I've been scouting out the best solution for doing CNC control with Lazarus and happened up on a neat "set up". What seems obvious, after some hands on testing, is that for CNC (and anything that needs real-time performance) the microcontroller is the hot ticket. The humble microcontroller runs circles around all the other CNC software packages. It is a total game changer in the "real-time" world.
Well, I ran across some plans to modify my Linksys router into a "mothership" host for packaging this type of development environment. It is easy to add 2 serial ports, jtag programming port, sd card, and even a USB port (usb1.1). Now I can address these ports like any other serial port, over WIFI!
The router is flashed with OpenWRT firmware replacement, which is itself an open source LinuxOS very much like tinycore (probably the same .img Teensy needs?, x2nie). This means we can develop apps to run on the router itself. Think of the possibilities.
Now I can host all my files on the router. The operating system/s boot over PXE. The router hosts it's own "Repository" for the Tinycore OS. I can download the complete 9gb repo for Tinycore and have it local. I can add my own "packages" and maintain everything.
This could be a great beginners "weekend project" that I sure wish I knew long ago. It addresses all the configuration that is critical up front. That is what is so daunting for beginners, like myself. The soldering is very simple. Perfect starter project.
Thanks Paul, for your work. Your "approach" in your work has been inspirational. It is a daunting task to configure a working development environment to start with, much more if you add in microcontroller ide's, networking, etc. When the last few parts arrive (serial cables) I can test this puppy out using your Android app over wifi.
With this set up, you have all the tools to build, for instance, an autopilot:
Using BGRAbitmap and synapse talking to a microcontroller running servos...this can and should be very simple project for a beginner right out of the box.