7 replies to this topic

[OZ8ET]

I have knocked my head against the ceiling several times – therefore the question: Will we ever see a NetduinoPlus with the speed and space as Netduino Go? It would be a strong competitor to the GHI Panda II. Erik

[Chris Walker]

Hi Erik,

I have knocked my head against the ceiling several times – therefore the question:
Will we ever see a NetduinoPlus with the speed and space as Netduino Go?

Netduino Go is designed to be the premium offering in the Netduino line. With the new SD and Ethernet modules, you'll be able to run Netduino Plus apps with lots of extra codespace and RAM...and with a lot more IOs than Netduino Plus as well.

We've looked at several different chips as potential upgrades for the SAM7X used on Netduino Plus today. Faster microcontrollers take quite a bit more power and often cost more; combined with an Ethernet chip this scenario can suddenly start starving shields for power. We've done a lot of research and testing in this area, and will continue doing more.

The speed of the SAM7X on Netduino Plus works great for a ton of applications, but I'm sure we could find ways to use extra MHz if we could squeeze them into such a capable little board. Perhaps it makes sense to build a Netduino Plus "Plus" for $20 more?

It would be a strong competitor to the GHI Panda II.

With NETMF 4.2 support, more rich onboard features and capabilities, royalty-free open source design, and the premium quality that comes with all Netduino Hardware...the majority of users pick up a Netduino over the alternative today.

That said, we'll take what we learn from Netduino Go and--if we can get the cost down and not sacrifice quality or important capabilities like 5V tolerance or raise the price significantly--we look forward to crafting an upgraded traditional Netduino in the future. We've had a few users ask for this...and we're listening.

Thank you very much for your feedback,

Chris

P.S.

An important aside...if you want a 120MHz Netduino today, you can use one of the currently-shipping Shield Bases as a standalone NETMF board. You'd need to provide regulated power and use a USB serial adapter for debug...but the limited-edition units are NETMF boards in and of themselves.

[OZ8ET]

Thanks Chris. As I see the difference between NetduinoPlus and Netduino Go, Go is for experiments where Netduino Plus makes a great piggyback board for running applications. I have produced several ‘main boards’ where I use NetduinoPlus as a piggyback. I bought NetduinoPlus because it is ‘selfcontained’ with Ethernet. Go will never be a substitute for that. The idea of a NetduinoPlus Turbo is highly appreciated. Best regards Erik B.t.w – One of my products is a board with 20x4 LCD, 2 LEDs, 6 buttons, 2 relays and OneWire connector (RJ12). It fits in a nice 10cmx10cm box and is very useful for many applications. I have also made a shield with the same functions – here the 5 buttons are replaced with a 4-way multi switch.

[Chris Walker]

Hi Erik, The piggyback boards sound like a very nice (and compact) setup. I'll see what we can do to make a Netduino Plus "Plus" a reality Perhaps it's time to grow the family a bit more. Chris

[awaiK]

An upgraded netduino (more MHz, RAM and ROM) would be great. More RAM and ROM is also needed because .NET MF is growing.

[georgejh]

I like N+ as it is close to All-In-One and I definitely will like having more powerful one. Apart of higher MCU speed and RAM nice to have on-board things will be: - Speaker/Buzzer - WiFi - more USB ports - Infra red communications - TV / RGB / HDMI / LCD - whatever one is possible to fit - Temperature sensor - Light sensor - Other sensors - more GPIOs - SODIMM RAM slot - Stackable multi core N+s for when more processing power is required - Space shuttle remote control.... ops those ones been grounded so wait until be resumed, meanwhile implement International Space Station remote control and flight centre Board could be bigger and GPIOs can be added outside current ones. Downside of the board can be used too. So go for NetBeast+

[stotech]

I know it doesn't solve all of these "problems" but you should checkout Stefan's Bit Shift Shizzle.
I was worried that the Netduino plus was going to be not up to the task because of io limitations. I was worried i'd need to turn to shields, or Arduino's. I was even going to chain 2 together if I needed to. But then I discovered that multiplexing thread totally by accident. I think they should put on the main specs page that the Digital IO are expandable through shift registers. I wonder if people just leave after reading the IO and turn to other products? That's why I've posted that here in case people hadn't found shift registers yet. Stefan's Library makes it so simple too.

Grant

[OZ8ET]

Santa was here! Netduino Plus 2 is everything I asked for. Even with 4.2 and OneWire - cool! My project was to big for Netduino Plus and caused to much pain. - too litle Space for buffers for webserver - now solved. - lots of memory exceptions when using file-streams - now solved. - CW2's OneWire was fine, but used special firmware and no upgrade to 4.2 - solved with NP+ I got 2 new NP+ and love them. What to do with my 3 old NP?