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Your analysis is spot-on. Look at http://www.seetron.com./ They look like hobbyist boards, and they're priced at hobbyist prices. BUT they make a lot more money on the OEM market where presumably they get a discount, but it's not a big discount because the one-off price has a very low margin.

Okay, so they're shipping this eval board in a basically usable condition, but without a case. The lack of a case means that they won't be competing with any of their customers. So they really *could* charge a reasonable price even if it's only a break-even price, and count on the early adopters to drive the product into the hands of OEM makers who will put it into a case, get the volumes up and the cost down.

Basically, yeah, somebody needs to give the eink.com folks a swift kick in the butt. Anybody know somebody at TOPPAN Printing Co (a Japanese company?). They're eink's largest investor.
-russ

If I'm not mistaken I believe that Scott Edwards is one of the most prominent of the latest generation of robotics pioneers. His SSC and other projects have (in my opinion) helped to shape the aftermarket/hobbyist robotics industry.

I wanted to give him due propers for his project back in 1996, but I never really had an opportunity (I was too busy studying women and beer at FSU at the time).

While they may not be the ideal thing you are looking for, maybe they can help: LCD modules. A number of places sell them:

Matrix Orbital and CrystalFontz both sell serial capable LCD modules in a variety of formats. I didn't see any true graphic modules, but they may be able to get them. Most all have the capability to be backlit (and the backlights are BRIGHT) - note to those making custom PCs: They both sell drive bay insert kits for the LCDs, too...

Scott Edward's Electronics sells small serial graphic LCD displays, and also sells text only VFD displays (VFDs are vacuum flourescent displays - extremely bright). He sells one bay enclosure for one of the VFDs. His largest serial LCD graphic display is 128x64 pixels, backlit, and measures 88 x 38.8 mm.

Finally, Micro Electronics (MEC) sells a variety of LCDs - ma ny are HD44780-based, or compatible, so they are easy to wire up. However, they seem to have a line of graphics modules as well - I don't know if they are bare or have controllers, but the largest (SG320240B) has a resolution of 320x240 (viewable area of 120 x 90 mm). Unfortunately their pages seem to be having problems or something - call them up though, and talk to them. They have a very friendly and helpful staff.

Another option you might try looking into would be small TVs, driving them with a VGA->TV converter. A good converter will give nice results (I have an Averkey iMicro that is excellent and cheap - $100), even on a cheesy small TV. For simple status displays, it might work out well.

Hope this helps somewhat...

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

I've been looking into embedding a few things and came across the Lantronix embeddable CoBox Micro device server. See the big picture. That nifty little gizmo redirects ethernet traffic to a serial port.

Now if you happen to have a Scenix PLC with the TCP/IP stack software (a free download) for it, you can bolt the serial UART to the back of the ethernet port and you now have a package that talks true TCP/IP and can serve web pages or send e-mail right through your ethernet network.

Last time I looked, the Scenix kit was about $150 (programmer, software, cables, power supply...) from Parallax, Inc. and the CoBox was about $200 in single unit quantities. Figure $8 for a Scenix PLC (chip only) and about $20 worth of green board from the Shack and you've spent less than $250 for an embedded system.

Going hog wild, you can pick up a LCD+keypad from Scott Edwards Electronics for $120, and a keypad from Parallax for $20, and you're up to $400.

Can your front door serve a web page that tells you who and when came through the door? Mine can!

Just playing... ;-)

I've been looking into embedding a few things and came across the Lantronix embeddable CoBox Micro device server. See the big picture. That nifty little gizmo redirects ethernet traffic to a serial port.

Now if you happen to have a Scenix PLC with the TCP/IP stack software (a free download) for it, you can bolt the serial UART to the back of the ethernet port and you now have a package that talks true TCP/IP and can serve web pages or send e-mail right through your ethernet network.

Last time I looked, the Scenix kit was about $150 (programmer, software, cables, power supply...) from Parallax, Inc. and the CoBox was about $200 in single unit quantities. Figure $8 for a Scenix PLC (chip only) and about $20 worth of green board from the Shack and you've spent less than $250 for an embedded system.

Going hog wild, you can pick up a LCD+keypad from Scott Edwards Electronics for $120, and a keypad from Parallax for $20, and you're up to $400.

Can your front door serve a web page that tells you who and when came through the door? Mine can!

Just playing... ;-)

• Rig up two hobby servo motors so they control rotation and elevation of a Phantom Menace Obi-Wan toy wielding a light saber.
• Control them with a RS-232 servo motor controller.
• Modify xeyes so that it spits out (on stdout) the byte sequences necessary to control the servos.
• Use stty to set the baud rate on the correct /dev/ttyS*, and redirect xeyes >/dev/ttyS*.

If you want an interface plus LCD display, 16char by 2line units start at US$45. Graphical displays are also available. Oh, and these are, of course, low-power.

This LCD interface issue favors TINI, unless size is a constraint, as TINI (US$50) plus an LCD interface/display (say, US$60), is still much cheaper than a similar uCsimm solution. Only if size is a constraint, is uCsimm possibly a better solution. Still, TINI plus other interfaces is quite small.

Also, the above web site is having a fire sale on some old 2x20 LCD displays w/serial interface. While supplies last, they're US$29.