[ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Carlos Sobrinho]

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Hello, just doing a pool on a good board supporting gsm+gprs+gps that is 
supported by eCos or could easily be ported. Also the current consumption 
should be minimal so maybe a ARM would be better

I'm planning in using a Falcom XF55 eval board.
Any thoughts? Suggestions?

WBR
Carlos Sobrinho 
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RE: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Gawie de vos]

Hi Carlos

I like the XF55 and it definitely has it place in the market. The SDK is
reasonably well documented and the fully functional demo applications will
get you going very quickly.

If your application is cost sensitive then it might be worth you while to
look at separate GSM and GPS modules controlled by a standalone
microprocessor. 

Cheers
Gawie

-----Original Message-----
From: Carlos Sobrinho [mailto:duckman@epilog.ath.cx] 
Sent: 09 September 2005 06:40 PM
To: ecos-discuss@sources.redhat.com
Cc: gawie@sulani.co.za
Subject: Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or
similar)

Em Sexta, 9 de Setembro de 2005 07:53, o Gawie de vos escreveu:
> I have one of their XF55 dev kits and it comes with eCos fully ported and
> some demo applications to get you going very quickly. They made use of the
> LWIP stack for their TCP/IP functionalities.

What is your impression of the board?
Is the ecos SDK well documented? All the necessary tools?
Did you check other boards or know others that can fullfill my needs?

> > My main objective is to:
> > ** track my position using GPS
> > ** send it through GSM+GPRS and do some sort of GET or POST
> > ** sleep for some time(hours/days)
> > ** consume as little as possible
> 
> Cheers
> Gawie

WBR
Sobrinho

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Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Carlos Sobrinho]

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Em Sexta, 9 de Setembro de 2005 07:53, o Gawie de vos escreveu:
> I have one of their XF55 dev kits and it comes with eCos fully ported and
> some demo applications to get you going very quickly. They made use of the
> LWIP stack for their TCP/IP functionalities.

What is your impression of the board?
Is the ecos SDK well documented? All the necessary tools?
Did you check other boards or know others that can fullfill my needs?

> > My main objective is to:
> > ** track my position using GPS
> > ** send it through GSM+GPRS and do some sort of GET or POST
> > ** sleep for some time(hours/days)
> > ** consume as little as possible
> 
> Cheers
> Gawie

WBR
Sobrinho

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RE: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Gawie de vos]

I have one of their XF55 dev kits and it comes with eCos fully ported and
some demo applications to get you going very quickly. They made use of the
LWIP stack for their TCP/IP functionalities.

Cheers
Gawie

-----Original Message-----
From: ecos-discuss-owner@ecos.sourceware.org
[mailto:ecos-discuss-owner@ecos.sourceware.org] On Behalf Of Wolfram
Kattanek
Sent: 09 September 2005 08:23 AM
To: duckman@epilog.ath.cx
Cc: ecos-discuss@sources.redhat.com
Subject: Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or
similar)

On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 04:48:00 +0100, Carlos Sobrinho <duckman@epilog.ath.cx>
wrote:

> Em Quinta, 8 de Setembro de 2005 20:52, escreveu:
>> Hello Carlos,
>>
>> Porting eCos to that board is going to be very, very hard. Please check
the
>> archives from this week and last: someone from Italy already tried to
>> modify the eCos installation on the XF55 couldn't do it because 1) Falcom
>> won't help you modify the eCos installation on it and 2) Falcom has not
>> released the source back to the community.
>
> I just searched my own archive and the sources.redhat and found some info
> regarding the board. In the docs of their eval board, at least in the
> website, they say that it now supports ecos 2.0 and they even seem to have
> some source code allowing developers to use different firmwares.
>
> From what I understood, they accept a TCP/IP stack, ecos 2.0 and two other
> proprietary firmwares.
>
>> Finally, it'll be extremely difficult to do your own port because the
>> processor on the XF55 is the ARM7TDMI embedded in the GPS' SiRFStar II
>> chipset... and SiRF does not release any technical details on their
chipset
>> without a several thousand dollar development kit and an NDA which will
may
>> prevent you from releasing any source written for it back to the
community.
>
> My main objective is to:
> ** track my position using GPS
> ** send it through GSM+GPRS and do some sort of GET or POST
> ** sleep for some time(hours/days)
> ** consume as little as possible
>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> Andrew
>
> Assuming that the port is already done but they don't release the source,
only
> a binary to link.
> Can this be done?
> Are are my options in terms of other boards? Anyone?
>
> WBR
> Sobrinho
>

