DSL Embedded :: i am working on an ITX auto based system



I have some questions about things I am currently getting elsewhere, but I want to get everything at one place.  I got one of your Compact Flash to IDE boards and without hooking it up and installing the linux, I already love it.  It is perfect for the Auto chasses which has the "hard disk drive" mounted below the power supply.  I have the adaptor from 44 to 40 and  it fits nicely, but i Like your cable all in one much better.  I see you put frugal linux on a 64 meg CF and sell this with my addaptor but I am thinking I probably want 256 megs.  I got a rom from Newegg.com and I am currently downloading the latest to run this to see if it supports what I am doing.

I am working on another device that is definently vehicle mounted, not just based on 12 volt technology.  I can see that the CF would be more reliable in a vehicle than a HDD.  but the 4 gig Flash Drive may not be enough storage for more than a day or two.  That box has wifi and therefore could be backed up daily so no biggie there.

I would have no problem paying a licensing fee per box if these were successful and I may be interested in buying in quantity of 25 pieces of each (barebones auto computers and card reader boards).  BUT.  I am also trying to drive the monitor off of the power supply and want to know if you get the MX-2 power supply.  The MX-1 you sell does not have the power to power the LCD and computer and just as the computers power supply we were getting minimal volts from it.  I like the MX-2 better.  I can get this elsewhere if not, but it would be handy to get everything at once from one source.

http://www.mini-box.com/M2-ATX-....gory=13

One box is for DVR capture and only runs a single program.  They have a linux version compatible with the system and I can probably make it work.  They have an imbedded rom already. Those computers I have to get from China and I have to build a custom power supply as the available ones off the shelf can't do what has to be done by state laws here in Washington.  

The second device just needs to support MySequl using PHP and mozilla can handle that.

Is there a site license plan in place already and can I modify the start up screen to support our logo.  This could easily mushroom into thousands of systems or never sell a single one.  That is the nature of startup businessess.  But I have the equipment to Beta this project already and we are almost to the final stages of both.  I am not at risk though, we are not building this project on public money or borrowed money.  so far it is all out of pocket so we are stable.

I have tried a few Epia Via ipx boards for this project but want a fanless one if possible.  Your auto case has 3 fan slots (one is furnished, I found where to get the other 2) and the fans are cheap for the case and there is less to go wrong with the motherboard that way.  How much push does the 5000 have?  I am not looking for speed, these would essentially be running power point like programs from inside mozilla.  I do like your auto bare bones systems, i am currently getting the exact ones from http://www.mini-box.com but they carry the MX-2 power supply and it is 160 watts.  If these are special order items that need to be ordered in quantity, I may be able to pick up the quantity all at once.  I currently have all the beta parts already so the only quantity one piece, I already got from you.

Another question, the other computer motherboard I am using for the DVR box has an IDE compatible compact flash adapter built onto the board that says it boots.  I am sure that one would not need adaptors.  I tried loading Xandros on the 4 gig hitachi flash drive, but the bios saw it as a HDD and Xandros did not (however Suse did and it boots fine)  The rom that came with the board could probably be cloned and I can probably make a 3 gig data partition but these flash drives are a hundred bucks apease.  Any idea if they are more rugged than a laptop drive?  there are several with increadible G shock ratings but they are pretty expensive.

Thanks for reviewing this rather long post

original here.