Thursday, July 20, 2006

UDP Pain

So I went ahead and purchased the Modtronix SBC65EC. Here it is with power and Ethernet:

IMG_0882

It took a while for me to install all the Microchip development software, but finally it was working and I compiled the Web server for the chip:

IMG_0885

So with the stock Web server working, I decided I'd start to work on having the board initiate communications. First I started with a static IP for the board. TCP transmission worked fine. UDP transmission was less promising. It ARPed the destination MAC, but then didn't put the MAC in the Ethernet header of transmitted UDP packets!!!

Well, at least I have the source code and if motivated I can find the bug myself, fix it, and recompile. It also isn't clear to me how/if DHCP works on the board.

Suffice it to say, I'm sick of these almost-IP capable microcontroller boards!

To cheer myself up, I picked up a 9.6V car for Sycophant II:

IMG_0889

Cheap Linear Motion

This article is on building your own CNC machine, but I am interested in the linear actuator part mainly.