>>The other approach would be to use an old XT laptop, they usually go
>>for bugger-all.
>Read the adds in Nuts & Volts. It is not hard to find XT
>motherboard for $15 - $20. I got one which includes monitor, keyboard,
>serial, parallel and floppy controlled; for $20. With this board, you
>could plug the computer into keyboard, monitor, and floppy drive. Boot up
>and execute the robot program, then UN-plug the monitor, keyboard, and
>floppy before sending it on its way. It will keep running as long as
>it's powered.
Yep. If you used the Pcb out of a keyboard (to avoid a keyboard error on
bootup) you could boot from the floppy, running the robot program from the
autoexec and eliminate the need for a monitor. The robot program would also
be on the floppy provided it was small enough.
On the keyboard front, my first embedded PC project was a dialup database,
I used the PCB out of a keyboard to send commands from a DTMF circuit that
connected to the phone line. A keyboard provides a lot of potential inputs.
(My board came from: Electronics & computers Surplus City; 1490
>W. Artesia Blvd.; Gardena, CA 90248; (800) 543-0540)
>
Amazing! XT boards still available <g>
Dave Everett