I just bought a used tablet PC for less than $200. 400mhz. 128M RAM. 6G HD. 10" touch screen. PCMCIA 802.11g wireless Ethernet. USB port. At least one site talks about how to put Ubuntu on it...
I have a new netbook. similar type device.
I'd start by looking toward Xubuntu.
This version is supposed to be a bit skinnied down for running on smaller, older systems.
P.S. Has Ron Freund of the EVAA contacted you yet about trying to revive the ABQ EVAA chapter?
yea. I think he has talked to Victor.
Within the last 2-3 weeks.
He has an interested EVAA member who works at Sandia.
The current plan might be to make the new Sandia guy prez., and rally behind him as we can.
I like the idea of using the CAN bus. less wiring... Have you got a link to a simple description of it? I've got a rough idea of what it is, but a little more info would be helpful.
I think I'd be happier with a palmtop using USB (or serial or Bluetooth) to provide a terminal to an on-board computer...
to be honest, I have almost no idea what CAN bus is.
I hear it is a 2-wire interface.
I saw that CAN was one of the interfaces on this MAKE controller board, and got excited.
I hope there are some methods of optoisolation on this bus.
The sensors would be all over a 120-300v potential ladder.
We will be needing some sort of isolation to get them all speaking
w.r.t. some "ground" of the CAN bus.
Perhaps it will be easy, and/or cheap, to put our own optoisolator between module voltage sensors and the CAN bus.