Raspberry PI - All in one PC System monitor If you have been keeping an eye on the tec News you'll know that the raspberry PI will be coming out soon. And its a little beast with 700 Mhz Arm processor and 256 Mb of ram. I am planning on getting 2 of these and am looking into if i can turn it into a self contained 5 1/2" bay System that will fit in your drive bay that can do the following. - Independent Colour Hi def touch screen display - Independent Fan Controller - Independent Flow monitor - Independent Flow controller - Temp monitor - System monitor - Automated system adjuster - Email reporter - Mobile phone link in - Led Light controller You can even expand it with such thing as Automated light adjuster so say it day time the Leds lights on your system dim, or if it had a header attached to you MB sound out as a pass though could be a spectrum analyser on screen, tbh the possibility are endless. The best thing of all it will be cheap to make, will out do any thing on the present market with the ability to do any thing you like and will be open source. I have all ready been talking to a few people about this who know how to program Linux and think all the above it possible. I personally only know how to get around a Linux system and do small tasks but i think if we could get the right people involved we could in theory make the most powerful system ever seen in such a small device for a attachment to a modern day pc. This will make all current Fan controllers and PC system monitor's look like kids toys if we crack it. All so with the Gert board attachment with is due for release just after the Raspberry PI i think all of this is possible. What we need though is some one who knows Linux very well who can help put this all together. Ive all ready got a Emulated mini system up and running but the front end interface would be beyond me im more into the electrics side of things here. What are you thoughts and ideas.
No not available unless you what to pay 2g on EB. How ever in prep for it we've been working on the software side via emu. It will be better once there out which should be end jan / middle of feb.
will you be adding any electronics to the board like a shield. Or is the board capable of doing all that you specified by itself?
The board is capable of doing most of this, were running test software now and things are looking promising how ever there is months of work ahead of this. Allso since it will be open source hopefully once its up and running (if we get there people will add to it).
Been looking at much the same stuff. I'm getting one as well, though I wasn't expecting to turn it into a marketable idea, I'm using it to handle the stuff my Arduinos can't. I know a fair bit about working with some parts of it, I'm gonna set mine up to run Android off a touch screen and log information. If you do this, drop the 10k thermistors and go with Dallas one-wires-they're so much more accurate, and not really that much more expensive for all their accuracy. If you want, I can share what I figure out with you guys-that's the joy of open source. While I think it's possible to control fans and such like that, the setup I have is even less hands-on and should work better. However, it's not a viable option for the majority (as it relies on the fact that I'm running all server boards in the project) so I think something that could do that work would go over well.
The Gertboard (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/411 sounds like it would be a good add-in card for the sensors. I've been considering something similar myself, only I want to control flow in multiple systems (I'm considering a 200L underground reservoir to keep several computers cooled).
This is not a marketable item were doing all this as a free for all. If its worth doing that is. Obversely if there is a item out there that is cheaper than it costs to make this then there is no point. The Gert bored has been emulated at our end as it is now. How ever we cannot progress until we have both board in our hands to play with.Until that point there is not point doing any more. Were all so looking at seeing once it is here to be able to de solder off the 256mb of ram and replace it with 1 Gb.
No, the RAM is a part of the package of the processor. It's all put together (with the GPU) at the factory, then the finished units are sold to people like the Raspberry Pi designers as SOC designs. But even at 128MB in Linux that's enough to play games and browse the internet just fine-Linux is so much more efficient than windows.