As far as I know they sell their eval kit together with a eCos SDK,
examples showing how to access and use GPS, GSM and GPRS functions
and maybe some versions of FALCOM firmware (FALCOM and SiRF firmware
without sources). I think eCos should run "out of the box" (including
RedBoot) on a XF55. Data sheets (current consumption etc.) and manuals
should be available on their website. Perhaps you should check if their
firmware fulfills all your needs.

Wolfram
-- 
Wolfram 'L.A.' Kattanek     Institut fuer Mikroelektronik- und
Email:       LA@imms.de     Mechatronik-Systeme (IMMS) gGmbH
Tel: +49 3677 / 6955-44     Ehrenbergstr. 27
Fax: +49 3677 / 6955-15     98693 Ilmenau / Germany

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Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Wolfram Kattanek]

On Fri, 9 Sep 2005 04:48:00 +0100, Carlos Sobrinho <duckman@epilog.ath.cx> wrote:

> Em Quinta, 8 de Setembro de 2005 20:52, escreveu:
>> Hello Carlos,
>>
>> Porting eCos to that board is going to be very, very hard. Please check the
>> archives from this week and last: someone from Italy already tried to
>> modify the eCos installation on the XF55 couldn't do it because 1) Falcom
>> won't help you modify the eCos installation on it and 2) Falcom has not
>> released the source back to the community.
>
> I just searched my own archive and the sources.redhat and found some info
> regarding the board. In the docs of their eval board, at least in the
> website, they say that it now supports ecos 2.0 and they even seem to have
> some source code allowing developers to use different firmwares.
>
> From what I understood, they accept a TCP/IP stack, ecos 2.0 and two other
> proprietary firmwares.
>
>> Finally, it'll be extremely difficult to do your own port because the
>> processor on the XF55 is the ARM7TDMI embedded in the GPS' SiRFStar II
>> chipset... and SiRF does not release any technical details on their chipset
>> without a several thousand dollar development kit and an NDA which will may
>> prevent you from releasing any source written for it back to the community.
>
> My main objective is to:
> ** track my position using GPS
> ** send it through GSM+GPRS and do some sort of GET or POST
> ** sleep for some time(hours/days)
> ** consume as little as possible
>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> Andrew
>
> Assuming that the port is already done but they don't release the source, only
> a binary to link.
> Can this be done?
> Are are my options in terms of other boards? Anyone?
>
> WBR
> Sobrinho
>

As far as I know they sell their eval kit together with a eCos SDK,
examples showing how to access and use GPS, GSM and GPRS functions
and maybe some versions of FALCOM firmware (FALCOM and SiRF firmware
without sources). I think eCos should run "out of the box" (including
RedBoot) on a XF55. Data sheets (current consumption etc.) and manuals
should be available on their website. Perhaps you should check if their
firmware fulfills all your needs.

Wolfram
-- 
Wolfram 'L.A.' Kattanek     Institut fuer Mikroelektronik- und
Email:       LA@imms.de     Mechatronik-Systeme (IMMS) gGmbH
Tel: +49 3677 / 6955-44     Ehrenbergstr. 27
Fax: +49 3677 / 6955-15     98693 Ilmenau / Germany

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Before posting, please read the FAQ: http://ecos.sourceware.org/fom/ecos
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Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Andrew Greenberg]

>Assuming that the port is already done but they don't release the source, 
>only a binary to link. Can this be done?

