[TowerTalk] SLIGHTLY OT - cluster

[Jim Lux]

On 8/4/12 7:34 AM, Larry Loen wrote:
> It's a cheap experiment and it probably should work.
>
> If your current software is open source and runs on Linux, then the
> worst you would have to do is recompile it and see.  Most open source
> software is pretty architecture independent and there is the old "make
> compile, make, and run" trick that usually works.
>
> While it may be "slightly" off topic, I think it is of general
> interest to those here.  For instance, I'm considering whether I could
> get one to control some antenna switching I intend to do in my new
> shack for the remoting I want to do.
>
> If we can manage the USB-to-a-breadboard trick somehow, I could see a
> lot of old fashioned breadboarding happening with computer control.
> The power requirements of these things ought to be very appealing for
> mobile, too.
>
> The main issue would be that the original doesn't have very many USB
> ports (only one, I think it was or maybe two) and so one probably has
> to work through a hub which isn't always the best.
>

I've been looking at ganging up an Arduino (or R Pi) with relays to do 
this kind of thing.  Having an Ethernet wire for control is pretty 
appealing, and there's inexpensive PoE hardware as well.