Reply by Harald Kipp September 7, 20052005-09-07
David Kelly wrote:
> > Ethernut and kin present a license problem. Decided it would require a > non-trivial effort to sort out the parts infected with GPL to ensure my > finished product hand none. Its perfectly fine to build with GPL tools > or link LGPL code, but not GPL code.
We take every effort to keep the code conformant to BSD licence or at least to LGPL. In fact, the origin of Nut/OS had been Liquorice (by Dave Hudson, available at SourceForge), which got LGPL. Every code we wrote had been published under BSDL. Some parts had been taken from BSD itself or from public domain code (good ol' TCP/IP days). Nut/OS links to platform libraries like avrlib-c, which are either LGPL or BSDL. Some of the tools, like the wxWidget based Configurator, are indeed GPLed and I recently decided to publish other tools under the same licence. None of these will be required in the final system. Nut/OS is used in a number of commercial products, a few of them are listed at http://www.ethernut.de/en/community/appliances.html But in general you're right. One should carefully check the licence requirements before using Open Source for embedded systems. Harald
Reply by Frank-Christian Kruegel September 7, 20052005-09-07
On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:51:19 GMT, Randall Nortman
<usenet8189@wonderclown.com> wrote:

>> Try this: >> >> http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=eZ80F910200ZCO >> >> with this microcontroller: >> >> http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=eZ80F91 >> >> Development is very easy - the developer kit (99$) comes with everything you >> need - including JTAG/ZDS debugger, IDE with compiler/assembler and RTOS >> with TCP/IP, HTTP/SMTP/FTP/SNMP/... The controller is about 12$ and gives >> you Fast Ethernet. > >I'm guessing that IDE is Windows-only? I prefer to do my development >on Linux, though if everything else about the chip turns out to be >perfect, I could accept working on Windows.
Yes, its Windows.
>Any license fees for the >RTOS and TCP/IP stack?
No. It's all included in the 99$ for the DevKit. Mit freundlichen Gr&#4294967295;&#4294967295;en Frank-Christian Kr&#4294967295;gel
Reply by Randall Nortman September 7, 20052005-09-07
On 2005-09-03, Richard <nospam@thanks.com> wrote:
> >> Thanks very much for any advice. Recommendations of options I haven't >> considered would be welcome as well. >> Randall > > > Hi Randall, > > Sorry for a rather rushed reply. There are the new AT91SAM7X devices from > Atmel as a low cost ARM solution. These have an inbuilt MAC peripheral. > > I have recently got FreeRTOS.org running with both uIP / IAR and lwIP / GCC. > Take a look at: > http://www.FreeRTOS.org/portsam7xiar.html and > http://www.FreeRTOS.org/portsam7xlwIP.html > > (these are direct links so you will not see the menu frame). > > There are drivers for the MAC and demo WEB server applications to get you > started. Maybe of interest?
Yes, this looks good -- both the AT91SAM7X line and FreeRTOS. The problem is, I can't find the SAM7X line anywhere, and Atmel's website says the product status is "sampling". How/where did you get you get your hands on it? Thanks, -- Randall
Reply by Randall Nortman September 6, 20052005-09-06
On 2005-09-03, Frank-Christian Kruegel <dontmailme@news.invalid> wrote:
> On Fri, 02 Sep 2005 16:18:28 GMT, Randall Nortman ><usenet8189@wonderclown.com> wrote: > >>Thanks very much for any advice. Recommendations of options I haven't >>considered would be welcome as well. > > Try this: > > http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=eZ80F910200ZCO > > with this microcontroller: > > http://www.zilog.com/products/partdetails.asp?id=eZ80F91 > > Development is very easy - the developer kit (99$) comes with everything you > need - including JTAG/ZDS debugger, IDE with compiler/assembler and RTOS > with TCP/IP, HTTP/SMTP/FTP/SNMP/... The controller is about 12$ and gives > you Fast Ethernet.
I'm guessing that IDE is Windows-only? I prefer to do my development on Linux, though if everything else about the chip turns out to be perfect, I could accept working on Windows. Any license fees for the RTOS and TCP/IP stack? Thanks for the recommendation. -- Randall
Reply by Randall Nortman September 6, 20052005-09-06
On 2005-09-03, Repzak <repzak@GEDhotmail.com> wrote:
> >> In article <4318b600$0$18639$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>, >> "Repzak" <repzak@GEDhotmail.com> wrote: >> >>> check freescales NE64 micro controler with lan interface..
