RoboSavvy Forum

RoBoard RB-050

2012-07-19T18:35:41+01:00

Hi siempre.aprendiendo

The big question is: would you (or the public) buy one if it cost ~£400?

The manufacturer thinks the answer is no and afaik that's why they're not releasing it int he form of Roboard..
If you (and other users) prove otherwise show interest despite the price tag there's a good chance it'll be released.

Regards
Pedro.

DISCLAIMER: the price I am projecting here for Roboard 050 is no way any official price nor does it mean the board is available if your'e willing to pay that.
This price is my projection from I understood from speaking with the manufacturer.
Furthermore the manufacturer does not produce "one-offs". This means that even if 1 person is willing to pay for one, it won't be produced; there is a very large manufacturing MOQ so unless a VERY large number of people wish to buy one, then it _may_ eventually go into production.

Statistics: Posted by PedroR — Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:35 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-07-19T18:18:18+01:00

it's unclear if it would be commercially appealing with this price and therefore there is still NO release schedule for Roboard 050.

I though it would be commercially more appealing

Statistics: Posted by siempre.aprendiendo — Thu Jul 19, 2012 6:18 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-07-19T18:30:12+01:00

Hi siempre.aprendiendo

I just wanted to make a quick stop to clarify what the post means.

I've spoken with the manufacturer and it does NOT mean Roboard 050 is being released.

From the post:
This CPU board has almost every I/O pin of Vortex86DX available and easy to use (as a MCU). So you can use this CPU board with a DIY I/O board to make a customized RB-050 for yourself, and anyone can employ it to easily design any RoBoard-compatible product!

The module that is being released is the ICOP version of the module not the Roboard 050 version.
There are important differences between the two:

ICOP modules are essentially PCBs that include the processor + memory and break out all the pins but they don't offer any signal protection, voltage regulation, level shifting, proper connectors or anything like that.

They are made to be installed on a custom designed base board that takes the signals from the ICOP module and performs all Power Regulation, Level shifting, protection and exposes the connectors (for example for PWM, COMMs, LAN, USB etc.)

The difference between ICOP and Roboard is that ICOP is designed for System Integrators (who custom design their hardware base boards) where the Roboard is a ready to use solution where all the signal regulation protection and level shifting is already on board.
You just need to power up a Roboard and you're good to go; it's not the case with ICOP.

The information I have from the manufacturer is that the cost of this ICOP module plus the baseboard (that performs all the signal regulation and exposes all connectors) would put the total price at about 2x the price of Roboard 100RD.

For this reason, it's unclear if it would be commercially appealing with this price and therefore there is still NO release schedule for Roboard 050.

As I explained in a previous post, currently the board that better matches the features of Roboard 050 is the newly released Roboard 100RD (that includes the Vortex86DX Rev D processor with faster COMMs and latest improvements in IDE support).

Regards
Pedro.

Statistics: Posted by PedroR — Thu Jul 19, 2012 1:11 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-07-17T22:24:27+01:00

it seems they are approaching I'm very glad to read this:

From Facebook:

RoBoard: the Heart of Robotics This CPU board has almost every I/O pin of Vortex86DX available and easy to use (as a MCU). So you can use this CPU board with a DIY I/O board to make a customized RB-050 for yourself, and anyone can employ it to easily design any RoBoard-compatible product!

Statistics: Posted by siempre.aprendiendo — Tue Jul 17, 2012 10:24 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-06-13T13:31:57+01:00

Hi gdo,

RB-050 should have the almost same serial interface as RB-100, so we are really not sure what is the problem.

What kernel image did you use in this test?

Statistics: Posted by roboard — Wed Jun 13, 2012 1:31 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-06-12T23:23:32+01:00

Hello everybody,

I have made some photos but I forgot my camera at work...
So it will be for tomorrow.

I first test my work like the following script on my roboard RB-100 and then I try to use it on RB-050 once it is functionnal. It is easier to see what happens when you have a screen.
http://robosavvy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8011

But with serial console, I can easily debug without vga. It works perfectly for the RB-100, but with the RB-050 I just have some "ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ" on output.

I do not know why since I use the same serial cable for RB-100 and RB-050. Is serial adapter plugged differently between both roboards ? Do you use a null modem cable to connect to the computer ?

Thanks,
gdo

Statistics: Posted by gdo — Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:23 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-05-01T12:59:17+01:00

Hello everybody,

This post should be a bite long, so feel free to drink a coffee while reading. ^^

As it was mentionned, I received a RB-050 sample. I received it nearly one month ago. And I must start by thanking DMP for providing me this sample.

You just have to plug it with RS232 cable provided and launch your serial terminal, cutecom there. Set serial communication paramaters as follow :

It is a brief introduction but all has already been said in previous post about hardware. And you can find all the useful stuff in download section of Roboard website : http://www.roboard.com/download_ml.htm

So why do I need a sample, what is my work and why does it takes time ?

First of all, I work only with Linux. No windows there.

My first contribution was how to install a Xenomai Linux kernel on roboard RB-100 :
http://geonobot-wiki.toile-libre.org/doku.php?id=en:robotics:computing:installer_xenomai_sur_une_roboard

I found that way very slow. Roboard is not made for kernel build process. So I decided to create a script to create xenomai kernel and xenomai lib .deb packages from my 32-bits x86 computer.
It was really faster but as I buy a new x86_64 computer, I need to do cross-compilation to build xenomai packages working on roboard. It is one of my actual task. But you already can find a first version on my website :
http://geonobot-wiki.toile-libre.org/doku.php?id=robotics:computing:script_pour_packager_xenomai_sur_ubuntu_debian_kernel_libraries
I explain the script in details but of coure, feel free to report bug or ask for help.

