RE: Electronics Challenge!

[Tony T]

> I'll take a look at the rocket thingy...
>

Hmmm, all very nice, but it's highlighted an issue I hadn't thought of.
Everywhere I have such a device, it's also going to need it's own power
source. Not good.

For the time being I'm going to use a mini-itx 500mhz mobo with an 8 port
serial card.
This is far cheaper than the current off-the-shelf boxes, as I'll get 9 to
10 ports for just a couple hundred quid.
(Does have the disadvantage that it will take out 9 to 10 devices if it
fails, but they seem very reliable - never had to reboot even running
windows)

Also, as I can already get the mobo booting off of my winxp ha server, I
can
make it diskless.
So just need mobo, case/psu, memory, and the serial card.

The other plus side is, that I'll have to produce some linux applications -
something were desperately short of.

And if I produce a linux version of xplhal I've _almost_ got my 'standalone
unit' for a reasonable cost :-)

Regards
Tony