[TriEmbed] (POE) Ethernet microcontroller

[The MacDougals]

If you are interested in RS-485, I have experience with that.  I am using
RJ14 cables (standard 4 connector telephone wires) between nodes.

Arduinos use SoftwareSerial to talk to the PHY.  I plan to use RaspberryPi
as the brains of the system.

 

---> Paul

 

 

From: TriEmbed [mailto:triembed-bounces at triembed.org] On Behalf Of Glen
Smith
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 5:24 PM
To: TriEmbed Discussion
Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] (POE) Ethernet microcontroller

 

Well I looked around and found a few interesting things from the input that
I got. I also looked around for a Beaglebone Black. As Pete said, they are
extremely difficult to get a hold of, everyone seems to be sold out.
However, RadioShack in Crossroads has a couple "Getting started With
BeagleBone Black" kits in stock for $89. I'm headed there now.

If anyone is interested, they tell me that they will put one behind the
counter for you.

If you email me off list before I leave the store, we might be able to work
something out.

Glen

 

On Tue, Mar 11, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Jeff Highsmith <jeff at jeffhighsmith.com>
wrote:

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-me
ga-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
<http://arduino.cc/en/Reference/HomePage> " share so much.

Any thoughts?

Glen

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