As I love to customize my kernel, I would like to customize my own distribution. As it could be long and difficult, I am writing a script to generate a full functionnal Linux distro with just one command line.
How it works ? The two pillars of that script are the qemu-debootstrap command and the binfmt_misc kernel module.

binfmt_misc module

So I build all the rootfs on my x86_64 computer and create the SD card for roboard with one simple command line. I plug my SD card on roboard : it works.
But I need to make that script robust before publishing it because I experience some nasty bugs (kernel panic with DMP kernel, SD card management, etc...).

I work on Roboard RB-100 (easier to debug with vga card) and when a step of my work seems stable, I try to port it to RB-050.

This is a long and difficult work I do on my free time. Which explains why it takes so long.

Next release of my both scripts will be available before end of June I hope. Dont worry, I work on it, it is my passion.

Feel free to ask me more details about my work.
Have a good day,
gdo

Statistics: Posted by gdo — Tue May 01, 2012 12:59 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-04-27T17:02:53+01:00

We have sent an engineering sample to gdo, and he also gave us a feedback that he has received that sample.

Statistics: Posted by roboard — Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:02 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-04-26T16:07:37+01:00

The problem is that you get no answer to the question of a sample. Although with my bot advertisement is made in the manual (my bot).

Statistics: Posted by Chaosmann — Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:07 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-02-29T16:15:49+01:00

gdo wrote:
...Should we consider this project as dead ? ...

Hi, gdo,

we are sorry on the so long delay of this project. Our boss tells us that this project is still going on; everything is getting ready.

But since we still cannot guarantee the release day of RB-050, we suggest that you may consider RB-100/110 or the other excellent ARM-based/MCU-based boards, such as BeagleBoard or Arudino first.

Alternatively, since you have had nice contributions on RoBoard, we can send you a free engineering sample of RB-050 for test (you may need to pay the shipping fee). If you want a sample, please email to tech@roboard.com for detailed information

Statistics: Posted by roboard — Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:15 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2012-02-28T17:31:24+01:00

Hello everybody,

No more news about RB-050 ?
Should we consider this project as dead ?

Thanks,
gdo

Statistics: Posted by gdo — Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:31 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2011-12-05T16:31:27+01:00

Hi retro_boy

As far as we know there is an ICOP module that kind of "encapsulates" the features of Roboard 050.

We do not sell ICOP (there's already a distributor in the UK and they aren't receptive to adding others) so my knowledge of ICOP is limited.

ICOP, Roboard and DMP are all sister companies. It's not clear how they relate to each other but they use each other's technology.

ICOP are SOC modules that don't break anything out or offer any protection; they just have the Processor and Memory and expose the low level pins.

On eBox 3310 for example it seems an ICOP module is used and fitted onto a base board/breakout board that adds power supply, voltage and signal regulation, etc and then the ICOP module is simply plugged into the board.

Roboard uses a similar approach (leveraging DMP/Vortex technology) but they offer highly integrated products that already include both the processor, memory and a veyr comprehensive set of protection circuitry to protect the board.
They've included the signal regulation, level shifting, and many other protection features which means you can connect to the TTL COMMs using 3.3V or 5V logic, connect to COM1 at RS232 level, regulate input voltage to offer 5V and 3.3V rails (including powering the USB slave devices)...
All this is offered by adding level shifting and protection circuitry on top of the Processor+Memory combo.

At present - and to put everything in perspective . what seems to have been released is the ICOP version of what would become Roboard 050 ie just a base board exposing processor and memory.
Depending on your project ICOP may be an alternative as long as you build your own base board.

As for the Roboard version - the highly integrated version with all the level shifting, voltage regulation, etc. - there are no more news.

We've promised to post about this as soon as we receive more information but for the moment the current status of the 050 model is unknown to us.

For people looking for the 050 we're recommending the Roboard 110 and/or eBox 3350 if you need more memory and more processing power(with the metal case stripped if necessary to reduce weight).

Both solutions are larger than the 050 but they're available and ready to ship now.
For all these reasons these are the solutions we're recommending to customers looking for a small, embedded x86 solution.

eBox offers less IO than Roboard (no PWM, no A/D, no I2C; only 3x USB) but includes VGA already and aproximatell 2x the processing power (including 512Mb memory).
PWM, A/D, I2C can all be added via USB by using either an Arduino or similar/more specific Sparkfun gadgets.

Regards
Pedro.

Statistics: Posted by PedroR — Mon Dec 05, 2011 4:31 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2011-12-01T15:45:18+01:00

Is there any more news about this?

Statistics: Posted by retro_boy — Thu Dec 01, 2011 3:45 pm

RoBoard RB-050

2011-10-28T09:10:50+01:00

Great news!

I had started thinking that it had been cancelled.

Statistics: Posted by siempre.aprendiendo — Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:10 am

RoBoard RB-050

2011-10-22T14:40:39+01:00

Well, since the core CPU board of RB-050 would also serve as an independent product in the area of industrial PC, it must satisfy many quality requirements from industrial PC. It is really difficult to design such a tiny x86 board under IPC quality and low-cost constraints (one would understand what we say if he/she knows what is IPC); so after we posted the first info of RB-050, the core CPU board suffers sustaining verification & redeigning & modification loop (including both the shell and board).

The core CPU board has now been called VDX-200 in IPC field, which was announced on the Computex show of June 2011 (it means that we finally escape the modification loop ):

note that VDX-200 isn't equal to RB-050; more precisely, RB-050 applies VDX-200 to form a tiny robot controller.

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This sounds like a good news for RB-050, but at the moment we still cannot guarantee the expected release date. (well, maybe we will be able to guarantee this after several weeks...)

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Statistics: Posted by roboard — Sat Oct 22, 2011 2:40 pm