Cathodion

Hey all,

I just ordered a USB extender that uses UTP cables to connect USB devices up to 50m away. I'm going to try to connect a brick using this extender to my PC.

This is the product I ordered: http://www.informatique.nl/925047/konig-usb-verlenger-via-utp-50m.html

If this works as expected I will use these to distribute bricks throughout my house and garage while the PC (or Raspberry Pi) stays in a central place.

I'll let you know about my findings.

Kind regards,

Geert Schuring.

In the German forum I suggested a GENERAL INPUT DEVICE brick, where you can plugin in devices via USB, PS/2 and RS-232. This works for keyboards, joysticks, and handheld barcode scanners, among others. Used keyboards, joysticks and similar devices are cheap, so why not reusing this old PS/2 or RS-232 hardware? The protocol just sends key scan codes as events if a key or a button has been pressed or released, this has not changed much in the last decades. Such brick would allow easy input to your applications.

This sounds great! I'd buy one or two!

Check this out: http://kingleadertech.en.alibaba.com/

Yeah that solved it.. Thanks!

The entire forum seems to use a german localization. I can't find any option to make it english.

We would also be very interested in an ethernet brick for

our kitepower research.

 

Uwe Fechner, www.kitepower.eu, TU Delft, The Netherlands

Nice project Uwe!

Personally I think it's a lot of work, and I would rather see that effort go into developing new bricks or bricklets. I realize these require different skills, but still... If anyone could figure out how to connect an RFID reader to a brick, I would actually pay for that.

I would like to ask your opinion on the KNX standard. Do you see any advantages in developing a KNX brick of bricklet?

The KNX site describes some very interesting features:

"KNX is the only bus system worldwide that offers the complete range of transmission media for building control systems: Twisted Pair, Powerline, Radio Frequnecy and Ethernet IP. Transmission media can easily be coupled with KNX media couplers. The KNX applications are commissioned with ETS, the manufacturer, product and trade independent tool."

http://www.knx.org/knx-standard/how-to-start/

It also has an IP protocol:

"The transmission of KNX telegrams via Ethernet is defined as KNXnet/IP and is a part of the KNX Standard. Until now the specifications included the use of this medium for PC interfaces and for routers. IP routers are similar to line couplers, except that they use Ethernet for the main line. Moreover it is nowadays also possible to integrate KNX end devices directly via IP in the KNX network. That’s why Ethernet resp. IP (Internet Protocol) is a fully valued KNX medium. The development of KNX IP devices does not require special KNX components."

I would focus on documenting the communication protocol. That way the entire community can start writing their own bindings in any language they want.

I can't help thinking there would be quite a few potential customers who would just want to connect lots of bricklets to their PC (I currently have no need for motors/IMU or Chibi bricks). If that could all be done through one master that would be great. If you need an extra master per 4 bricklets, at 29 EUR a piece your solution suddenly becomes fairly expensive.

I think in the current early phase of TinkerForge the main focus should be on developing new functionality (like rfid bricklets and PoE brick extentions), rather then optimizing already developed functionality. Much like the TinkerForge crew is currently doing.

30 or 40 euro's a piece for a brick is really no problem in the current phase. Once the development costs have been covered the price will likely go down, making more large scale deployments feasable from a costs perspective.

That's great. That would allow me to put a PoE switch in a central place in my home and setup a stack of bricks on every floor receiving both power and communication through the Ethernet cables. The PoE switch will be backed by a UPS which makes the entire Tinkerforge network power independant.

Brilliant. Can't wait.

(... also waiting on a RFID bricklet ... )

Am I missing something or is the majority of the Java API source code missing on github?

Thanks in advance!

Hey,

I'm a java programmer and I've ordered a 20x4 display as well. I'll team up with you on creating a nice java library for this display if you like.

Kind regards,

Geert Schuring.

I would be very interrested in an extenstion with PoE too!

You say you've implemented a TCP/IP stack, does that mean I would be able to communicate directly with the master brick using a TCP socket? That would render the USB connection and a running brick deamon on the connected PC unnecessary, right?

Dear Neighbors, (i'm dutch)

Its great to see many of you active on the forum, but unfortunatly most of the world will not be able to read your information, and that's really bad for a project that's just starting. I'm afraid it will scare off many potential community members, and we need those to get on*board* while the current momentum is good.

To be honest, my knowlegde of the German language isn't very good either, so I'm having a hard time understanding it too.

My suggestion is to communicate purely in English on the forum. I hope you will agree with me.

Kind regards,

Geert Schuring

Java Developer from The Netherlands.