.NET robotics controller
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Have you thought about using two phones for this? You could get a cheap smartphone with 3G, disassemble it and use its board for the internet connectivity. Then you could create an application that uses the smartphone sensors and you could try to map the output generated by the sensors and use it to control the toy.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
You have arrived at the same point that I reached earlier today. Having looked at many web sites selling accelerometers, GPS units, compasses etc it dawned on me that I already had all those things packaged up neatly in my HTC mobile. Plus there is the big advantage that I know how to program for Windows Mobile 7 (at least I have played around with a GPS application). I am now doing the research on how to drive the hardware (servos, motors etc.) from the phone. I may still need to use something like a netduino board for this but it should be a lot simpler than the monster I was looking at yesterday......
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" -
You have arrived at the same point that I reached earlier today. Having looked at many web sites selling accelerometers, GPS units, compasses etc it dawned on me that I already had all those things packaged up neatly in my HTC mobile. Plus there is the big advantage that I know how to program for Windows Mobile 7 (at least I have played around with a GPS application). I am now doing the research on how to drive the hardware (servos, motors etc.) from the phone. I may still need to use something like a netduino board for this but it should be a lot simpler than the monster I was looking at yesterday......
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"Andrew Wiles wrote:
I know how to program for Windows Mobile 7
Exactly
Andrew Wiles wrote:
I am now doing the research on how to drive the hardware (servos, motors etc.) from the phone.
That's probably gonna be fun, but the hardest part I think will be to connect the very small pins on the phone.
Andrew Wiles wrote:
I may still need to use something like a netduino board for this but it should be a lot simpler than the monster I was looking at yesterday......
It shouldn't be difficult if you have a little knowledge on microcontroles and some logic port notions.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
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Interesting. My son and I are working on a similar project. We are building a robot with a camera that can be controlled from the Internet. So, we can drive around and look inside our home while we aren't there. We started with this: http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/140[^] Have a look at that or consider .NET Gadgeteer which is brand new on the scene! http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/category/265/[^] http://netmf.com/gadgeteer/[^] My son (12 years old) is so excited about the project that he's been writing c# code on paper at school to program the robot and then when he gets home he cracks open the laptop, codes it with VS2010 and deploys it to the robot. Pretty cool.
Thanks Brent I am hoping that I can generate a similar level of enthusiasm in my son. There is always the danger that this sort of project becomes "dad's project" so I need to try and pitch the entry level and target carefully. I am sure we will both learn something!
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" -
Thanks Brent I am hoping that I can generate a similar level of enthusiasm in my son. There is always the danger that this sort of project becomes "dad's project" so I need to try and pitch the entry level and target carefully. I am sure we will both learn something!
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"Very true. It can easily become dad's project if you aren't careful. My son helped me build the robot but it became my task to update the firmware on it before we could deploy code to it. Looking back, I should have had him more involved with the firmware update too.
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"You might find the below links interesting (its basically Microsoft's answer to arduino): http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/[^] http://www.netmf.com/gadgeteer/[^] http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/297[^]
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"check this out .net micro framework gadgeteer http://netmf.com/gadgeteer/[^]
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" -
I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"Imo if you got some decent fund you should look at mini-atx board. i.e : Mini Mobo[^] Then get a roomba base[^] which is controled by a serie link. If you need sensor consider getting an imu that you can dirve by usb or serie. Imo total this will cost you around 800$ with battery and all though. You'll have a prototype done fast that way and you can program it however you like. There's also robot selling for somewhat cheap price too : Turtle bot[^] There are several other if you Google a bit. If I were you though, I'd definitely make a PCB with an embedded chip. Enjoy your robot!
