Electronic Name Badges.

[Kevin Cozens]

Colin McGregor wrote:
> From my point of view, the commercial badges are nice, but I wouldn't
> bother (I have a solution that I am more-or-less happy with,
[snip]
> Also, keep in mind that we are NOT talking a hard wiring project here.
[snip]
> Any event, not a big priority from my point of view, if people are
> interested in going down the commercial route, or buy some LOW end
> controllers (like the BASIC Stamp or Atmel Butterfly) and/or LCD display
> modules I would be happy to help co-ordinate a bulk purchase to bring down
> the price for everyone.

You could certainly go the DIY route. I just proposed the Butterfly as an 
alternative approach since you asked "is there a more cost effective LOW end 
controller option than the BASIC stamp?".

AFAIK, it is cheaper than a Stamp, and is a complete solution that can be used 
"out-of-the-box" (just insert the battery, program the message, clip it on 
using the backing pin, and you're done). It also requires zero development 
effort and parts procurement (other than a battery).

A DIY solution might be preferred that uses LED's as they would be more 
readable and get noticed more than an LCD but would need more battery power to 
operate. There would also be the question of who is going to build the devices 
for those who would want one that don't know how to operate a soldering iron.

BTW, the ATmega169 used on the Butterfly isn't exactly a LOW end controller 
with its 16-Kbyte self-programming Flash Program Memory, 1-Kbyte SRAM, 512 
Byte EEPROM, 8 Channel 10-bit A/D-converter. 4 X 25 Segment LCD Driver, and up 
to 16 MIPS throughput at 16 MHz.

I'm not trying to force anyone in to selecting the Butterfly method. Just 
putting the idea out there.

-- 
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/           |"What are we going to do today, Borg?"
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172      |"Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
                                 |  Try to assimilate the world!"
#include <disclaimer/favourite> |              -Pinkutus & the Borg
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists