[aprssig] SheevaPlug plug computers for igates?

[Heikki Hannikainen]

On Wed, 25 Feb 2009, Jason KG4WSV wrote:

> The dd-wrt /wrt54gl igates discussed here recently have wifi and DC
> power, and a UART if you want to hack a bit.  Not sure about USB
> (guess it depends on the router and/or willingness to ack, wrt54gl
> doesn't have it out of the box).  All this for about half the current
> price of the SheevaPlug.
>
> Oh yeah, there's the slug - NSLU2.  Even cheaper than the WRT54GL (but
> no wifi).  again, DC power.

   I've got one of each. The WRT54GL has 16M of RAM and 4M of flash. The 
NSLU2 has 32M of RAM and 8M of flash. I've set up an igate in the NSLU2 
with aprx. It's a bit tricky, because of very little memory, and slow 
(because of the slow CPU), but it certainly can be done. The NSLU2 has 
been discontinued in 2008, so it's availability is going down. It also 
requires 5V power (around 1A I think). The WRT54GL runs directly on 12V, 
which is nice. Also, the NSLU2 doesn't automatically power on and boot up 
after a power outage, unless you power it via the USB port or do a 
hardware mod.

   Personally, after trying out this path, I'd much prefer developing stuff 
on hardware which officially supports doing so, and wouldn't require 
tricky hardware modifications. Especially, if it would be for a 
manufactured kit or plug-n-play product. 512M of RAM and flash would be 
nice, too.

   - Hessu