Has anyone seen this yet? Looks to be like the Wiport, but less expensive and proabably a little better.
lantronix.com/device-networking/embedded-device-servers/matchport.html
wow, that looks like quite the deal, nice and small too, cant seem to find the price though…
[size=75]ps you stole my name 
jk, us jareds need to stick together[/size]
Lantronix has several products along those lines that are interesting. There has been some discussion in the ROV group. Below is the listings from Mouser with the prices. There are several serial devices for less than $60 that could be useful in wifi setups using a bridge for wireless control.
$75 at Grid Connect, don’t think that includes an antenna though. It’s a little slower than the WiPort (max 230KBaud vs 960KBaud) and seems to have a bunch more web stuff integrated. They also have a $105 breakout board and power supply there as well.
so this thing and a simple board is how much exactly? Im geussing under 130???
Also, i realized its a little slower than the original wiport but seems to have much more integrated into this. Im geussing it works the same as the wiport with more features and at a slower speed (not by much 
)
Integrated web stuff…
This kind of reminds me of SkyNet from the Terminator movie
er, $75 + $105 = $180.
gridconnect.com/matchportkit.html
unless you mean a custom PCB… which would be $75 + $10 to $15 or so. Could easily be done for under $100 total I am thinking.
It appears to have only 1 serial port rather than 2 and does not have the 11 GPIO pins readily available. It does have a lot of “reserved” pins though so I sent an e-mail and asked what that was about.
Still, if you are just looking for a way to get to your SSC-32 wirelessly it is a pretty robust solution. A breakout board would be simpler for this than the WiPort. It seems like it could easily be a batchpcb.com job to make something that stacks with the SSC-32.
Did some one say BatchPCB?
lol, and this is CHEAPER than the Wiport?? Not by much
Actually Joe the comparable WiPort develpoment kit is about $295+shipping so it’s a lot cheaper, by over $100.
A PCB made with a service like BatchPCB.com would be about $35 for one ($15 of which is handling and shipping) and need about $15 worth of parts. You also need a $4 antenna which is seperate from the MatchPort module. So PCB + parts + antenna is about $55, plus the module at $75 + $5 shipping, $130 for the whole thing. This is about $5 more than JUST the WiPort module and an antenna (meaning you’d still need a WiBoard v2 or v3 to use it, if you can buy one somewhere) and if you made more than just 1 it would be less than the cost of a WiPort module, in the $115 to $120 range for the whole thing… like about the cost of a high end servo. 
This one also does not have the ethernet interface, which is too bad. If it had ethernet, one could have a microcontroller talking to it at very fast speed and it would ship the data right out the fast wireless connection. Maybe Lantronix will come out with a version that has an ethernet port on it.
I think I’d rather pull a LinkSys wireless router apart and use that for a complete gateway and robot connection. The router method for wireless would not be near as small as the matchport is though, which would limit the use to larger robots. I like the idea of having a complete roving wireless gateway though. 
8-Dale
I’ve been picking at this mini project on lunch break for a week or so.
In a couple weeks I’ll have one of these with parts on it and see how well it works.
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/matchboard0417b.jpg
It should stack with an SSC-32 and has TTL or RS-232 serial.
The GPIO pins are accessible as is the I2C port if Lantronix decides to support it.
Boards from batchpcb are $17.50 each (USD) plus about $15 s+h which doesn’t matter how many boards you get (within reason I’m sure.) Parts are all from Digikey at about $25 including shipping. MatchPort module and antenna will come from Grid Connect… roughly $85 or so.
Mike (SN96) coaxed me through the batchpcb learning curve.
When I get one put together and tested I’ll make the board gerber, drill files. and BOM available so any one else so motivated can make their own.
EB
:mrgreen:
[size=75]ps: yeah I know the silkscreen on J1 is backwards… always gotta be something.[/size]
I got the iogear bluetooth serial adapter $79 and a BTusb adapter $9 they are both suppositly 300 ft and have a bandwidth of 723kbps so i dont know about the best but its the cheapest if found and it works
I am hoping on a bit more range than that with an actual wlan connection. Already have the boards built and should have a matchport later this week so I will see how it works then.
A big part of this was just a learning experience / excuse for me anyway. The quality of the PCBs from batchPCB was decent and I have no complaints with the cost. For the MatchPort I don’t have a specific application in mind. Making a simple and tested PCB design available for anyone else desiring to use it was as much a goal as anything.
From the learning part though I already have another personal PCB project sketched up for my ROV once I get some info from a co-worker. Compared to some of what I do for work it’s not a big deal but then again I only need 1 board and I sure don’t need the $150 of NRE/tool charges either. This entire MatchPort project was less than that and I think the process is easy to replicate on more complicated stuff so I personally feel like it was worth the expense.
Ok so here are pics of the MatchBoard as it is assembled
Bare PCB
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/2149.JPG
SMD parts installed
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/2152.JPG
TH parts installed
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/2154.JPG
MatchPort installed
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/2155.JPG
Side view of the completed assembly
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/2156.JPG
Fuzzy pic of the MatchBoard mounted to an SSC-32 and the bracket used on the BRAT, but you get the idea anyway. Could just as easily be an ABB.
http://users.adelphia.net/~eballou/MatchBoard/2157.JPG
Other than making sure the regulator was providing the 3.3V I have not had an opportunity to test this yet. Probably be later this week or this weekend.
EB
:mrgreen:
Thats a nice new toy ya got there! I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one of those this summer.
OMG Eddie! It looks perfect! Very well layed out, and correct me if I’m wrong, but are those Fiducials I see on the board?
LMAO! Print it!!!
oh. my. head. 
someone has entirely way too much free time.
