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  • Author Author: michaelkellett
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It's Ethernet Jim, but not as we know it.

michaelkellett

image

 

This is my Ethernet switch board with 3 port Micrel switch, STM32F427 processor, real time clock and LCD display. (Totally open source hardware - copy as much as you like - I will publish Gerbers and other stuff on 26/09/2015)

 

If you want to know more about it then your first chance will be at Wuthering Bytes 26th/27th September (www.wutheringbytes.com) where I'll present this board design and talk about Ethernet without OS, IP or any other frills.

 

On Sunday (27th September) I'll be giving away a good portion of the last 10 years collection of development boards and kits (more than 20 of them).

 

So Open Source Hardware and Software plus free stuff and lots of other people to hear and interact with.

 

BTW - apparently Spock never said the 'It's life ........' thing at all.

 

MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    I;ve done one to port the parallel over ethernet (from pc to the machine ethernet, then conversion to the parallel). Then, I moved the mill machine in its location and thee was not sufficient cable to connect to the PC, but used a PC with the parallel port image image image So the experiment lied down. But worked fine. I saw that this is also used in a lot of plants where numeric control machines works and in this way - not verified personally - it seems that there is also a very low influence from external fields problems.

     

    Enrico

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Ahhh. It is just a ethernet switch you hand made. Light bulb clicks image

    C

  • in reply to clem57

    I can't see why you would use it either image

    (because I don't know what you are working on at the moment. !)

     

    I don't want to say too much since it is the subject of a talk  at an Open Source get together but the following may explain better:

     

    The board was designed as a simple demonstration platform and test bed for an Ethernet interfaced ARM micro which can support daisy chaining (so that's why it has a switch). The idea is that you can connect many such devices to one PC and get a hybrid of the benefits of Ethernet (100Mbit/s and every PC has a port) and RS485 (cheap multi drop). The board is designed to be easy to make (hand build-able as I shall prove) and is open source so you can take some of it or all of it to use/copy/make any way you like.

     

    @Enrico - yes.

     

    MK

  • in reply to clem57

    Using ethernet low level protocol (almost hardware) without the IP settings and with a specific piece of software on a computer - just to make an example - is very useful (and a widely used tecnique) to connect mill machine controllers (e.g. cam machines, laser cutters and so on) without the need to create a real IP network but with the advantage of the ethernet physical protocol layer for fast and reliable data transport.

     

    Enrico

  • Maybe I do not see why I would use this. Could you explain reason.

    C