-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Sunday, 2013-05-26 at 00:34 +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On Saturday, 2013-05-25 at 18:07 -0400, Greg Freemyer wrote:

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Recommendations?

Maybe...

https://www.gumstix.com/

I know I have seen small and cheap somewhere, but I don't have the links collected, it seems :-(

A few more. Prices go from about 100€ to 3000€. The web is in Spanish, but the business is German, it has more sites. Not UK, though. https://www.alternate.es/html/product/listing.html?navId=16407&tk=8&lk=7337 Have a look here, it has some links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barebone_computer But I have seen smaller somewhere... :-? - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. (from 12.1 x86_64 "Asparagus" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlGhQLcACgkQtTMYHG2NR9UoOACfRTmQ+wa3wcKuHSj6pxNDbpCK IEwAn0TaiwQolQNmTXjEVNao9DA2iebs =GZEK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 10:28 AM, Per Jessen wrote:

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A few more. Prices go from about 100€ to 3000€. The web is in Spanish, but the business is German, it has more sites. Not UK, though.

https://www.alternate.es/html/product/listing.html?navId=16407&tk=8&lk=7337>

I looked at thoe Zotac boxes at some point, I was thinking of a MythTV box for the livingroom. (apparently they are a little too noisy for that).

I've been using Zotac computers for several years. I really like them for what they are - small, simple and inexpensive. I have used an ID10 for a XBMC machine for ages. For a bit more oompf, the Giga ID70 model is pretty good (nVidia 430 video, 2600 series i3 CPU, 4GB RAM) and it's quiet. Runs openSUSE with no issues (WiFi is the usual wobbly to begin with). If you want an interesting 100% silent computer for a livingroom media centre, check out the MK808 (search for it on Amazon). Runs Android, and is the size of a USB stick. HDMI out, USB powered (so if you've got USB on your TV, you can power it direct from the TV). I've got one, and with XBMC, it's pretty good (especially for the price). C. -- openSUSE 12.3 x86_64, KDE 4.10 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 6:26 PM, Per Jessen wrote:

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If you want an interesting 100% silent computer for a livingroom media centre, check out the MK808 (search for it on Amazon). Runs Android, and is the size of a USB stick. HDMI out, USB powered (so if you've got USB on your TV, you can power it direct from the TV). I've got one, and with XBMC, it's pretty good (especially for the price).

EUR70 - yes, that's not bad. Does it do full-HDTV ? I'l have to try out this XBMC thing, I guess it works with MythTV too?

If you look around a little, you should be able to get it for closer to 45 Eur (I got mine, non-Bluetooth version, out of the NL, and that's what I paid). The HDMI output is 1080p,, so that counts as full HD. There is a MythTV Frontend for Android. I've never tried it since XBMC works good enough with my local network (media on NAS, XBMC as the player/indexer), and it has plugins for various streaming services over the internet (1channel for example). It's not.. perfect. If you try to push high bit rate (like BlueRay content) through it, it will struggle. The A9 CPU is only 1.2GHz (can be overclocked though) so it's not a powerhouse. There are loads of reviews and videos on it showing it running XBMC and comments on its performance etc. For me, at 45 Eur, it was a good buy, and it's my primary media center at home, and I take it with me when I travel (I plug it into the hotel TV, and use hotel WiFi to stream content such as Hulu or Netflix in the US or 1channel elsewhere). It doesn't have an RS232 port though :-P Just USB. C. -- openSUSE 12.3 x86_64, KDE 4.10 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 6:53 PM, Per Jessen wrote:

...

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 6:26 PM, Per Jessen wrote:

...

...

If you want an interesting 100% silent computer for a livingroom media centre, check out the MK808 (search for it on Amazon). Runs Android, and is the size of a USB stick. HDMI out, USB powered (so if you've got USB on your TV, you can power it direct from the TV). I've got one, and with XBMC, it's pretty good (especially for the price).

EUR70 - yes, that's not bad. Does it do full-HDTV ? I'l have to try out this XBMC thing, I guess it works with MythTV too?

If you look around a little, you should be able to get it for closer to 45 Eur (I got mine, non-Bluetooth version, out of the NL, and that's what I paid). The HDMI output is 1080p,, so that counts as full HD.

There is a MythTV Frontend for Android. I've never tried it since XBMC works good enough with my local network (media on NAS, XBMC as the player/indexer), and it has plugins for various streaming services over the internet (1channel for example).

Do you watch TV on it? That would be my main objective.

