Onboard computer?

[asteb27]

The way I read the rules, each component has to be under $400, which means you can buy a processor, hard drive, motherboard, RAM, PSU, etc individually, and then assemble them. Each component will be under $400, but the computer as a whole could cost more

[tickspe15]

Yes but the computer would not be as compact which is usualy seen as a large drawback to onboard processors

[asteb27]

I can put a computer in a 7.5x7.5x2.25 case. This clearly isn't as small as these computers like the odroid, but it is workable, and it is running windows, with a core i7 processor. For vision processing, you can do a heck of a lot more with that than a cortex chip

[ekapalka]

Like a mobile I7 on a single board computer or an entire assembly with a desktop CPU and everything?

[asteb27]

Like an entire computer, same as any other desktop (with the exception of the psu, which would be a special 12 volt psu)

[ekapalka]

That was exactly what I was wondering about :P The power supply unit. How could you make it legal, though? I thought any additional stored energy was illegal...

[asteb27]

You could get something like this:
http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-160-XT

[Mark Sheridan]

Originally Posted by asteb27

The way I read the rules, each component has to be under $400, which means you can buy a processor, hard drive, motherboard, RAM, PSU, etc individually, and then assemble them. Each component will be under $400, but the computer as a whole could cost more

Thats what we did, we used a zotac computer last year. I think we even used a usb thumb drive for the hard drive. The the entire thing weighed like a 1/2 pound. I think the other mentor for 3309, David, can explain more

Originally Posted by tickspe15

Yes but the computer would not be as compact which is usualy seen as a large drawback to onboard processors

Yeah there are other computers panda board, raspberryPi and a few zotac that are really compact. We are shopping right now for a computer about the same footprint as the Dlink.

Originally Posted by ekapalka

That was exactly what I was wondering about The power supply unit. How could you make it legal, though? I thought any additional stored energy was illegal...

No, you are allowed to to put a DC-DC converter on your bot to get your computer power. It would not store any extra energy. It still gets power from your battery, it would be illegal if you managed to take energy from another source and not have it dissipate away before a match.

[dcarr]

As Mark said, we used a Zotac based system last year. Built in Atom dual-core chip and Nvidia graphics. RAM and SSD were added separately, each item well under $400. If you'd like the exact component list just send me a PM.

Due to weight and size issues, we opted to skip it this year. To do it right (prevent ESD, metal shavings, other damage), you really need to have a good enclosure for the machine, and even with a MicroITX system like this, it can take up valuable weight and room and we simply didn't have room.

We do have a raspberry pi that we've been playing with, and may use in the future. There is really a great selection of low-cost, powerful, and power-efficient ARM boards out there now, the Pi being the cheapest, but for a bit more money you can get something quite a bit more powerful and suitable for vision processing.