Mini case for mini motherboard

I just got the awesome RoBoard RB-100 controllerboard, and decided that I would like to make it more handy during testing by building a small case for it with the right connectors ready.

Instead of wasting a lot of time explaining i'll just poste this series of images:

The card with connectors

The drill-bit case

Interior of the case

After ripping the intestants out

A small hole for the cables

Card inserted

Case closed

Holes for ventilation

Fan in place

Fan disclosed

Power

All connected

Keyboard and screen

First boot!

Installed first OS on the Roboard RB-100

After building a case for my RB-100 controller board, it was only natural to continue by installing one of my favorite OSes, namely Debian.

I followed this excellent guide, and in no time at all was I booting the RB-100 for the first time.

In steps:

1. I downloaded the .ISO image from the guide.
2. Inserted an USB-key of sufficient size (4GB) and waited for it to mount.
3. Opened a shell and on the prompt i figured out which device my USB-key was by typing "mount" as root (see the detailed transcript of this step below).
4. Unmounted the USB-key with "umount /dev/sdg1"
5. Copied over the .ISO image to the USB-key with "cat mini.iso > /dev/sdg"
6. Synchronized to make sure all buffers flushed with "sync"
7. removed the USB-key and inserted it into the RB-100 USB port.
8. Booted the RB-100 and pressed F11 key to select the USB-key as boot device.
9. Inserted empty 2gb micro SD card in the slot on the RB-100
10. Followed the normal Debian install procedure, answering the occasional question about identity, language, location and connection.

root@katana:# mount
/dev/mapper/isw_ejahfggfg_Volume01 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/lennart/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=lennart)
/dev/sdg1 on /media/6D9E-DAF4 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000,shortname=mixed,dmask=0077,utf8=1,showexec,flush)
 
The USB-key is marked in green, thus the device is /dev/sdg

In the end i could finally get my uname:

Unboxing RoBoard RB-100 from Trossen Robotics

I have been very excited the last few days, because the stuff I ordered from Trossen Robotics arrived in the mail.

The box contained:

• RoBoard RB-100 Controller card.
• Useful connectors for all the headers on the RB-100 (LAN, VGA, COM, Line in/out and USB x 2).
• Mini PCI VGA card matching the RB-100.
• 3 axis gyroscope with compatible SPI interface
• 4 x 12VDC electric motor.
• 3 x geared 12VDC electric motor.

Unboxing

RB-100 Robot controller mainboard

RB-100 kit cables

VGA Card

3-Axis gyroscope

4 x 12VDC Motors

3 x 12VDC Geared motors