[IAEP] Sugarized binaries? was Re: users doing python in XOs

[Yama Ploskonka]

Hi David, thanks

Texas Instrument's MSP430 Launchpad. at $4.30 including shipping, it's 
probably the most affordable, bang-for-the-buck MCU/experimentation 
board combo ever. Etc., no need to go into a full blown advertisement :-)

I have managed, with a few coughs and starts, to run it in several 
iterations of OLPC OS, using plain old XO-1 units.
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/OLPC_MSP430_Install (due for 
some code revision)

The /sudo/ problem we are facing is specific to Uruguay, where their 
benevolent administrators have blocked several features on the XOs OS

I don't do Windows, thank you very much. (though UY is painting itself 
in the corner on that one also, by embracing NXT)

Personally, I am more for the command line.
My reasoning is that those, very few, able to take full benefit of 
working with microcontrollers are also the ones who can grock command 
line no problem, sort of a correlation between their personal attributes 
and potentials. More importantly, text based coding is Real World, and 
definitely not for everybody.
I see that working for/with them is important, as it is those few the 
ones who might have the biggest individual impact in nation building, 
while their special and greater needs dismissed and potential for 
brilliance often lost in the name of Procrustean egalitarianism 
(standard Yamarant).

Still, I am enormously impressed by things like this color follower, 
that uses the XO camera and processes data in Tortugarte, then directs 
the motors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nnc9Rn9GbY

I see there is room for tile-based stuff, though for now there are 
deeper issues I have not yet solved...

Thank you!




On 12/03/2012 02:35 PM, David Corking wrote:
> Yama: Which model of microcontroller will you use? Which
> programmer/connector will you use?
>
> Yes, I think your mspdebug experience might be a 'user' and 'group'
> thing on the USB device, but it might be a kernel driver, which
> normally needs root access.
>
> If you use Windows on your netbooks one nice way to install the GNU
> toolchain to compile C programs is Red Hat's cygwin project:
> http://cygwin.com/
>
> David
>
> p.s. Have you seen Physical Etoys? It is free tile scripting for
> microcontrollers, though I don't think an XO bundle has been made. Low
> ceiling, but interesting.
> http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/
> Also Squeakbot and PhidgetLab
> http://www.planete-sciences.org/robot/boiteabots/
> http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/hirschfeld/projects/phidgetlab/index.html
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