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"In my past life I worked in robotics, PLC's and PC to real world interface. +1 on the .NET stamps...you have to get something robotics specific though or your will spend the next year of your life trying to program the advanced math necessary to run a robot. Think about a two wheeled robot, when you turn left, the right wheel is moving faster than the left. You there is some extremely advanced math involved there with tons of realtime sensor feedback going on. So get a "kit" of some sort that has logic to drive robotic stepper motors with position sensors. Something simple you could do for the wireless is use a DTMF sensor with a cell or cordless phone. You can buy programmable dtmf controllers, bury a cordless phone or cell phone in the robot, dial it an you could use the keypad of another cell phone to control the robot. Cell phone speaker burps out dtmf, controller decodes it and spits out a number/signal telling you what key was pressed, decode that number into "left turn" "right turn", decide what to do with it in code and send the control signal to the drive. I Googled and found a dtmf encoder in two clicks so use google. It's a big project and IMHO I would make the "wireless" part of it, the icing on the cake. After you get the robot working with onboard control, then a wired control...only then would I tackle the wireless. Waaaay too many variables to start with the wireless aspect. To develop this, I would start the project as simple as possible. You have a lot of things that need to work right BEFORE adding the wireless interface. If I woke up in your shoes I would. 1. Build the robot with on-board programmable directional control that can do 2 things - Execute all the movements you want (right, left, arm up, arm down, squeeze whoopie cushion :-) - Successfully do a series of 10 to 20 pre-programmed on-board steps for example 1 - Execute "Drive Strait" 5 seconds (or distance depending on your measurement 2 - Turn off "Drive Strait" 3 - Execute "Turn Left" for 2 seconds (or degrees etc..) 4 - Turn off "Turn Left" 5 - Do While squeeze whoopie cushion wiggle right wiggle left 6 - Loop ****Do this to make sure all movements work and you can store and execute commands 2. Begin testing with a wired interface (something that you can convert to wireless later) - Test and troubleshoot until your wired interface works correctly. 3. Then work on the wireless connection between the two. Lastly -
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In my past life I worked in robotics, PLC's and PC to real world interface. +1 on the .NET stamps...you have to get something robotics specific though or your will spend the next year of your life trying to program the advanced math necessary to run a robot. Think about a two wheeled robot, when you turn left, the right wheel is moving faster than the left. You there is some extremely advanced math involved there with tons of realtime sensor feedback going on. So get a "kit" of some sort that has logic to drive robotic stepper motors with position sensors. Something simple you could do for the wireless is use a DTMF sensor with a cell or cordless phone. You can buy programmable dtmf controllers, bury a cordless phone or cell phone in the robot, dial it an you could use the keypad of another cell phone to control the robot. Cell phone speaker burps out dtmf, controller decodes it and spits out a number/signal telling you what key was pressed, decode that number into "left turn" "right turn", decide what to do with it in code and send the control signal to the drive. I Googled and found a dtmf encoder in two clicks so use google. It's a big project and IMHO I would make the "wireless" part of it, the icing on the cake. After you get the robot working with onboard control, then a wired control...only then would I tackle the wireless. Waaaay too many variables to start with the wireless aspect. To develop this, I would start the project as simple as possible. You have a lot of things that need to work right BEFORE adding the wireless interface. If I woke up in your shoes I would. 1. Build the robot with on-board programmable directional control that can do 2 things - Execute all the movements you want (right, left, arm up, arm down, squeeze whoopie cushion :-) - Successfully do a series of 10 to 20 pre-programmed on-board steps for example 1 - Execute "Drive Strait" 5 seconds (or distance depending on your measurement 2 - Turn off "Drive Strait" 3 - Execute "Turn Left" for 2 seconds (or degrees etc..) 4 - Turn off "Turn Left" 5 - Do While squeeze whoopie cushion wiggle right wiggle left 6 - Loop ****Do this to make sure all movements work and you can store and execute commands 2. Begin testing with a wired interface (something that you can convert to wireless later) - Test and troubleshoot until your wired interface works correctly. 3. Then work on the wireless connection between the two. Lastly -
I have been working on an Autonomous robot project using wireless control over Bluetooth, it is going pretty well (works, but software needs some improvement). It is based on the "LynxMotion 4WD rover kit" (//www.lynxmotion.com/c-119-auton-combo-kit.aspx , having trouble figuring out how to submit a link Smile | :) ) The version of the kit I got comes with a "BasicAtom" based chip, programmable in a clunky version of Basic or C; it is also available without the controller (e.g. add you're own). It is an excellent starter kit, it moves fast, can carry several pounds of payload, and has survived numerous crashes as I have been testing the wireless setup. My "Client" side code for the remote control is written in "BasicX" on the robot controller, the "Server" side stuff is in C++ .net on my PC (cuz I don't have a Windows phone). I may consider replacing, or supplanting, the Basic Micro board with a .Net controller at some point, it would be nice to use Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth... Good Luck!
