One a somewhat related note, Do you have a white paper or something describing how to send commands over USB to your various units? Maybe I'll write a Linux interface for updating the firmware.

I just got the perfect system for all my robo field maintenance, it's ruggedized, it's linux based, and the screen can be passively lit for daylight readability; the OLPC:

Whoa. Howmuch would something like that cost?

The OLPC laptop can be gotten for $400, but when you buy one, you also donate one to some kid in a third world country. So, effectively, each laptop is $200, but you only get one and the warm fuzzy feeling of being charitable. :neutral:

More infro here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...nosim/arm06-20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1

I posted about creating a linux build in another forum, and joe ford replied that they have no idea as of yet to go linux, nor open source. I've looked at the castle link hardware, it uses some pretty nifty tricks to establish a connection. I would bank on a programming card not unlike the ones available now for the ezrun etc ESCs. The only issue would be curve manipulation since a a graphics display is required for this, and that makes everything 5 times more complicated. So maybe having the same parameters available for stick programming, but allowing for greater flexibility by having smaller increments for values.

We don't need a handheld programmer. All we need is for Castlelink to work on the iphone...

While we're dreaming, how amount a Wi-fi based system where the interface is web-driven, and the ESC is updated via GPS? Totally OS independent that way! :smile:

iphone cant host usb though. It can only be the hostee. Only option would be a bluetooth link between the iphone and a castle link. not to mention recoding the entire software to be Mac oriented.

lol. That would be cool, but how many people have iPhones (I don't). A little handheld programmer just makes changing all those nice settings so much easier.

what we really need is a blue tooth link

I am sure it is harder than it sounds, but that seems to be the most logical choice for a programmer - running the full castle link software on palm, iphones, and blackberries. I hate having to drag my laptop to the track. I generally want to play with throttle curves more than anything...

Seems to me that trying to make the software run on a cell phone , palm, balckberry, etc would be a nightmare. I like the idea of an independent hand held programmer to run the software myself.

That could even prove to be a profitable venture for CC...

If it can program the throttle and brake curves then a handheld would be cool for me. I just don't want to lose any functionality. At least have some preset curves or something...

wow. i was about to post and say I already have a handheld programmer! I have an eee pc 4G surf(yeah one of the first ones) that I put xp on and castle link. I used to have some velcro on the bottom of it so I could attach it to my sleeve of my left arm and type 1 handed with my right! but it is great to have a laptop with an amazing battery life and still be smaller than the rc car Im programming. and of course if you use some other linux distribution other than the Xandros linux it comes with you could run it through wine. I do that successfully with my mac at home. I have windows xp installed through VMware and it runs castle link without a hitch

I use a modified mobile thin client laptop for the castlelink, FMA charger, eagletree datalogging, and spreadsheets. It stays on for 6 hours straight. Before the harddrive upgrade, it was 8 hours.