I agree with the TimeSys issues you mention. It seems it was really only meant to show off a few features of the board and not really for day-to-day use. I noticed there is still an available online TimeSys build utility on the LinuxLink/TimeSys site that allows you to do custom TimeSys builds. I may test that out, but I think installing Ubuntu or other distro would be the way to go for general use with those boards.
As far as I am aware the same Explorer Board works for both Gizmo boards. I believe that hardware remained the same from the Gizmo1 kit to the Gizmo2 kit.
As best I can tell, neither retailer has a full Gizmo 2 kit (with Explorer Board, Sage EDK and Sage Smartprobe), nor does anyplace else on the planet (unless they do not offer it online and don't disclose that they have it) at some other retailer.
There is a pair of problems with the Timesys Demo it seems. 1) The RFS partition was not formatted to make use of the full available space as roughly 1GB of space is available to the user if they expand the partition from the terminal using fdisk (once they are certain they know which drive and partition needs resizing).
Instructions here (as the instructions which had been on the Ubuntu Mate page for the Raspberry Pi seem to have been removed, but were all but identical to the link I am providing): https://access.redhat.com/articles/1190213
2) No package manager is included or described by Timesys. So you have to download and install all packages from the terminal and replace each one individually when updated versions are released. Plus, with only 1GB or less space available to the user (once they've used fdisk to use all available space for the RFS partition) and additional software and updates are near impossible, although I was able to upgrade Firefox to version 46 (but 2 days later 47 was released and I would have to completely remove Firefox before installing Firefox 47).
So Anthony, is the Gizmo Explorer Board identical for both the Gizmo 1 and 2, or are they different hardware?
No problem David. I actually got my Gizmo2 from MCM on Tuesday of this week along with the Explorer board. The included SD card with my Gizmo2, however, was totally blank rather than containing the TimeSys demo as stated in the quickstart guide. I managed to find it on the TimeSys site after quite a lot of searching. If you have the complete Gizmo1 Explorer kit on the way then I think it will have the Sage Smartprobe and EDK software with it so you should be able to get some use of the Explorer board with both your Gizmo1 and Gizmo2 using it. I think it is limited to a 21 day license or something similar, not 100% certain on that.
Was the Semiconductor Store offering the Gizmo1 kit for a discounted price as well?
Your answer comes just 5 days after I ordered (and has now shipped) a Gizmo 1 complete kit (with yet another Explorer Board [#3 now, as MCM sent me a second to try and correct the issue of the icons and instruction sets not being delivered to it by my Gizmo 2 [the same with my neighbor's new Gizmo 2], plus the original I purchased from MCM, plus the one which will come with the new Gizmo 1 complete kit I ordered from Semiconductor Store [where Gizmosphere directs people viewing their site and wish to buy a Gizmosphere product]. It is unfortunate that no one, nowhere and in no documents are informing users/potential users that this is the manner it functions with a standard Gizmo 2.
My major concern now is that the two Explorer Boards I have on hand now both are clearly label as a Gizmo 2 device in the single page which comes with them. This seems to indicate that they cannot be connected to my new Gizmo 1 to have the Gizmo 1 pass the instructions and graphics to them. Does anyone know if the Gizmo 2 Explorer Board is identical to the Gizmo 1 Explorer Board, or if the Gizmo 2's Explorer Board is perfectly safe to use with a Gizmo 1 SBC (to have the Gizmo 1 program/code the Gizmo 2 Explorer Board)? Once it is programmed by the Gizmo 1 will it fully function with the Gizmo 2 for use, or does that also require the downloading of the Timesys version radu7 described?
I noticed the same thing and after doing some poking around it seems that unless you purchased the Gizmo2 and the Explorer Board in 'kit' form (also shipped with the Sage Smartprobe and Sage EDK software) then the Gizmo2 won't be preloaded with the ROM to interface with the Explorer Board.
In order to use the Explorer Board demo with a Gizmo2 that was purchased separately you would need to download the demo ROM and flash it to the Gizmo2 using the Sage Smartprobe and their EDK software. That is a problem for those of us that purchased the Gizmo2 recently as it seems Sage has gone out-of-business so getting hold of the Smartprobe and their EDK might be difficult and/or not worth the expense. I'm still looking for options or a source for the Smartprobe and EDK myself.
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