What I/O boards do users want?

Author	Message
rhamer Senior Member Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: Australia Posts: 174	Posted: 11:16am 13 Jun 2011         RossW said   With respect, I disagree. LOTS of people (I'd dare say an increasing proportion of people and applications) will want to collect and share their data. And doing that over RS232 or USB is an increasingly cumbersome and expensive way to do it. Most people now have ethernet for their adsl modems, and wireless access points etc. Its a good, universal standard, ideal for moving reasonably large amounts of data in very short time with relatively high data integrity and very low overheads for checksums etc. Not that it's my call of course! I don't have a maximite (yet). No ethernet is (for me) a deal-breaker. (I just purchased 6 ethernet-enabled boards that are "kinda similar" to the maximite but without kb or vga (but with lots of other things I need more - onewire support etc) So we agree, you need ethernet, 1Wire etc, and have chosen a product that suits your needs. Why then would you want to turn the Maximite into something you can already buy? Altronics have sold well over 500 of these units, and they have created considerable interest. But why, when much more capable boards have been around for years? My view from talking to people who have purchased one is because they are simple (the Maximite, not the people) and they can programatically turn stuff on and off without having to learn a language like assembler or C. Adding ethernet is adding something that these folk don't understand and don't want to learn. If they did they would buy the same product you have. Also the RS232 cable length can be overcome in several ways including RS485 or serial to ethernet converters. Regards RohanEdited by rhamer 2011-06-14 Rohan Hamer HAMFIELD Software & Hardware Solutions Makers of the Maximite Expander. http://www.hamfield.com.au