Regarding The cRio

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Never really looked into it


edit: you can always get teh battery plug thing at radio shack and rig it up to the power distribution board

If it has a battery then it need/wants power while there is no power on the PD board. It is probably a BIOS battery so you probably need it to boot.

As I suggested on the other thread read about the Adam Bots CoProcessor. Although it is geared for the 2007 IFI system, it should give you an appreciation for the task of developing a coprocessor and some info on using Gumstix form a team that has done it before.

Originally Posted by davidthefat

Looked into the beagle, I like it, but its purpose is too general, the other link has robotics in mind, so it has pwm out puts and stuff, but this does not. Will ahve a meeting with Mentors, Programmers and electronics

You cant legally use a coprocessor to control anything directly <R03>. The Crio still has to set all outputs to speed controllers etc... You can use the coprocessor to communicate with the Crio via Ethernet Port 2, RS 232, SPI, CAN etc... Please read the manual particularly the robot section before buying anything. Unlike the battery and the cost accounting issues, <R03> no custom circuit (coprocessor) affecting outputs is a straightforward basic rule that should have known if you read the manual.