MiniOn ARM Microcontroller Programming System

profdc9 writes "For the past six months or so I have been working on the MiniOn, a network enabled microcontroller programming system, similar in idea to the Basic Stamp and Arduino hobbyists are fond of, but it is programmable and accessible through a Web browser and TELNET, requiring no installed development software. It uses the cheap, readily available LPC2000 ARM7TDMI micrcontrollers, and the easy to interface Microchip ENC28J60 for ethernet. The MiniOn firmware is written using only the free WinARM development tools (Linux tools work also) for those who wish to improve the MiniOn. I have already implemented an MP3 streaming server and a web-based graphical oscilloscope in MiniOnBasic. The MiniOn should hopefully lower the barriers and costs to getting started learning about embedded systems, and provide a non-proprietary method of data acquisition."

Gumstix

[JohnFluxx (413620)]

How is this different from the Gumstix, which are small 600Mhz xscale chips (using ARM also) but also come with ethernet, bluetooth, touchscreen TFT screens, general I/O, flash memory, etc

Re:Gumstix

[belphegore (66832)]

The gumstix is completely open source (though some 3rd party companies sell closed-source software for it for custom applications). Every line of code that ships on the gumstix, and every line of code for every utility used to build gumstix's factory software are completely open, and published. Gumstix even gives users write permission to its source code repository. Almost all of the hardware is fully open-source (all the daughtercards are -- the motherboard's schematic and layouts are closed, but all the interfaces are heavily documented, and gumstix the company is very open about talking about the stuff on the board to assist with any compatibility issues).

Disclaimer: I used to work at gumstix, and I'm a stock holder.

Re:Gumstix

[ciroknight (601098)]

Meanwhile, Chumby [chumby.com] is 100% open source hardware, including both the board and the default daughtercard, under a BSD-like license, along with 90% of its software (I only say 90% because the widget platform runs Adobe Flash, which is the only closed-source component on the entire device).

Costs about the same as Gumstix, plus you get an LCD, speakers and a microphone.

This sounds like it might help

[kickmyassman (1199237)]

One of the major barriers getting into embedded programming is finding a cheap programmer that doesn't require RS232 standard 18 Volt serial ports (or similarly high-voltage parallel ports). If you're making something that helps around that? You're certainly going to help people get into the game.

Oscilloscope

[evanbd (210358)]

Have you actually implemented an oscilloscope in any meaningful sense, or is this just a low-performance data acquisition system? Nothing wrong with the latter (I'm in the process of designing and building a high-quality, modest performance data acquisition board myself), but it's not the same as a scope.

A scope needs, at a minimum, a decent sample rate (though for many purposes I'd settle for something as low as a 10MHz sample rate with 1MHz bandwidth, or even a bit less). It needs a properly compensated input (ie 1MOhm / 20pF or similar, and importantly specs on what that is). It needs an input amplifier with selectable gain, so that I can see down to at least 10mV/division (~100mV peak to peak full scale). It needs both an AC coupled and DC coupled mode. If it's implemented digitally, it needs 8 bits of noise-free resolution (10 would be nice, but often isn't required). If it's digital, it needs to specify timing jitter error (ideally specified as "negligible" though worse is fine as long as it's characterized). Ideally it should have multiple channels and some controls about triggers and such, but those aren't particularly required. Accuracy requirements are surprisingly loose: 2% is fine, 5% is usually acceptable for all or almost all parameters.

What you have looks like a handy first pass at a very simple data acquisition system. I don't mean to disparage that; it's a very useful tool. But, as an occasional analog engineer who would love to be able to recommend an inexpensive oscilloscope, this doesn't look like an oscilloscope at all, much less one worth recommending as such. The part that makes an oscilloscope hard to build is not the microcontroller code, but the analog front end. The 1960s vintage Tektronix tube scope I have does what I describe above, and most of that wasn't even state of the art at the time. The available tools have gotten better, but the fundamental requirements haven't changed. A data acquisition system is nice, but it's not really a tool for circuit analysis like a scope is.

Anyway, I'm done with my cranky analog engineer rant now. This looks like a very cool toy! I'll probably stick with my PICs out of habit, but I'll definitely take a look at this.

