[TriEmbed] Low cost OpenWRT

[Jon Wolfe]

If Seeed ever picks them up, I can get some, I have a distributor agreement with them. In the meantime, I can inquire with Ralink about distributor opportunities. I'm hesitant to deal with Chinese firms without an established US presence, just because it's inherently risky and I have limited resources to address problems or absorb loss.  Seeed makes it a lot easier, but even as a distributor, I have a hard time beating their prices, my main advantage is faster ship times (especially for RTP locals! :) ).




________________________________
 From: Bill Farrow <bill at arrowsreach.com>
To: TriEmbed Discussion <TriEmbed at triembed.org> 
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2014 10:49 AM
Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] Low cost OpenWRT
 

Hey Chao,
Thanks for the offer. As a Chinese native, living in the US, and with
interest in embedded engineering - your future is bright !

I'm conflicted. The RT5350F is really interesting given it's low cost
and easy way to run Linux & OpenWRT. I can see a great short term
consumer & maker market for the RT5350F for home automation and
Internet of Things projects.

The major downside is the lack of a US distributor where I can get
datasheets, support, and a supply of parts. I'm guessing that there
are some legal hurdles here.

If I was to buy pre-built RT5350F modules, the Chinese websites that
sell them don't make it easy to find out the technical details. For
example the photos of the modules on DX.com only have 16MB RAM, making
them too limited for my OpenWRT applications.

The VoCore project is a great idea, I only hope that Seeed, SparkFun,
or some other distributor starts selling them. This could be an
interesting business idea.

The Electric Imp is interesting, but all data must go through their servers :-(

Bill




On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 6:56 PM, Chao Wan <wanchao87 at 163.com> wrote:
> Hi Bill,
>     Ralink Tech, Corp. is in Taiwan.
>     And there are lot of distributers of Ralink in China.
>     I am a graduate student in NCSU. (I am from China. And my research is
> also related to embedded system.)
>     If you want, I can help you to order some Ralink RT5350F from China.
>
> Chao
>
>
>
>
>
> At 2014-06-25 07:39:58, "Bill Farrow" <bill at arrowsreach.com> wrote:
>>Hello,
>>Has anyone else looked at the VoCore project ?
>>
>>It uses the Ralink RT5350F, a very low cost SoC that can run OpenWRT.
>>There are a number of other products on the market that use this chip,
>>including the Belkin Wifi Power Switches and home automation gadgets.
>>
>>The downside is Ralink does not sell or distribute their chipsets in
>>the USA. This is a roadblock for me ... since I want to build 100 to
>>start with and not thousands (yet). If you have an idea of how to get
>>around the supply issues, please tell me...
>>
>>VoCore:
>>http://vonger.cn/
>>https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vocore-a-coin-sized-linux-computer-with-wifi
>>
>>Deal Extreme Wifi <--> Serial
>>http://www.dx.com/p/rt5350f-serial-port-ethernet-network-wireless-network-conversion-module-w-shielding-cover-239155
>>
>>Small Wifi router to attach to a "3G" modem:
>>http://my-embedded.blogspot.com/2013/12/mini-4g-router-rt5350f.html
>>
>>
>>Bill
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Triangle, NC Embedded Computing mailing list
>>TriEmbed at triembed.org
>>http://mail.triembed.org/mailman/listinfo/triembed_triembed.org
>>TriEmbed web site: http://TriEmbed.org
>
>
>

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