Hello Everyone !
Me and some hobbyist friends of mine are trying to build (based on .NETMF) a box in which one would be able to stream audio flows directly from the Web (via WiFi).
We want first to prototype it with either a Netduino Go or a FEZ Cerberus (Gadgeteer) board in order to have the schematics and the layouts of our final production PCB.
So my first question is about the best board to do that. The FEZ board have pretty much the same characteristics as the Go, except for the Go!bus, right? but it is cheaper. For such a streaming application, would it be a problem (in terms of speed) not to use the Go!Bus ?
My second question concerns the WiFi module. We want to lower the cost of the box to minimum. So we thought we could use the native TCP/IP of the Go or the FEZ and add some Module that would only take care of the MAC issues of WiFi. Is that possible ? do you guys know any module that does that ?
I hope that the problem is clear ... If not, just let me know, I'll try to be more specific.
Thank you in advance for your answers, you're doing a great job in this forum.
Cheers, - Ismail
Cerberus Vs. Netduino Go
Started by izuino, Apr 19 2012 03:04 PM
3 replies to this topic
#2
Chris Walker
-
- Moderators
-
- 7767 posts
Secret Labs Staff
- LocationNew York, NY
Posted 20 April 2012 - 11:32 AM
Hi izuino,
I may be a bit biased. 
A few thoughts:
Netduino Go is running production NETMF 4.2 firmware. You can plug in any go!bus modules to add modules and features to the mainboard. Additionally, the board has an on-board power supply, USB ESD protection, and is premium quality.
The other board is running alpha/beta firmware, is limited to only working with a subset of Gadgeteer modules, and has no on-board power supply. Once you add a switching power supply and usb port, it's about $5 more expensive than Netduino Go. Last but not least, the Gadgeteer sockets are "derating sockets" so depending on what you plug in...you won't be able to use certain features of other sockets.
Neither board currently has a direct WiFi option available, although you'll be able to plug the upcoming Ethernet go!module into Netduino Go and use a WiFi bridge.
If you're looking to prototype something with Gadgeteer, I'd recommend looking at Sytech's Gadgeteer board (or the $150 board from the manufacturer you mentioned).
Also, I'd highly recommend taking a look at Netduino and Netduino Plus. The pluggable expansion system with Netduino Go is really nice (and it's blazing fast), but most folks prototyping electronics projects tend to go with the classic Netduino boards.
Welcome to the Netduino community,
Chris
A few thoughts:
Netduino Go is running production NETMF 4.2 firmware. You can plug in any go!bus modules to add modules and features to the mainboard. Additionally, the board has an on-board power supply, USB ESD protection, and is premium quality.
The other board is running alpha/beta firmware, is limited to only working with a subset of Gadgeteer modules, and has no on-board power supply. Once you add a switching power supply and usb port, it's about $5 more expensive than Netduino Go. Last but not least, the Gadgeteer sockets are "derating sockets" so depending on what you plug in...you won't be able to use certain features of other sockets.
Neither board currently has a direct WiFi option available, although you'll be able to plug the upcoming Ethernet go!module into Netduino Go and use a WiFi bridge.
If you're looking to prototype something with Gadgeteer, I'd recommend looking at Sytech's Gadgeteer board (or the $150 board from the manufacturer you mentioned).
Also, I'd highly recommend taking a look at Netduino and Netduino Plus. The pluggable expansion system with Netduino Go is really nice (and it's blazing fast), but most folks prototyping electronics projects tend to go with the classic Netduino boards.
Welcome to the Netduino community,
Chris
#3
izuino
-
- Members
-
- 3 posts
New Member
Posted 20 April 2012 - 04:14 PM
Thank you very much Chris, I appreciate your reactivity.
I couldn't find the board you referred in your post, was it this one : Link
The reason why I focused on the Go and the cerberus is their processor/memory. We want our processor to be able to handle a music stream from a Wifi interface and stream it to a Bluetooth one while keeping its cost as low as possible.
Also, since we are not experts in building PCB we wanted to take advantage of cheap open sourced hardware to design simply our own PCB based on the Netduino Go design and the components that we're planning to add to it.
I thought even though there are no Wifi Modules available for the Go, one could just use GPIOs to connect it to some module and take advantage of the TCP/IP stack of the /NETFM. Is that possible or am I just saying some nonsense ?
So to sum up, we want to design a PCB based on open source extendable boards (extendable = WiFi + Bluetooth + SD card). We want to use the cheapest modules possible (ex. Wifi modules are often Uber expensive => use NETFM TCP/IP to make it cheaper to produce) and we want it to be fast enough to support audio streaming.
Do you guys think the Netduino platform could help us do that?
(We don't care paying a lot for the prototyping platform, we care more about the final production costs of our fully functional PCB)
Thank you again for your assistance, I already ordered a bunch of Netduino GO, can't wait to start playing.
Best, - Ismail
I couldn't find the board you referred in your post, was it this one : Link
The reason why I focused on the Go and the cerberus is their processor/memory. We want our processor to be able to handle a music stream from a Wifi interface and stream it to a Bluetooth one while keeping its cost as low as possible.
Also, since we are not experts in building PCB we wanted to take advantage of cheap open sourced hardware to design simply our own PCB based on the Netduino Go design and the components that we're planning to add to it.
I thought even though there are no Wifi Modules available for the Go, one could just use GPIOs to connect it to some module and take advantage of the TCP/IP stack of the /NETFM. Is that possible or am I just saying some nonsense ?
So to sum up, we want to design a PCB based on open source extendable boards (extendable = WiFi + Bluetooth + SD card). We want to use the cheapest modules possible (ex. Wifi modules are often Uber expensive => use NETFM TCP/IP to make it cheaper to produce) and we want it to be fast enough to support audio streaming.
Do you guys think the Netduino platform could help us do that?
(We don't care paying a lot for the prototyping platform, we care more about the final production costs of our fully functional PCB)
Thank you again for your assistance, I already ordered a bunch of Netduino GO, can't wait to start playing.
Best, - Ismail
#4
Chris Walker
-
- Moderators
-
- 7767 posts
Secret Labs Staff
- LocationNew York, NY
Posted 20 April 2012 - 09:10 PM
Hi izuino,
Here's the Sytech mainboard I was thinking about. Parts of it may be open source as well...
If you want to build your own modules and use SPI and 2 GPIOs to drive an external custom-built module, you can certainly do that with Netduino Go. But you'd effectively be building part of your own networking stack for NETMF in C++, since all the "bottom layers" for WiFi aren't there by default.
If you're going to be doing audio streaming, you'll probably end up with some native code either way... That's the sort of thing that this MCU would be great at, coupled with some C++.
Chris
Here's the Sytech mainboard I was thinking about. Parts of it may be open source as well...
If you want to build your own modules and use SPI and 2 GPIOs to drive an external custom-built module, you can certainly do that with Netduino Go. But you'd effectively be building part of your own networking stack for NETMF in C++, since all the "bottom layers" for WiFi aren't there by default.
If you're going to be doing audio streaming, you'll probably end up with some native code either way... That's the sort of thing that this MCU would be great at, coupled with some C++.
Chris
0 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users