Well done, dude

[Ethan Allison (904983)]

Seriously, that's some pretty awesome stuff. :D

This is a product placement Advertisement!

[SlashWombat (1227578)]

Wow ... Great ... But this sort of thing has been available for ages from several vendors! And at reasonable prices as well!
See http://www.olimex.com/dev/index.html [olimex.com] for a list of various processors supported!
I have used Olimex boards in the past. Not a bad way (and cheap!) to jump start a project!

A quick Google search will find many other vendors of cheap prototyping kits from many different companies. (Although ... many are reselling the OLIMEX stuff.)

Mind you, the source is from a country that may scare your average paranoid homeland security guy.

Awesome!!!

[Panaflex (13191)]

I've been looking for something I could teach my kids with. I want them to have a real understanding of computers, but don't want to shell out 1000 bucks.

It would be nice to have a tv our or lcd out... perhaps that would be a good side-project?

Thanks!!

LPC2000?

[serviscope_minor (664417)]

I've never used the LPC2000, but I have used the LPC3180, and it is a fantastic chip. Clocked at 200MHz, it just outpaces the 415MHz XScale and uses 1/8 of the power. Oh, and it can do hardware floating point, and for that it outpaces the XScale by a factor of about 8.

The intention of the MiniOn

[profdc9 (1283662)]

The MiniOn is not intended to replace your oscilloscope or Gumstix. It is intended to basically turn an ARM7TDMI system on chip micrcontroller into a Basic-programmable webserver. There is only 32K of RAM on an LPC2148, which is not even enough to load GRUB, much less the Linux kernel. In this space I have used open-source libraries to place a functional TCP/IP stack, FAT filesystem for SD cards, a full-screen text editor, and a Basic language with a decent number of features. The LPC2148 is typically less than $10 and the ENC28J60 less than $4. Therefore the MiniOn can provide quite a bit of functionality with very few resources and with little money. And no, it was not solely my intention to plug Olimex or Futurlec boards, but they happen to be some of the cheaper alternatives out there that can run the MiniOn firmware. I hope to have my own board made at some point. The advantage of the MiniOn is that it allows you prototype your project easily, log data to a flash memory card, and control it remotely through the web.

A better ethernet interface

[Alioth (221270)]

I would not have chosen the ENC29J60 for this project, rather the Wiznet W5100 (or perhaps the W5300). The W5100 provides a built in TCP/IP offload engine (although you aren't forced to use it, it allows access at the MAC level) as well as the choice of SPI or a parallel bus (so if you need performance you can use the parallel bus rather than SPI). It also has a pretty decent amount of buffer memory (and you don't have to use up space in your microcontroller's flash memory for a TCP/IP stack).

http://www.wiznet.co.kr/pro_iin_W5100.htm [wiznet.co.kr]

Data collection

[eap (91469)]

I know nothing about embedded systems. Would it be possible to interface this with a 1-wire bus to monitor environment sensors?

Aw. BASIC?

[sp1nm0nkey (869235)]

I really hate to say it, but basic on micro controllers has been done way way way too much. I think it would be far more appealing if you could write a small JVM for it (pretty easy), or have the user write their programs in C where the firmware serves as kind of a network bootloader, and you release the tcp stack and web server stuff as a library.

Yes, but how much does it cost?

[tyler_larson (558763)]

The nice thing about the arduino environment is that once I come up with a design for some device, the core system only costs about $4 to replicate, plus any additional application-specific hardware. Plus, all the tools (even the vendor-supplied developer environment) are free. As far as barriers to entry are concerned, it doesn't get much lower.

Obviously more complexity means more expensive, but how does this system compare, as far as what you get for what you pay, to the best of what's already out there?

Re:Hmm

[RattFink (93631)]

It is quite similar to a PIC. The metric of it being a processor or a micro is the level of integration of memory and peripherals on the device. I can't think of a single ARM7 on the market that doesn't have some program accessible memory and at least a few serial ports and GPIO pins.

Re:forum

[Starky (236203)]

Would someone who has the ability to do so be so kind as to remove this comment. It is entirely off-topic and puerile in the most unflattering sense of the word.

Whoever posted this needs to get out of their darkened basement, acquire an additional 10 years or so of maturity, and look into what is commonly known as a life. It's just so sad.