[...]
> I am using Uip on my NE64 and have my homepage on a MMC card... > There is not added write support, but the configuration of the server is > placed in a file on the mmc card s&#4294967295; IP adress etc can be changed without > changeing firmware :)
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm digging into it, but I haven't done anything with Motorola MCUs for a decade or so, so I'm not sure what's out there these days. I don't see the NE64 (or HCS12) listed as one of the uIP ports -- did you port it youself? What free compilers are available for HCS12 anyway? gcc by any chance? -- Randall
Reply by Randall Nortman September 6, 20052005-09-06
On 2005-09-03, Richard H. <rh86@no.spam> wrote:
> Randall Nortman wrote: >> I need to produce an Ethernet-capable embedded device (including >> TCP/IP stack) for about $50 in low quantities (think perhaps qty 100). > > Check out http://www.protoexpress.com for 4-layer ($122 for 2 proto > boards, and they get good feedback from folks that should know).
I've been using http://www.pcbfabexpress.com/ for low-volume prototypes, which is where my $13 quote comes from (that's 2-layer, qty 5, 5-day turn -- a pretty good deal IMO). Once it's time to do a higher-volume run, I may look elsewhere.
> Does the packaging (enclosure, etc.) need to come out of your $50 > budget? How about assembly?
Well, yes and no. For the initial low-quantity run, I can consider all those costs outside of the $50. (Assembly will, most likely, be me with a decent soldering iron and a steady hand, so I need to stay away from BGA chips.)
> Check out the Lantronix XPort and Digi ME. Expensive, but nearly > turnkey. If you can tailor their code to drive your other components, > you may not need much else. > http://www.digi.com/products/embeddedmodules/digiconnectme.jsp > http://www.lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/xport.html
I came across both of these, but the digi module seems to require a proprietary development environment. I saw something about a Linux port, but this also seems to be semi-proprietary. Freely-available information was scarce and buried inside mounds of marketing hogwash, so I could be mistaken. Do you have any idea what it takes to actually write code for this thing? The Xport seems, from what I can tell, to essentially be a TCP-to-serial convertor, so that I could essentially just make use of a single TCP port to talk to my MCU. Is that right? I think I'd rather have the flexibility to be able to have multiple ports to access different functions of the device, although I might be able to get by with basic serial access and a more complicated application-level protocol to access different functions. -- Randall
Reply by Richard H. September 3, 20052005-09-03
Kelly Hall wrote:

> Over via power over the Ethernet cable itself (PoE).
PoE's definitely the direction things are headed for remote devices. The project I mentioned isn't statically installed, so we can't depend on PoE being available. But that won't keep us from experimenting with it, and probably adding it anyway. :-) Richard
Reply by Kelly Hall September 3, 20052005-09-03
Richard H. wrote:
> Mais oui. I've got one oddball project that's trying to run on battery, > but that's not the norm. You're right - most folks wouldn't care.
Over via power over the Ethernet cable itself (PoE). Kelly
Reply by Richard H. September 3, 20052005-09-03
larwe wrote:
>>As for Microchip's upcoming Ethernet controller, take a look in this >>newsgroup for posts at the time of their announcement. One of the very >>telling facts was the power consumption, which seems to be way out of line. > > ... but wired Ethernet devices must generally be mains-powered, > n'est-ce pas?
Mais oui. I've got one oddball project that's trying to run on battery, but that's not the norm. You're right - most folks wouldn't care. Richard
Reply by Richard H. September 3, 20052005-09-03
David Kelly wrote:
> "Richard H." <rh86@no.spam> wrote: >>Perhaps you know... can you actually buy the tiny PCB they use in the >>marketing photos? Thats about all I need for one project, but according >>to TI it doesn't actually exist as a product / demo board. > You purchase Freescale parts thru Texas Instruments? :-)
Gaack! *No wonder* TI doesn't have them in stock! :-) ROFL! Thinking one thing, typing another...
> Read the NE64 specs closer. The stated requirement is 300 mA at 3.3 > volts. The 80 pin part has a big copper pad on the bottom which requires > contact with the PCB for heat dissipation. The requirement is 300 mA, > which doesn't mean to say it draws that all the time. > > Appears one can lessen the heat within the part by providing both 3.3 > and 2.5 volt sources rather than use the internal 2.5 volt regulator for > the ethernet.
Interesting, thanks. Richard