Hi all,
Once upon a time I really didn't like writing code, however, having learnt a lot in the past couple of years I have fallen in love with Unix operating systems and their command line interfaces. I'd describe myself as a simple man and do not like the faff that comes along with Windows despite it being very good. The other half of the motivation for this project comes from the type of work I'm doing. I work on IoT networks, designing everything from the sensor to the LoRa protocol to the embedded Linux machine that sends it to a server. I use a lot of low level interfaces like UART, RS232, RS485 etc. I'd love to have these built straight into my laptop however I can't imagine Apple doing that any time soon! So, perhaps I could make a tool to help with my development? Instead of having my expensive laptop sitting in a workshop logging some data and sending to my server why not have a low power Linux machine that I can write the code on too?
I want something with lows of full sized ports!
Features:
- Ethernet (maybe two)
- RS485
- UART
- I2C
- GPIO
- USB
- Screen
- Trackpad
- Keyboard
- Perhaps an FPGA on board that can be programmed and interfaced by the processor, PCIe?
- Ultra long battery life, perhaps a week?
- Completely open source.
- Solid milled aluminium chassis. Idea for it to be kicked around a workshop and be fine.
- As upgrade able as possible.
- ARM based.
- Built in ADC? Could be used as a multimeter?
Personally I'd only be interested in the CLI however it would be silly to limit the scope of it. I hear you ask 'Why not just use a RPI?", well I want something portable and complete. I don't to carry a screen cables etc.
I'm thinking of using a module like this
https://www.solid-run.com/product/SRMX6QDWT1D02GE008V15C0/.
I would like to make this a collaborative project. Would anyone like to get involved?