6 replies to this topic

[HCN]

Howdy,



Can netduino handle this and a SD Card Shield?

[Chris Walker]

In theory, yes...but we'd need more specs to know. Also, you can get the Arduino Ethernet shield with SD onboard if you don't need PoE. Finally, drivers... 1. You'd need to grab drivers (unless it's just a serial port) for the cellular shield 2. The drivers for the Wiznet shield are currently experimental. Chris

[HCN]

Hey Chris, thanks for the reply. PoE is not necessary, I just thought it was cool... The idea is to build a device that can accept coins, sort them and print a little receipt (yes, I forgot to mention that Netduino would also need to communicate with a simple thermal printer, probably another RS232 device). Do you need the specs of the devices or details about the project?

[Chris Walker]

The specs of the devices (components)... You can certainly do this sort of thing with Netduino (and even easier with Netduino Plus). The questions will be in the details of which pins each part uses, what communication protocols, what voltage, etc. BTW, welcome to the Netduino community! Chris

[HCN]

Thanks Chris, I hope to contribute to the community somehow after I learn how to handle things with Netduino! As for the specs of the devices, I really don't know. Those images are just an example, what I did was google "arduino shields" and get the images of the shields that would do what I need. I don't really know if these shields I picked will work together or work at all with the Netduino, and to be honest I was hoping to get some advice on which shields to get and that sort of thing. What I need from the Netduino is: - communicate (not simultaneously) with 3 RS232 devices: coin sorter, coins acceptor and thermal printer. These devices will have their own power source, I just need to send/receive data to/from them. - have ethernet connectivity to display a simple web page and accept simple commands - have cellular connectivity to send, from time to time, statistics about the device usage to a pre-configured address - be able to display the number of coins sorted and the total value to the user on a lcd screen - be able to handle 3 buttons so the user can turn on/off and reset the device - operate using a battery so in case of power loss the device can stay on while the power returns or if it takes to long,save what it has to save and shut down nicely. Any help would be appreciated!

[Chris Walker]

Netduino has 2 UARTs (serial ports). You can add more via SPI--but you'd need to create a driver. Ethernet can either be accomplished with the experimental Wiznet drivers or with the Netduino Plus. SD can be accomplished via the v4.1.1 alpha firmware (or the Netduino Plus). For cellular connectivity, take a look at some of the Arduino cellular shields. There may be one that can communicate via SPI or I2C... The pushbuttons and LCD shouldn't be too difficult. There are some drivers here for accomplishing something along those lines. For batteries, you just need to supply power from batteries to the appropriate terminal. It might be best to break down each piece--and then see what suggestions come from the community... Sounds like a fun project! Chris

[TechIsCool]

So why the Cell shield? if you already have Ethernet at the location what is the point of having a cellular shield on the device you could pass all sms messages via e-mail using EHLO to an smtp server and send an email to your inbound cell providers network http://www.makeuseof...g/email-to-sms/ eliminating the price of shield and price of sim plus what ever the monthly fee's would be.