Define TV. I do not have local cable TV (too expensive for what you get, only available in German which I don't speak/understand, and then I'd have to pay the TV tax), nor do I have DVB-T/C/S for the same reasons. TV for me is either what I've got in my personal collection on the NAS drive, or online streamed from 1channel.ch and other similar sources (eg VPN so YouTube movies, Hulu, BBC iPlayer etc are available)

...

It's not.. perfect. If you try to push high bit rate (like BlueRay content) through it, it will struggle.

Ah, well, that does it - isn't Blu-ray content = HDTV?

I'm thinking more along the lines of the 35 to 40 GB BR Rips. The bitrate is high, and most lower end computers can't deal with the content unless it's downsampled.

need Blu-ray, but my current mediacenter box won't do HDTV and won't work with an upgraded videocard. I don't have a particular desire for HDTV, but I have to program MythTV to avoid recording anything in HD, which is a bit of a hassle.

I've not had to explicitly avoid HD content. I have played BBC iPlayer content with it.. and I think it was the HD version. I think. C. -- openSUSE 12.3 x86_64, KDE 4.10 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

On 5/26/2013 1:12 PM, Per Jessen wrote:

HDTV causes my current box (nothing fancy, just an ancient IBM desktop, very quiet) to struggle.

This thread looks interesting and I would like to throw in my comments. My media center PC was an older IBM desktop model with a Hauppauge PVR250 card. I used the RS-232 port to control the DirectTV receiver. The motherboard died recently and I wanted to replace it without having to spend a lot of money replacing parts because they aren't compatible with the new board. I got lucky and stumbled on a good board that has great legacy support. This board has IDE and SATA so I didn't have to replace the drive. It even has floppy, parallel, serial, gigabit ethernet, a decent ATI onboard video and two PCI slots so I can still use the TV card. Another important thing for me is that this one required only the 4 pin 12v plug instead of 8 pin so it is compatible with the existing power supply. Now I have a nice 4 core AMD, 8GB RAM and with AMD's cool and quiet, this computer is much more quiet than it used to be so in general I would say this computer makes a nice media center pc. This board is: http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/880GM-LE%20FX/ Perhaps this board would fit the need of the original poster as well as for those discussing media center use. I have this computer setup with dual boot with Windows 7 and SuSE 12.3. The Windows side is working ok but I still have some work to get SuSE to work with the video. I am using the VGA port for the monitor and the DVI port for the television. Damon Register -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Saturday, 2013-05-25 at 18:47 -0400, Cristian Rodríguez wrote:

Yes, test if what you read about usb-to-rs232 adapters being problematic is true in practice, they might just have been using crappy adapters.

There is no hardware handshake. Or no hardware IRQ on receive of a char or toggle a line, thus no-way you can use them things with GPS precision clocks. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. (from 12.1 x86_64 "Asparagus" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlGhQTUACgkQtTMYHG2NR9WurwCgj3SoNAE1xzb+9VYan2Xp3QE8 kr4AnjSek7FbUrWYFESDY1cxE861wQPL =2srL -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Malcolm wrote:

On Sat 25 May 2013 06:07:38 PM CDT, Greg Freemyer wrote:

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All,

I built a webserver for a rs-232 connected weatherstation from 1998 era laptop. (256 MB ram, low power CPU)

I only used the screen / keyboard early on to configure things. Also the laptop never moves so there is no advantage to it being a laptop. The laptop has died so I want to replace it.

I'd like the replacement to be relatively small so it can fit under a bed, etc.

I've got a keyboard / mouse / monitor I can hook up for the initial build, but I would hope after that all support would be via ssh. I'd like the PC to have a rs-232 connection just because I've read the weatherstation doesn't work well with usb-to-rs232 adapters.

Recommendations?

Maybe an ARM based platform (one supported by openSUSE).

Thanks Greg Hi What about a pico-itx device, I have one running SLES 11 SP2 with a 8GB IDE SSD for the OS and a rotating 250GB SATA for data... it has a serial port....

That looks like a good form factor, now I still need to pick an actual pc. Greg -- Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2013-05-26 04:12, Malcolm wrote:

On Sat 25 May 2013 06:07:38 PM CDT, Greg Freemyer wrote:

...

Recommendations?

Maybe an ARM based platform (one supported by openSUSE).

What about a pico-itx device, I have one running SLES 11 SP2 with a 8GB IDE SSD for the OS and a rotating 250GB SATA for data... it has a serial port....

Perhaps a Raspberry Pi. It's ARM, and the wikipedia article says they start at 25$... Of course, that's only the board. - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 12.1 x86_64 "Asparagus" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlGiCLkACgkQIvFNjefEBxo1lgCfV1yaNUPmHIZlxCWxEZBGZd53 iNAAmwe4Yg993vwUun1WCdgnk3QtsLZN =MV5e -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 2013-05-28 15:26, Dave Howorth wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

Perhaps a Raspberry Pi. It's ARM, and the wikipedia article says they start at 25$... Of course, that's only the board.