Seems like it should be possible! But this is a question for Falcom, not 
for the eCos discussion list. It really depends on what tools, sources, and 
APIs they give you... but I guarantee that it'll be hard to work with eCos 
on that board, so you better hope they give you a binary interface to run 
your own firmware.

>Are are my options in terms of other boards? Anyone?

Not many combo boards like that exist... and of those, I haven't seen any 
that are programmable.

If it were me, then I'd purchase a commercial GPRS board and GPS board, and 
tie them together (including the ability to literally power down both 
boards) with a very low power microcontroller... or maybe an ARM running 
eCos if you need TCP support.

If you want to help an open source project :) then you can use GPL-GPS 
(http://gps.psas.pdx.edu/) as your GPS and microcontroller, and then all 
you'll need is a serial to GPRS converter board which exist by the dozens 
(just do a google search for "serial to gprs converter". Of course, that's 
not exactly "lowest workload" option, since GPL-GPS is still under development.

- Andrew



----------------------------------------------
Andrew Greenberg

Portland State Aerospace Society / PSU AESS
http://psas.pdx.edu/

Home:  503.788.1343
Fax:   503.777.5103
Email: andrew@psas.pdx.edu
---------------------------------------------- 


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Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Carlos Sobrinho]

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Em Quinta, 8 de Setembro de 2005 20:52, escreveu:
> Hello Carlos,
>
> Porting eCos to that board is going to be very, very hard. Please check the
> archives from this week and last: someone from Italy already tried to
> modify the eCos installation on the XF55 couldn't do it because 1) Falcom
> won't help you modify the eCos installation on it and 2) Falcom has not
> released the source back to the community.

I just searched my own archive and the sources.redhat and found some info 
regarding the board. In the docs of their eval board, at least in the 
website, they say that it now supports ecos 2.0 and they even seem to have 
some source code allowing developers to use different firmwares.

From what I understood, they accept a TCP/IP stack, ecos 2.0 and two other 
proprietary firmwares.

> Finally, it'll be extremely difficult to do your own port because the
> processor on the XF55 is the ARM7TDMI embedded in the GPS' SiRFStar II
> chipset... and SiRF does not release any technical details on their chipset
> without a several thousand dollar development kit and an NDA which will may
> prevent you from releasing any source written for it back to the community.

My main objective is to:
** track my position using GPS
** send it through GSM+GPRS and do some sort of GET or POST
** sleep for some time(hours/days)
** consume as little as possible

> Good luck,
>
> Andrew

Assuming that the port is already done but they don't release the source, only 
a binary to link. 
Can this be done?
Are are my options in terms of other boards? Anyone?

WBR
Sobrinho

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Re: [ECOS] GSM/GPRS/GPS board supporting eCos (Falcom XF55 or similar)

[Andrew Greenberg]

Hello Carlos,

Porting eCos to that board is going to be very, very hard. Please check the 
archives from this week and last: someone from Italy already tried to 
modify the eCos installation on the XF55 couldn't do it because 1) Falcom 
won't help you modify the eCos installation on it and 2) Falcom has not 
released the source back to the community.

Finally, it'll be extremely difficult to do your own port because the 
processor on the XF55 is the ARM7TDMI embedded in the GPS' SiRFStar II 
chipset... and SiRF does not release any technical details on their chipset 
without a several thousand dollar development kit and an NDA which will may 
prevent you from releasing any source written for it back to the community.

Good luck,

Andrew

At 08:39 PM 9/8/2005 +0100, Carlos Sobrinho wrote:

>Hello, just doing a pool on a good board supporting gsm+gprs+gps that is
>supported by eCos or could easily be ported. Also the current consumption
>should be minimal so maybe a ARM would be better
>
>I'm planning in using a Falcom XF55 eval board.
>Any thoughts? Suggestions?
>
>WBR
>Carlos Sobrinho


----------------------------------------------
Andrew Greenberg

Portland State Aerospace Society / PSU AESS
http://psas.pdx.edu/

Home:  503.788.1343
Fax:   503.777.5103
Email: andrew@psas.pdx.edu
----------------------------------------------  


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