Evaluating the NGo

Before I start, I'm evaluating the NGo for use in a product that I'm starting to prototype so this is going to be a fairly long post. I'm under some pressure to get this moving quickly and don't want to waste time using it if I won't be able to finish it in the time I have. I have played with the NGo and the shieldbase and have to say I'd really like to be able to use it. The questions I have are. 1. I see that the shieldbase now supports spi which is one of the things I needed; now all I really need still from the shieldbase is to be able to use more than one. Is it possible to get an idea of when it might be moved over? 2. Next is when are the SD and Ethernet modules expected to be available 3. The last thing worth of hardware is probably the biggest need which is the Hub. I see that it's supposed to be with GoBus 2.0? Somewhere I believe I saw that it's estimated at early next year? Is there any way to get one early maybe? (I'd be willing to help test it alongside building this) I also so in another thread someone asking about increased RAM and mention of making a higher end NGO mainboard if demand was there. I'd be willing to look into that as I might be pushing the limits of the mainboard for this project but that’s not as big of a priority for me at the moment. The other thing I would like to know isn’t about hardware. I see from the shieldbase update that basically what’s happening if I understand this correctly is when you run that project its putting a program on the board that takes with it the resources that are the flash files it needs to update the shieldbase. When you hit the button it then updates a shieldbase attached to port 5. In looking at it you can update it on any port by telling it which one it’s connected to? Will you be able to do something similar to update a module attached to the hub either by basically loading an app on the mainboard that flashes the hub that then flashes the module then after the modules are updated it then flashes the hub back with its firmware to run or will the hub just pass through whatever runs on the mainboard to flash the module. Is it also possible to automate updating the mainboard basically so you can have one program to loop over all the modules including those attached to the hubs and update them then all in some sequence that ends with all modules updated, the hubs updated and the mainboard updated. I understand that you can update program on the mainboard with MFDeployEngine but can you automate updating the firmware. Sorry for the long post. Hopefully I will be able to use the NGo for this. I look forward to any help I can get and thank you in advance!

Hi SoundWave,

What kind of product are you looking to build? Are you using Netduino Go for prototyping--or do you want to include it in your finished product?

1. I see that the shieldbase now supports spi which is one of the things I needed; now all I really need still from the shieldbase is to be able to use more than one. Is it possible to get an idea of when it might be moved over?

Our target date to complete the beta and enable up to 8 shield bases per mainboard is December.

2. Next is when are the SD and Ethernet modules expected to be available

We expect both of these to ship this quarter.

3. The last thing worth of hardware is probably the biggest need which is the Hub. I see that it's supposed to be with GoBus 2.0? Somewhere I believe I saw that it's estimated at early next year? Is there any way to get one early maybe? (I'd be willing to help test it alongside building this)

We'll start testing hub functionality using the wireless hub feature in Q1 (using 2+ Netduino Go mainboards with XBee modules). The physical hub hardware should be available in Q1/Q2 2013.

I also so in another thread someone asking about increased RAM and mention of making a higher end NGO mainboard if demand was there. I'd be willing to look into that as I might be pushing the limits of the mainboard for this project but that’s not as big of a priority for me at the moment.

The 384KB of flash and 100+KB of RAM have worked out to be plenty for the vast majority of projects. No announced plans for a higher-end Netduino Go at this time.

The other thing I would like to know isn’t about hardware. I see from the shieldbase update that basically what’s happening if I understand this correctly is when you run that project its putting a program on the board that takes with it the resources that are the flash files it needs to update the shieldbase. When you hit the button it then updates a shieldbase attached to port 5. In looking at it you can update it on any port by telling it which one it’s connected to?

Yes, that's correct. We'll be updating this to auto-detect modules in the future as well.

Will you be able to do something similar to update a module attached to the hub either by basically loading an app on the mainboard that flashes the hub that then flashes the module then after the modules are updated it then flashes the hub back with its firmware to run or will the hub just pass through whatever runs on the mainboard to flash the module.

We could definitely support something along these lines. There may be some limitations to this, but we intend to enable the simplest and most powerful re-flashing scenarios that we can support.

Is it also possible to automate updating the mainboard basically so you can have one program to loop over all the modules including those attached to the hubs and update them then all in some sequence that ends with all modules updated, the hubs updated and the mainboard updated.

That is one of our goals. We are doing some testing to see what we can support.

I understand that you can update program on the mainboard with MFDeployEngine but can you automate updating the firmware.

You can't necessarily update the mainboard firmware using MFDeployEngine, but you can script ST's tools as well.

If you'd like more details on any of the above, just let me know! Thanks for the great questions

Chris

Thanks for the quick reply! I don't really want to at this time divulge what the product is but I would like to use it in both prototype and production but while most of the time frame for those modules is easy for me to work with the one that isn't is the hub. I need to be able to support at a minimum of about 14 modules preferably up to about 25 but that's a later deal. My time frame is to have it running by the end of the year. Not necessarily with everything but still would need more than 8 modules running at a time to make sure it's even possible. I believe that the mainboard is powerful enough for what I need but running what I will be I'll probably get towards the upper end. I'm glad to hear that it should be possible to automate an entire update. So in total it sounds to me like everything I need is doable and within reach except the hub, the only other way I thought about doing it was just making my own communication between 2 mainboards but that's not really my ideal solution. I wish I knew a enough about the hardware to effectively make my own hub as the programming end what I don't know I'll figure out extremely quickly.

Actually, somewhere I saw that the hub is basically a main board but with a gobus port instead of USB and also a power jack. Has the hardware for the hub been layer out yet? If so is it possible to get the design to get a board or 2 made and I can make what features I need to support this until the official hub comes out? Then just use the main board to reflash it (assuming the hardware is still the same). I'd be willing to help in whatever way I can in developing the hub.