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"This is a really fun project. I did something similiar for my C# class earlier this year. For class, the project used a slightly broken toy RC car as the basis, some arduino stuffs to control the toy car, bluetooth on a laptop for communication, and an xbox controller on the laptop. In general, I found there were mainly three parts to the robot part of the project: hardware, control, and communication. For example, my car had two motors, one for each side. To control these, an arduino with the adafruit motor shield was used. To communicate, bluetooth was added to the arduino. A netduino could be used just as easily as an arduino. I didn't use a phone as a relay. It would be really fun, but I would probably leave it for last. Sparkfun is a great place for hardware. If it helps at all, I'm working on describing the project, here. (It's a work in progress).
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"The following might help. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/08/microsoft-releases-toolkit-to.html[^] http://gadgeteer.codeplex.com/[^]
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Andrew Wiles wrote:
I know how to program for Windows Mobile 7
Exactly
Andrew Wiles wrote:
I am now doing the research on how to drive the hardware (servos, motors etc.) from the phone.
That's probably gonna be fun, but the hardest part I think will be to connect the very small pins on the phone.
Andrew Wiles wrote:
I may still need to use something like a netduino board for this but it should be a lot simpler than the monster I was looking at yesterday......
It shouldn't be difficult if you have a little knowledge on microcontroles and some logic port notions.
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
I think you'll like netduino. My son (age 13) and I have been having a lot fun with it for the last couple of months.
J W
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"Get a high amp small (like motorcycle) battery and Voltage inverter to have 12v and 100 (for a laptop that will run Vista or 7 (you need that to have a browser that will utilize web sockets for a seriously sick robot) the OS and allow you to use a USB camera to stream the video and sound from the remote robot w/windows media, live messenger etc..or get a web enabled (remote viewing capable) security camera. Get yourself a USB dongle type device (I use a clear hotspot)for Internet connectivity. Using any USB enabled micro controller (i have had great success with the Parallax Stamp ***1 about $150 each) you can set up a dot.NET websocket HTML5, http, etc connection to another comp that has IIS with ASP.net app to take command posts from a web page using ANY device. Allow access to your webserver comp at home, connect to the site with any device that has a browser. Have the page write the command file (which the robot laptop requests from the webserver as an XML file. Basically the web app has a page that accepts the postback like this EX: default.aspx?Direction=[L,R,F,B)&Distance={increment of distance your command app accepts as a valid value]&CameraMove=[L,R,U,D]&turn=[R,L]&turndegrees=[0-360} and so on and then returns a clean page to the remote system to enter the next command. The robot Laptop app can recieve the commands from websocket using a wifi, or gsm hotspot connection to a local or remote hosted IIS server if you choose. If you trail two necklace sized chains (insulated) you can park the robot on two seperated sheets of copper hooked to a battery charger and it will stay on as long as the wall outlet is hot and recharge while parked as long as it does not pull more than about 2 amps (hence the motorcycle battery). I do not think you really want to reverse engineer a cell phone to drive it. A. Not enough power. B. Impossible to solder the micro circuits. A cell phone that has the umbilical and O/S do this is now more expensive than the minimum laptop required and I do not know of any kits you can get to drive external items other than card readers. You can however use a cellphone to make the posts described in the next paragraph or use it for the Internet Hotspot connectivity bi-directional. It really depends on If you want to write and app for the microcontroller, the receiving phone, the sending phone -or- write an app on the laptop that controls the microdevice via usb and receives it's commands from a redily available webservice using any device that can post. If you can write
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"I think .Net Micro Framework is probably what you are looking for. The Gadgeteer is a good kit to get you started. Good luck.
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I have a robotics project that I would like to have a go at with my son but I have no idea how to get started on sourcing hardware so I thought I would ask . Basically I would like to build a remote control vehicle BUT rather than use standard radio control I would like to use a mobile phone as the controller via the internet. The logic behind this is that it would be possible to control the robot from any location and not be limited by the range of an individual radio device - a bit like the Rovio robot. To do this I am going to need some kind of controller that can connect to the internet, preferably using mobile technology rather than wireless networking, and which can handle control of servos plus video streaming. Not being a hardware guy I am having trouble working out what to search for (assuming that such technology exists). My skill set is .NET so something that can be made to work via web services would be ideal. Obviously the further we get away from .NET the longer the learning curve is likely to be (my son is 14 so we need to be able to get results at a reasonable rate to keep his interest). So - does anyone out there in codeproject land have any thoughts on where to source hardware for this kind of project?
