marvell plug computer

I was reading about that, specs look very interesting, but I can't think of what I would use it for, either because of price or the odd form factor.

Cool device. I'm surprised by the low price. As this technology becomes cheaper and cheaper I hope it starts being manufactured into appliances and other normally unconnected devices in the home. That would be sweet...

As it stands now, I wonder if this device could be used as an Asterisk server or homemade NAS. Maybe it could even run a stripped down version of MisterHouse or other software controllers.

If there was a USB touchscreen monitor out there, maybe this could drive a screen on a wall for your automation system. I know Samsung has a monitor that does video over USB (at least for your 2nd and 3rd monitors on a single PC), but I'm not aware of any USB monitors or touchscreens without any VGA/DVI requirement.

EDIT
I just noticed this thread discussing a touchscreen USB monitor... maybe it could be connected to one of these Marvell computers?

thought i would bump this thread as i just picked up a seagate dockstar (from here http://goo.gl/FO6M ) for $25. the dockstar is a derivative of the plug with gigE, 3 usb ports but only 128MB ram. i disabled the pogoplug software on it & used this link http://goo.gl/cXGh to install debian onto a 4gb usb stick.

in the 3 days since i got it:

- set it up as a IP contact closure device using a dealextreme $5 gamepad & hacked some perl from xPL-perl to send the input changes via xPL
- set it up as a bluetooth proximity zone with a $2 bluetooth usb dongle & more hacked perl from xPL-perl
- installed a webcam (only got 1 of 3 webcams to work) and motion ( http://goo.gl/JC4Dx ) for webcam motion detection
- installed sphinx (http://goo.gl/RZ7n ), an open source VR package, and have gotten voice recognition working as well
- there is a native binary for a squeezebox emulator ( http://goo.gl/tWYJH ) so it works as a headless squeezebox player
i ordered a couple more units today. i plan on using one to 'upgrade' my public webserver from a linksys nslu2. the dock is about 4.5x faster and only uses 3 watts.

Think I can get sound to work? I have a little project in mind which would require a low powered linux appliance, supporting audio out, but cost has been an issue so far.

I do like the idea of using these around the house as BT proximity detectors, you could actually create a tracking system assuming distance is decent.

Wow, I've got two of these dockstars...and actually, it has 4 USB ports. The top one just needs an adapter (1 bought 2 of them on ebay for $4 including shipping).

edit: sorry, I just saw your link you posted about getting Debian on there!

I wanted to get rid of the stock OS, just because of it's calling home. Right now I just tell my DHCP server to assign a non routable gateway to the box, so it can't get out of my local network...but I'd like to get something else on there.

I also like your idea of using the BT stuff. I've been wanting to do something like that for a while, but haven't had a good way to remote a BT dongle.

I'd really like to try this out.

So far, I've only used them as USB drive extenders (I put 3 of my USB drives on there and use them for backing stuff up).

--Dan

boyfly said:

EDIT
I just noticed this thread discussing a touchscreen USB monitor... maybe it could be connected to one of these Marvell computers?

Click to expand...

Looks like you COULD get away with it:

http://www.mimomonitors.com/pages/frequent...d-questions-faq (at the end of it)
then:
http://libdlo.freedesktop.org/wiki/

Dan (electron) said:

Think I can get sound to work? I have a little project in mind which would require a low powered linux appliance, supporting audio out, but cost has been an issue so far.

I do like the idea of using these around the house as BT proximity detectors, you could actually create a tracking system assuming distance is decent.

Click to expand...

i used it with a usb soundblaster and it worked flawlessly. was playing mp3s with mpg123 and the squeezeslave works well too. there was one glitch i ran into after installing mpg123 (high cpu) but i found a solution quickly (link in my blog post http://goo.gl/nWSVc )

drozwood90 said:

Wow, I've got two of these dockstars...and actually, it has 4 USB ports. The top one just needs an adapter (1 bought 2 of them on ebay for $4 including shipping).

Click to expand...

i forgot about the top one since it has a mini-usb connector. good find on the adapters. i ended up using a $2 usb hub i had lying around.

drozwood90 said:

I also like your idea of using the BT stuff. I've been wanting to do something like that for a while, but haven't had a good way to remote a BT dongle.

I'd really like to try this out.

Click to expand...

this is an ideal application for xPL since it's lightweight and can run on a variety of platforms, but people are reluctant to use it.

the debian install was really straightforward. installing apps is a little more work as you'll run into dependencies they need and have to install those. but the apt-get package manager handles it well after you figure out what you need.

I think most users find xPL too intimidating. A BT based triangulation project might be all thats needed to really kickstart it

edit: I just ordered one, for various experiments. Hopefully I can find something similar, this cheap, in the near future.

Dan (electron) said:

I think most users find xPL too intimidating. A BT based triangulation project might be all thats needed to really kickstart it

edit: I just ordered one, for various experiments. Hopefully I can find something similar, this cheap, in the near future.

Click to expand...

that's too bad because there's a bunch of really useful xPL apps out there (especially mine for example, i recently wrote an xPL interface to google's powermeter ( http://goo.gl/N918 ) and an app to check gmail accounts and send short emails through them without the need for an ssl wrapper like stunnel ( http://goo.gl/RhBD )

on a side note, i posted a link to this topic over on the homeseer board's discussion of the plug and it was deleted

What thread did you post that link in? I'll check it out.

damage,

I've considered getting xPL installed on HS for a long time. Are you using this with HS? It appears you are a Hs user...but not sure if you are using the xAP server with Hs or not. If you are, which one are you using? The MCS one?

--Dan

Dan (electron) said:

What thread did you post that link in? I'll check it out.

Click to expand...

it wasn't much of a discussion (and an old thread like this one), so i thought i'd revive it by pointing it here http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=139801

drozwood90 said:

damage,

I've considered getting xPL installed on HS for a long time. Are you using this with HS? It appears you are a Hs user...but not sure if you are using the xAP server with Hs or not. If you are, which one are you using? The MCS one?

--Dan

Click to expand...

not a HS user, but i do go over to the board to get ideas...and posts deleted i don't think there's even an xPL plugin for HS and not sure if any of the xAP plugins talk xPL too. however, i have written an app that contains a scripting engine and talks xPL and xAP so it should be trivial for a HS user to write a script in it that uses the HS activex object allowing access to whatever HS exposes.