So here is a low cost demo of a internet connected platform which can be used for a lot of things like monitoring , information display , communication , control , tracking etc.
So a basic device should be achievable at < USD 40 BOM at 100x quantity.

Internet Dongles are subsidized by carriers and bought in bulk so its cheaper to use them , they also come with Free data plans at start .
GMS/CDMA Internet modules on other hand when imported are quite expensive at low quantities.

Also the whole design is a low power and can easily run on batteries, Currently it runs linux 2.6.35 and has python so people should be able to develop easily.

https://github.com/baseapp/locux

We have also started putting it into our current projects , where it will be replacing some other low cost cores which used to cost like 6 times the cost.

And the BOM for now at 100x ( Not including taxes / shipping ) –

IMX 233 – USD 5
64 MB DDR RAM – 2.5 USD
MISC COMPONENTS – 3 USD
PCB – 2 USD
Assembly – 2 USD
————————
About 14.5 USD … without the micro sd .

And a picture with the Ethernet connected –

Our low cost linux board’s first output –

arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc (4.4.4_09.06.2010) 4.4.4
root filesystem built on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:31:41 +0700
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.

root@freescale ~$

The Hynix ram requires some modifications but for now things seem to be working . Some more pictures for you all -

Now off to mounting and getting the board up …

Why Locux ?
Many would argue that there are many boards like RaspPi, BeagleBone , BeagleBoard etc , but the problems with these boards is all are BGA, locally BGA fab is expensive also the PCB goes into multilayer. Our Last experience with Beagleboard was a disaster as after the initial prototype it was really hard to source it, It looks like the same case with RaspPi . Also no client would prefer a development board inside their product.

So idea is to have a really low cost core board with a basic base board which can be used for development and Release. The nearest counterpart is RasPi but it does not the product requirements we have.

Costing ?
We are trying to keep the cost of the core board below INR 1000 ( < USD 20 ) . Now if thats achievable in 100x production run we still have to see.

Specifications ?
Here are some specification we have decided on and are building around on for now –

* LQFP i.MX233 ARM9 @ 454 Mhz
* 64 MB DDR RAM
* Micro SD instead of Nand

Vision
Our aim is to build a low cost linux board which is helpful in rapid product prototyping and release. And which is available a decent pricing and volumes so that it can be shipped in products also. We plan to build a sample projects and libraries database around the project which further accelerates product development.

We will try to make it Arduino of the Linux world.

Licensing
It will be open source , but final license has not been decided yet.

Help us
You can help us by sharing ideas, joining the team as developer, collaborating in its life cycle. If interested get in touch using our contact form.

Preview
Here are some first pictures from our developers -

VideoSwiper (Web) – First product of BaseApp in 2011 , pretty successful and profitable now. It is a Mass Embedding and download tool for video webmasters. Something like mass grabber but orders of magnitude advanced ( PHP 5 , MySQL ).

Vidfetch (Web) – A Java based video streamer , allows you to save bandwidth if serving video.It also does video conversion and video downloading. Doing well we had almost no downtime since launch , and currently doing millions of api hits ( Java , PHP 5 , MySQL ).

GSM LED Board System (Hardware+Software) – LED Message display board which can be fitted anywhere in the world and controlled from single location, Based on GSM it allows placement in remote locations also. ( C# , SQLite , C and x51 Assembly ).

Queue management System (Hardware+Software+Web) – A touchscreen high end queue management system with full analytics. Event driven architecture with TCP/IP based connectivity between nodes allowing unlimited configuration all remotely manageable. It was a pretty segmented project with the use of a lot of technologies . Hardware was built with Microchip PIC18f and Atmega AVR. Software is a mixture of a customized linux , PHP5 , MySQL , Java and is platform independent ( C , C++ , Shell , Java , PHP 5 , MySQL , Custom Linux ).

BaseApp Studio (Software) – We went ahead and built a customized development environment based on Netbeans . We built it for our Riduino Product , but now use it internally for AVR based development and have dumped avr atudio. ( C , Java , Netbeans ).

Riduino 2 (Hardware) – A Customized Robotics Board based on Arduino but intended for robotics with extensions for servos , motor controllers , encoders etc while maintaining Arduino footprint and expandability( C , Eagle , Atmega328).

Secure Storage for Thin Clients (Software) – A Microsoft EFS like system for thin clients with our own custom Crypto algorithm and modification . Since EFS does not allow Cyrpto plugins or control I had to get a custom system built based on File system filter drivers allowing On the Fly Encryption and Decryption in a multiuser Windows environment( VC++ , DDK ).

USB OMAP Device (Software) – We built our own OMAP35x based custom hardware, easily reconfigurable for our clients for a variety of application. Initially based on Beagleboard we built our own boards it made us realize how difficult high end design is in India.Built Linux USB Device drivers and customized LibUSB on host side.( C , C++ , AngStrong Linux , OMAP35x ).

Embedded x86(Hardware+Software) – Boxed a few applications into embedded x86 boards and connected LCD’s and keypads to them , Made Tiffin sized black boxes for Desktop application. ( x586 , C , Python , Slitaz ).

And many more things not worth mentioning or cannot mention due to NDA …

And this was done by a team of 2 people , Me and another developer and having Fun while at it.

Hoping 2012 remains same more work less time …

You can also use the included class separately to suit your own needs.

This will not work as now videobb uses Encryption to generate tokens , I will update the php script when i get some time.

Till then unless you have the php solution avoid commenting.

For a reliable and always working streaming look into Vidfetch , Both VideobBB and VideoZer work using Vidfetch.

• Very hard to write,avoid unless you know what you are doing.
• Hard to debug and develop
• Very few experts and project development costs are very expensive if outsourced
• No real reference source code unless you wish to invest a lot of time
• OSR is where the experts hang out and best resource and forum if you plan to do it yourself.

Doing some research we planned to use a commercial framework for faster turn around and more reliability, since I am not a Device driver experts and here are some which i found which offer File system filter driver with sources.

• Crypto Driver – Its a new entrant , plug and play architecture which is easily extendable. Not much documentation or support options for now.
• Alfa Transparent File Encryptor – Well documented and complete in most ways. You cannot change crypto unless you get the code.
• CallBackFilter – Very flexible,well documented and was found easiest to use, They have very flexible pricing which is startup friendly.
• OSR DMK – Best in the league but was way out of our budget.

If you find more do let me know i will add them to my list and keep them for reference.

Good with PHP and frameworks experience
Javascript with Jquery experience
HTML / CSS knowledge
Loves programming and trying new things

Idea is to build great products and have fun doing it. Do get in touch if you are interested …