The serial port on the Pi is a 3-wire software emulation using two GPIO pins. So no hardware flow control etc.

Oh... :-( - -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 12.1 x86_64 "Asparagus" at Telcontar) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlGkuUIACgkQIvFNjefEBxo9eACgludOU/xxe8xgNUlCJhw69H9/ 3rgAoKjlFOVGHMVuQByVCp1JT+Umoh3V =745N -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

From: Dirk Gently To: opensuse Subject: Re: [opensuse] low cost PC with a RS-232 port? Possibly an ARM? Date: Sat, 25 May 2013 23:35:10 -0400 Greg Freemyer wrote:

All,

I built a webserver for a rs-232 connected weatherstation from 1998 era laptop. (256 MB ram, low power CPU)

I only used the screen / keyboard early on to configure things. Also the laptop never moves so there is no advantage to it being a laptop. The laptop has died so I want to replace it.

I'd like the replacement to be relatively small so it can fit under a bed, etc.

I've got a keyboard / mouse / monitor I can hook up for the initial build, but I would hope after that all support would be via ssh. I'd like the PC to have a rs-232 connection just because I've read the weatherstation doesn't work well with usb-to-rs232 adapters.

Recommendations?

In your searches, you might include the term UART (Universal Asynchronious Receiver Transmitter), as this is the circuit which is used to make an RS-232 interface.

Maybe an ARM based platform (one supported by openSUSE).

Thanks Greg

-----Original Message----- Hi Dirk, I think the general phrase "serial port" might be more appropriate than UART. When refering to uart, people mostly think about the chip, while the functionality last couple of years has be incorporated into the south-bridge. ARM based devices might be better in some aspects (power, price, size) but most of them don't have a serial port or lack mem/cpu-power to do something useful <<<<<<< as a general purpose replacement pc. To avoid flames, for some single purpose projects ARM-boxes are ideal. hans. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Dnia poniedziałek, 27 maja 2013 12:31:19 Per Jessen pisze:

I like that one, but the European (de,ch) shops seem to only carry the Cubieboard, not the baseboard.

Check sellers with international shipping ;) This one https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/ with shipping to Poland +18$ (est). -- Pozdrawiam / Best regards, Mariusz Fik openSUSE Community Member GPG: 5FCE 7241 B3B9 32FD 455B C30E 42D6 6C88 9E83 7C3D

Dnia poniedziałek, 27 maja 2013 12:31:19 Per Jessen pisze:

...

I like that one, but the European (de,ch) shops seem to only carry the Cubieboard, not the baseboard. Check sellers with international shipping ;) This one https://cubieboard.myshopify.com/ with shipping to Poland +18$ (est). Here's a refurbed Dell Optiplex 745. "slim" it says--looks like it would fit under a bed, and the picture shows what looks like a serial port--also a

On 05/27/2013 08:58 AM, Mariusz Fik wrote: parallel port, all kinds of usb ports, a network connection, and it goes for $135. A full computer, not some kluge that you have to add all kinds of accessories to to make it useful. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883155682&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Desktop+PCs-_-N82E16883155682&gclid=CJ3F57jXtrcCFdSj4AodlWQANQ --doug -- Blessed are the peacemakers..for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M.Greeley -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Mariusz Fik wrote:

Dnia poniedziałek, 27 maja 2013 12:22:46 Doug pisze:

...

Here's a refurbed Dell Optiplex 745. "slim" it says--looks like it would fit under a bed, and the picture shows what looks like a serial port--also a parallel port, all kinds of usb ports, a network connection, and it goes for $135. A full computer, not some kluge that you have to add all kinds of accessories to to make it useful.

cubieboard is usefull from the beginning. You get usb, ethernet, hdmi, sata out of the box. Now compare power usage of those 2 devices running 24/7 :)

Yes, that is the key issue. Perhaps plus the longevity of the low-cost/embedded boards, but I'm not too worried about that.

I'm sure there are other ARM board that match with requirements (can run Linux and supports rs232).

No doubt, but the next issue is then support. I.e. which of those are the most popular etc. That's why I'm personally leaning towards the pcengines, which looks like PCs as far as Linux is concerned. I am looking forward to playing with an ARM board some day though, but that's a hobby project. -- Per Jessen, Zürich (12.8°C) http://www.dns24.ch/ - free DNS hosting, made in Switzerland. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org