Excitement

The Fit-PC has arrived. I have most of the things I need to start my project.

I had been planning to make my own IR transmitter / reciever since it's not a complex piece of kit, but I've now decided there are enough unknowns in the project for me already. I've struggled a little to find something that will suit, but Iguanaworks seem to have both a RS232 and USB version of an IR transciever that should do the job. It's been ordered today on express delivery from the U.S. I hope it won't take too long to arrive.

Arrivals

The things I ordered have started arriving.

A New Hope

The first step was taken today. I ordered a Fit-pc 2, discless, but with WiFi. This will be my development platform and testbed unit for the development. I eventually chose this device as it's very small, has low power consumption and a low powered Intel Atom processor but has HDMI video output and lots of USB ports, as well as integrated WiFi. This project doesn't need a meaty processor, so it seemed like a good bet, but the HDMI means that I can hopefully use if for other things when the project is over.

I also ordered some sundaries like a keyboard and some USB memory sticks to transfer software around. I also have a solid state 2Gb disc on order, so no need for a hard disc.

I'm intending to run Puppy Linux on the device and develop my own software for it.

The ELMO Project

This is a personal project which aims to create a useful appliance for the home. I have been contemplating this project for around 6 months now and have a number of phases in mind which may, or may not, result in a commercial application of the technology. I aim to bring together a number of different technologies, platforms and software systems to produce an overall solution and possible product.

The first phase requires a low-cost PC platform with a simple development environment and support for communication protocols. I have little experience with Linux and so this will be a learning curve for me. I want to write something which can respond to external stimuli and intend to start with infra-red, so LIRC will be a useful tool.

Other phases of the project will encompass other hardware and software platforms and possibly even hardware development, if it ever gets that far.