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" -
How about this: http://www.ghielectronics.com/[^]. It uses the Micro .NET Framework. Have seen some demonstrations of it. Runs from within Visual Studio and includes full debugging support.
This does look very interesting. I wonder if the USB client/host units might allow the connection to a phone? Thanks
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" -
Get a high amp small (like motorcycle) battery and Voltage inverter to have 12v and 100 (for a laptop that will run Vista or 7 (you need that to have a browser that will utilize web sockets for a seriously sick robot) the OS and allow you to use a USB camera to stream the video and sound from the remote robot w/windows media, live messenger etc..or get a web enabled (remote viewing capable) security camera. Get yourself a USB dongle type device (I use a clear hotspot)for Internet connectivity. Using any USB enabled micro controller (i have had great success with the Parallax Stamp ***1 about $150 each) you can set up a dot.NET websocket HTML5, http, etc connection to another comp that has IIS with ASP.net app to take command posts from a web page using ANY device. Allow access to your webserver comp at home, connect to the site with any device that has a browser. Have the page write the command file (which the robot laptop requests from the webserver as an XML file. Basically the web app has a page that accepts the postback like this EX: default.aspx?Direction=[L,R,F,B)&Distance={increment of distance your command app accepts as a valid value]&CameraMove=[L,R,U,D]&turn=[R,L]&turndegrees=[0-360} and so on and then returns a clean page to the remote system to enter the next command. The robot Laptop app can recieve the commands from websocket using a wifi, or gsm hotspot connection to a local or remote hosted IIS server if you choose. If you trail two necklace sized chains (insulated) you can park the robot on two seperated sheets of copper hooked to a battery charger and it will stay on as long as the wall outlet is hot and recharge while parked as long as it does not pull more than about 2 amps (hence the motorcycle battery). I do not think you really want to reverse engineer a cell phone to drive it. A. Not enough power. B. Impossible to solder the micro circuits. A cell phone that has the umbilical and O/S do this is now more expensive than the minimum laptop required and I do not know of any kits you can get to drive external items other than card readers. You can however use a cellphone to make the posts described in the next paragraph or use it for the Internet Hotspot connectivity bi-directional. It really depends on If you want to write and app for the microcontroller, the receiving phone, the sending phone -or- write an app on the laptop that controls the microdevice via usb and receives it's commands from a redily available webservice using any device that can post. If you can write
Do you think my wife will mind if I raid her jewelry box for the "2 necklace size chains"? Gold is a good conductor and does not oxidise...... I am hoping I can build some semi-autonomous behavior to prevent collisions, i.e. have some sensors to detect objects and override the last command when a collision is imminent. Loads of good ideas here - thanks.
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?" -
This does look very interesting. I wonder if the USB client/host units might allow the connection to a phone? Thanks
www.it-workplace.com
"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"Hmm, not sure about that. I think the phone will support some protocol which you can implement in the .NET framework, but no experience with that. Also check http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/netmf/default.aspx[^]. I have used an old model of the GHI board for demonstration purposes. I was impressed by the ease of setup. Created a simulation environment for it to test the software without the hardware and when the hardware came, just loaded the software and yipee...
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I like the look of Netduino - thanks It looks like they have a pretty active community so maybe I will ask some questions there and see if they think I am mad....
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"If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?"Hi, The Netduino is a great little tinker board however is limited in it's IO ability. As a clear frontrunner I would suggest the Fez Panda 2 the same website for GHI electronics has alternatives. I would strongly recommend staying away from Microsoft's ".NET Gadgeteer" it is simply the same FEZ based board however at 2 -3 times the cost. tinyclr FEZ (Frekin Eazy) boards have been around a little longer than Netduino and has a much stronger community. The advantage of both board are they are Arduino compatible which means the shields that plug into the the top will work. Great as you can get cheap ones of ebay however be careful as you must re-map pins for the much cheaper ones. The reason I suggest the Panda II as well is that you can use these shield however with the extra header you can reduce the space your require. To help sceptics here is a few comparesents
FEZ PANDA II | NETDUINO
72MHz. 32-bit ARM7 processor | 48MHz, 32-bit ARM7 processor
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148KB for user application | 128 KB for user application
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62KB RAM | 60KB RAM
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54x Digital I/O ports | 20x Digital I/O portsand thats just for starters as the size of your project is quite substantial and complex the PANDA II will give you the extra where ever you need it and only for an extra $5 or £5. Hope this helps you on your way, Cheers Chris