[HH] Rethinking LinuxPC Robot -- the Linux PI Robot

[Federico Lucifredi]

4 R.PI boards =  140$
El-cheapo switch = $20
4 cheap ethernet cables = $20
4 USB cables (power) = …

I would buy a cheap (or bundled) motherboard and the best sub-150$ AMD cpu… getting multiple cores at 2+ GHz in the process. .  This seems to beat the pants off a cluster of R.PIs speed wise… not to mention you don't have to parallelize as much. And it is a PC, not a cellphone. And it is x86.

By the way, I am a fan of your project!

Best -F


On Apr 7, 2013, at 4:29 PM, markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:

> As many of you know, I have a robot project.
> 
> http://www.linuxpcrobot.org/
> 
> Over the years I have tried to keep the robot as a viable platform and
> maintain development costs to the sub $500 range.
> 
> The Raspberry PI is a weak desktop, to be honest. It lacks most of the I/O
> goodness of the Arduino. It is a poor choice for a robot. Unless.....
> 
> What about a functional cluster of PI systems on the robot? Tied together
> with an ethernet switch? Use something like MPI for distributed processing
> across multiple PI devices, and use each PI as a specialized I/O module.
> 
> Right now, I use an Intel Atom CPU to do everything and it is loaded with
> all the cameras and controls. 3 or 4 PIs may be able to handle the load
> better. Given the cost of a DC ATX power supply, mother board, and RAM, I
> may be able to get 3 or 4 PI systems running.
> 
> Any comments?
> 
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_________________________________________
-- "'Problem' is a bleak word for challenge" - Richard Fish
(Federico L. Lucifredi) - flucifredi at acm.org - GnuPG 0x4A73884C