The Gumstix Portable PC Thread That Won't Die

abbibi · Post by **abbibi** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 11:23 am

you're right, the gp2x cannot host usb devices. I am disappointed...

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 3:25 pm

How has this reached 10 pages?

Wait, can the GP2X be upgraded? In terms of RAM/Virtual Memory.

KANDYMAN-IAC · Post by **KANDYMAN-IAC** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 3:45 pm

no usb host, no real peripheras support either. Also no chance of attaching a large storage device, I would like a PCp with a large harddrive built in. And since my current preffered screen is 6.4 inches that means comparative to the screen the device would be small and slim.

The other option I am considering is that of building something with no mass storage, just a compact flash slot, and a 320x240 res screen. Aproximately the size of a mobile phone, What I really want is a 2 inch LCD panel that could be wired to take digital input (not DVI).

Anyone know where i could get such a screen??

Post by **Sparkfist** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 3:58 pm

I'm jumping in here, would one of the soon to be released Via Nano motherboards work? They have a CPU-northbridge indegrated into a Luke chip, the Southbrige is likely powerful enough for 32/64bit generation and lower. They're also offered at 800MHz and 1GHz, so you have the CPU to run most emulators, they're also going to support likely 256MB DDR ram or more.

This I think would be good as all of Via's CPUs and hardware is native x86 and most emulators are written for that archeteture.

abbibi · Post by **abbibi** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:43 pm

Skyone wrote:How has this reached 10 pages?

Wait, can the GP2X be upgraded? In terms of RAM/Virtual Memory.

No, neither of those can really be upgraded.

KANDYMAN-IAC wrote:no usb host, no real peripheras support either. Also no chance of attaching a large storage device, I would like a PCp with a large harddrive built in. And since my current preffered screen is 6.4 inches that means comparative to the screen the device would be small and slim.

I spoke of future wifi support. There are currently rumblings about using this to connect a wireless harddrive.

Hardware does not connect itself. If you guys can eventually agree on the standard for a handheld PC's hardware, you'll still have to find a couple of programmers willing to take the time to write the necessary software. In the end it will just be easier to buy an OQO or something and put it in a new case with a USB gamepad built in.

Sorry to rain on the parade, but the difficulty of creating a custom portable PC is enormous. I wish you guys luck.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:49 pm

Hardware does not connect itself.

That's what hands are for!

But seriously, you speak like someone with quite a bit of computer experience.

As for me: I only build and sell computers on ebay. Hardware will connect without any programming hassle, you need only find the correct hardware. I recommend that everyone with PCp plans go to the manufacturer website of their respective motherboards and find the LCD compatability lists. You can use that to find panels which work with only minor (non-programming) Bios configuration requirements.

BTW, I believe that Sharp LCD panel needs a polarizer to work, so we would need to find one (EDIT: nevermind, the polarizer seems to come with it...I think). It also doesn't have a light source, but that just makes it even easier for us to use LEDs.

EDIT: Oh, right (cuddles KANDYMAN-IAC)

KANDYMAN-IAC · Post by **KANDYMAN-IAC** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:09 am

This may be of use its a short article about setting up another Sharp LCD to the gumstix that was a success. So its worth a try. I am going to see if I can get this gentlemans email, and see if he has any additional information that could help us.

7/23/2005 - Connecting a Sharp LQ9D011 LCD to a gumstix

I had a broken Compaq LTE 4/33c laptop sitting around waiting to get pitched, and a gumstix breakout-TH board leftover from a prototype of some other display project. I wasn't losing any sleep with those things sitting next to each other on a shelf, until someone asked a question about how some LCD display intensive software (Qt embedded free) would be compiled for the gumstix. A couple of days later, I had scraped together (literally) a working system, and I thought that someone might find some of the info I pulled together useful. I'm not encouraging this method of hacking together a display if you value your time, but the info here can be extended to almost any display in the parts pile.

I googled for the display pinout, and found it here ( Maltepoeggelexternal link ). This guy had connected the LCD to a VESA connector on a standard PC video card. The page is in German, which I have a passing familiarity with, but the pinouts are in English. Since I had the laptop housing and flexible flat cables, I was able to solder to the FFC (with some scraping of the insulation in key places), but it was quite time consuming. There were some resistors soldered to the FFC that I was able to solder to, so I only had a few places were scraping was necessary, but even then it was a big time user. I'm too embarrassed to take pictures of the mess I made, but I got it working. I also used info from that page to connect the backlight inverter. I powered that by the 12V line from a disk drive power connector, while the LCD and the gumstix breakout board were powered from the 5V line. So, here are the connections that I made to the LCD and inverter board:

Inverter Board --> Power Supply:
1, 2, 4, 5 --> 12V
3 --> GND

LCD small connector (CN2) --> Power Supply:
1, 2 --> 5V
3, 4 --> GND
5 --> (Data Enable, future connection to a GPIO line, currently unconnected)

