[PLUG] Embedded Linux Project Ideas

[Scott Garman]

As I mentioned in a previous post, this email thread is intended to
track potential embedded Linux projects to pursue. Below I will list to
the best of my recollection/notes what people came up with at the
meeting, but we are also welcoming ideas from people who did not attend
the meeting. If this email thread gets too long I'll happily migrate it
to a wiki page.

Please feel free to correct me if I'm inadvertently including any
misinformation below.

*** Personal Telco Project/OpenWrt ***

The Personal Telco Project is quite active and doing lots of work with
wireless routers and the OpenWrt Linux distro. Russell Senior has a 
number of projects people could jump in on, including:

* We need to bring up a bootloader (either u-boot or redboot) on a 
PePLink WINTI board (from the SkyPilot SkyExtender devices)

* We'll need to add support for the WINTI board to OpenWrt

* We are currently working on debugging a memory leak in OpenWrt (seeing 
it on both Netgear WGT634U and Alix)

Another idea that was mentioned was taking some of the OpenWrt-capable 
routers that have a USB port and turning them into home wireless 
automation control devices through the addition of a USB to serial port 
adapter and the required software. Many home lighting systems are 
serial-based as well as other sensor devices.

http://www.personaltelco.net/

http://openwrt.org/

*** Open Source Board Support Kit/SDK for MikroTik RouterBoard ***

Michael Dexter mentioned that he would like to see the development of an 
open source board support kit and SDK aimed toward students using an 
open hardware single board computer. Michael will need to confirm this, 
but I believe the hardware platform he had in mind for this was the 
MikroTik RouterBoard:

http://www.routerboard.com/pricelist.php?group_id=11

One might consider taking the Linux from Scratch tutorial and adapting 
it to include details about a particular board.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

*** Thermostat which Accounts for Humidity ***

Michael also noted that an idea he would find useful would be a 
thermostat system which takes into account the humidity level, to create 
a more consistent human comfort level. This would be more of a low-level 
project involving some hardware hacking.

*** Microcontroller-based Garage Door Control System ***

Galen talked about how useful it would be to have his garage door close 
automatically after a certain amount of idle time (e.g, 10 minutes) to 
eliminate nagging worries of whether he remembered to close the garage 
door upon leaving for work. This would be more of a low-level project 
involving some hardware hacking.

*** Handheld Public Transit Tracker ***

This is a pretty ambitious project, but one that might also have some 
commercial viability. Currently smartphone users enjoy mobile 
applications that allow them to see the status of public transit lines 
in the immediate area (e.g, when the next bus is coming and how to get 
to the stop). There are many people who could use this kind of mobile 
application, but do not want or cannot afford a smartphone. What kinds 
of devices are out there (such as the Nokia N810 and Clarion MIND) which 
have embedded GPS chips and web access that could be used to develop a 
proof of concept application like this? Once that is done, the next step 
would be to "cost" the device into the minimum hardware necessary to 
perform the service (e.g, a touchscreen is not likely a requirement, etc).


These were some of the ideas thrown around during the meetup last 
Thursday. The intention of this email and email thread is to see if any 
of them "stick" enough that at least a couple of people are willing to 
start working on them.

Please add your own feedback and/or suggest ideas of your own!

Scott

-- 
Scott Garman
sgarman at zenlinux dot com