next topic »

[on:]

Hello all,

    I would like to hang a display on my wall and display a google map on the monitor.  I would like to use Arduino for this project.  Have any sugestions on how this can be accomplished??

[Reply #1 on:]

I would like to hang a display on my wall and display a google map on the monitor.

Are display and monitor the same thing?

I would like to use Arduino for this project.

For what? As a counter balance? The Arduino can't drive the monitor, if that is what you were thinking.

[Reply #2 on:]

Yes display and monitor are same thing.  It just felt a bit repettive with display occuring three times in the same sentence.  As for the second question, I was thinking that Arduino could be used for TCP/IP communication or at least add-on a module to Arduino for network comm.

[Reply #3 on:]

Why not just use the PC that is driving the display device?
It will have a network connection, surely?

[Reply #4 on:]

I thought of that.  I just want to try a different kind of project.  I have always been intrigued by embedded devices, but never really had a really uniqe idea.  I think that this is the perfect kind of project for me.

[Reply #5 on:]

I'd suggest choosing a project for which an Arduino is a sensible solution. It's good at dealing with low speed sensors and transducers, especially ones which which there is no mainstream PC interface. It's bad at dealing with the sort of things your PC does - networking, graphical displays, data processing and so on. If you particularly want to use an Arduino for this, I suppose you could use it to bang in the nails that secure the monitor to the wall.

[Reply #6 on:]

Man! I had no idea.  I am kind of disappointed.  Oh well.  Thanks for the advise!

[Reply #7 on:]

Seems quite difficult IMO, having  up to 256 KB programming space and up to 8 KB ram to do network communications and control a display isn't much. You may be able to run the microcontroller at 20 MHz processing speed instead of the standard 16 which still is quite slow. Network communications will, compared to modern PCs, also be extremely slow.
I guess all arduinos before the newest Arduino DUE won't be able to perform such a task pleasantly and possibly may not be able to do it at all. They're really very nice devices to control loads&loads of stuff, but keep in mind the capabilities of a 20 year old PC probably is similar/better.

Equiped with an ARM-controller the newest Arduino DUE is able to do more as all other Arduinos, but I wonder if it will be able to perform the task. (must say... I still know very little about it though)

An old thin-client probably is good enough, but if you want to build/program it yourself I'd check several ARM-boards. I'm biased since I'd very much like to have one, this one probably is good enough http://www.raspberrypi.org/

[Reply #8 on:]

Man! I had no idea.  I am kind of disappointed.  Oh well.  Thanks for the advise!

A microcontroller is not a PC. Just to give some feel for scale...
A typical PC might have a CPU clock speed 150 times faster than that of the ATmega328P microcontroller in an Arduino Uno, and most PCs today have at least two processors.
A typical PC might have over 60000 times as much memory as an ATmega328P.
A microcontroller has no operating system, and no hard disk.
An ATmega328P costs $3.50, an Arduino Uno costs $30.

I sincerely hope that you are not disappointed in microcontrollers; for whatever reason, this was a perception issue. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Not to say a lot of very cool things cannot be done with microcontrollers.

[Reply #9 on:]

I will think about using a thin client for this instance.

[Reply #10 on:]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

This will be the PERFECT device between the easy-to-use Arduino and the more powerful (and expensive) options.   

It can play 1080P video with no issue, and can boot a graphical Linux distro.  The only unknown is how easily the GPIO ports will be utilized.   i cant wait to see them in the wild!

[Reply #11 on:]

i cant wait to see them in the wild!

Well, that does seem to be another issue with them...

[Reply #12 on:]

yup, but with their affiliations (Cambridge especially), I have huge faith in this project coming out soon.  Their beta boards DO work, there are several in the wild getting code written for them, and they're getting enough press that they could get 10mil in funding in a MOMENT if they found they were just short on cash.   Add to that the fact that people (like me) will pay twice what they've estimated the cost at - and buy several - and I can't really see it disappearing any time soon.

[Reply #13 on:]

Can these really be built for $25, or are they being subsidized or something?

[Reply #14 on:]

That is a question which gets me a lot of flak whenever I ask it. Of course, I'm also usually suggesting that the $25 price is pure PR runaway, it's not accurate since you need about $150 worth of peripherals to turn it into a computer, and I point out that the $100 OLPC is still $200.