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Rabbit Semiconductor makes a nifty Camera Application Kit. But at $500 you may want to try hacking a commercial unit. The nice thing about this one is that it has pan, tilt, and all the software comes with the kit along with a compiler and other tools needed to customize it. Yes, I'm affiliated with them, no I don't make any money from this shameless plug.

-Adam

Rabbit's done all sorts of insane juju with with the old Z8 core. Its a rather impressive little micro. I'd wager they're not the most power efficient in the world, but thats just a guess.

I seem to remember their dev kits beeing a whole helluva lot cheaper. And I also seem to recall every kit coming with a TCP/IP stack. The wonders of "mature" technologies & companies I guess.

Myren

Microcontrollers:

• http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/ Rabbit
• http://www.basicmicro.com/ PICs
• http://www.ibutton.com/TINI/hardware/index.html TINI

I have been looking at the different controllers from Zilog and Rabbit Semiconductor.

Rabbit is a spinoff from Zilog, I believe. If you take a look at the sites, they each have some interesting Microcontroller solutions.

Has anybody overclocked a Z-80?

I've not looked at a z80 since then but a quick Google search finds that the instruction set has not faded away, here are just two offerings claimed to be Z80 compatable.
http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com/products/Microp rocessors/
http://www.ab-semicon.com/datasheets/181e-20.pdf

I've not tried tandooring a haggis yet, you've given me ideas.

When you can use something like this. Write the whole thing in C (not quite standard) or buy the realtime OS for it. Then you'd have only what you need and no other stuff that is a possible exploit.

Not exactly a single chip but a Rabbit core module is what you want. They are $59 in qty of 1 or $34 in qty of 1000. For about $250 you get everything you need to get started including: a C compiler, an open source TCP/IP stack, protoboard, and programming cable. Check out my on-line Etch-A-Sketch I made using one

I haven't seen any single-chip solutions yet... that's probably because the magnetics already add some parts, and probably also because the high-speed digital processor and the relatively noisy ethernet connection process technologies don't coexist.

You may want to check out Rabbit Semiconductor's core modules. There's also the xport, that, while small, has got limited I/O.

They have core modules that are:

• a lot smaller
• with a faster clock
• more memory
• and built in ethernet with a royalty free TCP/IP stack

I will make you one cheap(about $100) And as a side benefit you can control an Etch-A-Sketch with it. But seriously the Rabbit semiconductor core modules are very cool. For $40 you get an ethernet port with a free (beer not speech) TCP/IP stack, 4 serial ports and 8 general purpose I/O's

For a real useless internet embedded device check out my internet enabled Etch-A-Sketch. But seriously, how do these people plan to get coneected to the internet? If you want to use Ethernet to connect something to the internet the RCM 2200 is a great starting point

I wonder if the device has a Rabbit microprocessor in it? Many drives do use Z80 compatible processors (eg Toshiba) - but on the other hand, perhaps the name is unrelated.

Here is the cheapest and easiest to use ethernet enabled micro. $49 qty (1)gets you 256k flash program memory, 128k ram and 22Mhz clock speed. You could plug this into an 802.11 base station. Go here to control an Etch-A-Sketch that is on the web using one of these.

Heh... It is a matter of scale. My company sells a faster 8-bit processor that has a similar instruction set to the Z80 (well the Z180) with a C programming environment and a TCP/IP stack.

Why spend $400 on a PC and take up a couple of cubic feet to do something that $50 and a couple cubic inches could do just as well?

Believe it or not, they are used for CPU design. The folks at ZWorld designed their Rabbit CPU architecture using FPGAs and then created the chip from that design (vs the usual prototyping on silicon over and over). Its not uncommon. Now using FPGAs in realworld 32-bit CPU scenarios for Windows is another thing :)

I've been looking at two toys : 1) An Ericsson R380s or R380e mobile phone that runs the Psion OS.
2) A microcontroller with ethernet. No it won't run linux. (It's supposed to be small). But it's dead cheap. Developer kit is here and a single module is here . Documentation and stuff is all online.
I have neither of these but they seem to be fun.

I've been looking at two toys : 1) An Ericsson R380s or R380e mobile phone that runs the Psion OS.
2) A microcontroller with ethernet. No it won't run linux. (It's supposed to be small). But it's dead cheap. Developer kit is here and a single module is here . Documentation and stuff is all online.
I have neither of these but they seem to be fun.

Cheap, small, low power microcontrollers with ethernet jacks are coming out that will put many things on the web The Rabbit semiconductor RCM 2100 is one example. Check out this motorized Etch-A-Sketch The $50 (qty 1) board is serving the web page and controlling the stepper motors

Never say never when Micro$oft is concerned. I've been involved in the Home Automation industry and the established vendors got real nervous when Micro$oft started getting the biggest booth they could at HA shows. But all they really seemed to demo was home networking. Home Automation is more about centralized control of the systems in your house. Climate control, A/V, security, etc. For years it has been heavily run by embedded systems using RTOS setups. There are also systems that run on PCs, but they often lack easy to find and use I/O (Digital, Analog, RS-485, etc) Its out there but not for mainstream stuff. Right now, one of the more popular PC based setups is Mr House which is perl based.

So yes, Microsoft really thinks this is an area they can dominate. Yes, some of the high dollar systems (think 10-20% of the cost of your new home) run windows. But for 'everyday' Home Automation, embedded setups are king. Linux is just starting to get buzz for the next generation stuff, but primarily, Home Automation is run on 8-bit systems from PIC microcontrollers up to high end embedded CPUs. The reason? Cost. When you can buy a small system for Considering you can get complete RTOS systems like uC-OS/II (Rabbit C) or Java (Dallas TINI) with a compiler with built in Internet libraries for HTTP, FTP, SMTP, etc, etc including servers for $300, its hard to justify paying royalties for anythign Micro$oft might come out with. Especially when the actual HW cores can be had for $30-$100 including ethernet!

I'm a-fixin' to buy me a couple to control some analog video switch gear. I love Linux, but I'm a cheap bastard, too.

*f*

I'm a-fixin' to buy me a couple to control some analog video switch gear. I love Linux, but I'm a cheap bastard, too.

*f*

I'm a-fixin' to buy me a couple to control some analog video switch gear. I love Linux, but I'm a cheap bastard, too.

*f*

You can get a real Z80 (in fact its a modified Z180) development kit including C compiler, debugging tools and tons of standard IO for 140$, a kit with ethernet and a full TCP/IP library for 200$. A standalone module comes to $40.

• http://www.rabbitsemiconductor.com

• 22 Mhz core speed
• modified Z180 with floating point number support
• 256 KB of Flash Rom
• 256 KB of RAM
• 2 serials
• 4x8 gerneal purpose IOs
• C compiler including source level debugger
• development board
• 7 timers