LCD large connector (CN1) --> Gumstix breakout-TH:
1 --> PCLK (X1-3, Pixel Clock)
2 --> GND
3 --> LCLK (X1-6, Horiz. Sync)
4 --> FCLK (X1-2, Vert. Sync)
5 --> LDD13 (X2-4, Red LSB or R0 on panel to R2 on gumstix)
6 --> LDD14 (X2-5, R1 on panel to R3 on gumstix)
7 --> LDD15 (X2-7, Red MSB or R2 on panel to R4 on gumstix)
8 --> GND
9 --> LDD08 (X2-6, Green LSB or G0 on panel to G3 on gumstix)
10 --> LDD09 (X2-10, G1 on panel to G4 on gumstix)
11 --> LDD10 (X2-1, Green MSB or G2 on panel to G5 on gumstix)
12 --> GND
13 --> LDD02 (X1-9, Blue LSB or B0 on panel to B2 on gumstix)
14 --> LDD03 (X2-8, B1 on panel to B3 on gumstix)
15 --> LDD04 (X1-8, Blue MSB or B2 on panel to B4 on gumstix)

When I soldered to the resistors, all of the pixel data pins were available, as well as the pixel clock line. The resistors weren't in the order that I expected, so I'll list them here, as well. Going from Resistor 1 to Resistor 10, the were connected to pins 1, 7, 5, 6, 11, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15 on CN1. If anyone can see an ordering there, they are better at pattern recognition than I am.

Anyway, once I got the display hooked up, I had to mess around with the parameters I passed to the pxafb module a bit to get the display to settle down. I ended up with this (the options are all on one line) in my /etc/modules file:

1. Enable the framebuffer

pxafb options=mode:640x480-16,active,hsynclen:120,vsynclen:1,left:100,
right:10,upper:34,lower:2,pixclock:26000,hsync:1,vsync:1,outputen:1,pixclockpol:0

After getting a couple of little shocks from touching the inverter board while it was running by mistake, I mounted the whole thing back in the display shell from the laptop and glued it to an old SCSI housing that I was using for it's power supply. I glued the gumstix to the front of the box because I made the wires too short to mount inside the box (Doh!) and it seems to be stable enough to put back on the shelf. Enjoy!

-jwalters30
picture not found img/wiki_up//dscn0030.jpg

PS found this website in my travels... http://www.surplussales.com/ComputerAccess/fujitsu.html Interesting to look back at the past and see that they too were interested in the same niche.

PPS. Oh and another point, I've been interested in the NANO-ITX for a while, problem is that it has meant to be released since september. They still seem to be working on it, it would be the cheapest way to get an powerful EBX sized board, but i don't think its got LCD panel support And I would end up spending 3 times as much on an LCD arrangement. I think.

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:47 pm

I'm curious as to why the 6.4" LQ64SP1 is so popular, when it has been out of stock since shortly after this thread has started, if not before the thread existed. "Sorry, This Item is Currently Sold Out" kind of defeats the low price tag, espicially since typically EIO doesn't get replacements in very fast, if at all.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:58 pm

http://www.lcds.shopeio.com/inventory/d ... d%20Panels
Heres a pic of the screen. As you can see, it is almost exactly the same as the 6.4" LQ64SP1

It's price tag is a little bit more on this site, but i have found it cheaper in other places, i read that it is also higher quality.....I think this is the same. So if i'm wrong tell me.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:13 pm

well i was searching...and look what i found!
http://widesky.en.ec21.com/GC00429990/C ... CE_OS.html

Pretty sweet......might buy. And i'm sorry to double post and bring this thread back up........And you can get one free sample of the thing at there site!!!!!!!!!!!!!

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:06 pm

You know, I don't think there is really anything at all wrong with bringing up an old thread if you have new, relevant information. If anything, doing so keeps the forum LESS cluttered, not more so!

That thing is pretty neat looking, though I find the lack of a price annoying.

KANDYMAN-IAC · Post by **KANDYMAN-IAC** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 6:53 am

I just bought a 4 inch TFT VGA LCD, its true 640 x 480 at 200dpi. Its a Toshiba LTM04C380S, and is highly suported by the gumstix mainboard. Also It cost me 120 dollars australian, with 20 dollars shipping.

Of course currently its living inside a 2001 cyberbank pec-ephone, a cdma smartphone pda that never really took off.

It should arrive by wednesday at the latest. I'm going to keep it inside the pda till gumstix releases their new upgraded board design at around mid 2006.

this is it here
http://noraisin.net/~jan/pc-ephone/

specs
http://noraisin.net/~jan/pc-ephone/hardware.php

PS. I also believe this to be the same LCD that is in the toshiba e800 PDA, but i haven't confirmed that.

daleighan · Post by **daleighan** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:47 am

boy that thing is ugly

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:34 pm

That's really slick. Surely one of the many active PCp projects will come to fruition EVENTUALLY

Post by **Triton** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 4:51 pm

i have news regarding the host capability of the GP2X! it MAY have usb 1 host over the ext port, noone is positive but it seem possible mebe even likely!