Why not Fedora, or something a little more developed? 

You might be interested in https://edison.internet-share.com/w/index.php?title=Using_a_vanilla_Linux_kernel_with_Intel_Edison&redirect=no