Computing stuff tied to the physical world

One of the JeeHubs?

In Hardware on Jan 15, 2010 at 00:01

Just got this thing in:

DSC_0936.jpg

It’s a SheevaPlug with 512 Mb RAM, 512 Mb flash, Gb ethernet, and a USB host port.

As you can see, I plugged a JeeLink into it, along with a 2 Gb memory card.

This is just one of several configurations I am going to look into. One of the design criteria for the server side is that it needs to be portable to a fairly wide range of hardware, from desktop PC’s, to some really small embedded Linux boards. This SheevaPlug sits somewhere in between, with a lot more oomph than needed just for JeeMon, yet an idle consumptions of only a few watts.

Haven’t turned it on, let alone adapted the JeeMon software for it, but that’s only a matter of time.

Time? Man, that’s such a scarce resource around here!

  1. Where do you obtain a SheevaPlug? This is the first I’ve heard of pluggable computing.

  2. I think pluggable computing would be more apt if it used powerline networking for its network connection. You plug it in and get power and a network connection.

    Anyway this is what I imagined you would do with the Jeelink given time.

    One thing I was thinking of recently was what the very simplest and most basic configuration of a wireless logger would look like. I thought perhaps if the Jeelink could run as a HID device it could send its data as a keyboard. You open up a text editor, plug the jeelink in and log.

    Time is definately a scarce resource.

  3. WOW, impressive nifty gadget!

  4. How about wiring the RFM12 directly to some GPIO pins in the SheevaPlug and calling the result a “JeevaPlug”? ;)

  5. Hi, I’ve got mine (2 SheevaPlugs up to now) from NewIT in the UK (you should be able to find them via big G); ~4 days from UK to DE, and the even have now the black one with eSATA onboard ;)

    HTH. (Yes, I’m thrilled by these thingies. My home automation Plug-setup runs at 12W (according to Plugwise), including SheevaPlug, 1 powered USB hub, bus-powerd old 2,5″ HDD, 2 additional Hubs and 5 other USB devices. I replaces an Celeron 600 which was above 20W …)

    • Sounds pretty good. Just for the fun of it, I’d love to try creating a configuration which only uses 2..3 watt permanently, turning the rest on/off as needed. At some point it’ll become futile though, since all the power on/off switches draw current as well…

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