[TriEmbed] (POE) Ethernet microcontroller

[Jeff Highsmith]

Glen,

The Freetronics Ethermega (with POE) is pricey ($119) but the added memory might solve the issue with the resource heavy Ethernet library. http://www.freetronics.com/collections/arduino/products/ethermega-arduino-mega-2560-compatible-with-onboard-ethernet

I just a got a couple Spark Cores myself. I haven't had a chance to much beyond connect them to their cloud-based IDE (you can compile non-cloud tools for them if you want) and discover that while they are "Arduino-compatible," not all of the libraries have been ported over. I tried using the "PulseIn" function to read a Parallax PING sensor, and found it wasn't available. The Spark Cores have an Arm chip in them. The memory specs on the Arm chip aren't fantastic, but there is an external memory chip for the wifi libraries.

Are you using existing wiring, or running new wiring? I'm wondering about the possibility of using RS-485. Even if you had to write your own library, it wouldn't be as heavy as Ethernet. 

If you settle for not having built-in POE, you might be able to consider the Raspberry Pi. Yes, it seems like overkill for just reading a switch or blinking an LED, but the price is hard to beat, and coding in Python is easy-peasy. You might look into setting up the filesystem as read-only if reliability is a concern. 

Jeff :)


> On Mar 11, 2014, at 8:26, Glen Smith <mrglenasmith at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I forgot to ask last night during the meeting: Does anyone know of an easy to use POE micro? I know that there is the POE Arduino, I have heard that by the time the TCPIP stuff gets implemented there is very little memory space for code. Is there a workaround for this or am I misinformed? The other problem with this is the cost - $80 seems steep compared to the $39 WiFi Sparc-core for instance. (How do they get WiFi and cloud based over the air updates into a product for 1/2 the cost of hard wired?)
> 
> If I step away from asking that POE be on the board and power it some other way - even perhaps using a POE-injector/splitter set of cables, are there any controllers that have training wheels on the Ethernet portion? Coding is not my strong suit, so I'd like to be able to see some results and make things happen at the other end of a CAT6 cable and have status updates via a web page without having to learn and program my own network stack.
> 
> Some Googling brings up the netduino family, which looks like it has a slightly better price point than Arduino Ethernet, and according to AdaFruits site: "The Netduino Plus 2 has Ethernet cooked in already! There is a full TCP/IP stack with examples ready to go, and a microSD card slot for storing files" While this looks attractive, it also looks like it is programmed in C# via Microsofts Visual C# Express, which means another learning curve - though this one may be more widely applicable, since C# and C++ and the "Arduino programming language" share so much.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Glen
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