Best Mini Itx To Use With Ez-board?

Question

What Mini Itx is most compatible with the EZ-Board? Any advice on how to use it with the EZ-B would be helpful. Amount of RAM, HD space, etc.?

MovieMaker · Answer

I like MSI brand mother boards.

bret.tallent · Answer

Josh has a really nice set up on his Omnibot/vacuum project Jarvis. You could check out his thread for more info.

rgordon · Answer

working my way through it now......also looking for advice on getting it up and running with EZ-B.

jstarne1 · Answer

Asus C60 M1 AMD Fusion Dual core cpu 79.99 mini itx @ newegg.com

Excellent fanless pc. Give yourself 4gb ram and whatever hd you like. Solid state boots really fast. Use a Bluetooth sub adapter to wirelessly interface with ezb.

jstarne1 · Answer

Pico power supply 90 watts or above will power your board from a 12v sla battery for hours.

jstarne1 · Answer

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131843 You can pick whatever hard drive you want. This board used sata and u prefer western digital or Samsung for quality reasons.

jstarne1 · Answer

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771

This is the hard drive I have. 59.99 250gb

Please be sure to install windows 64 bit so that you fully utilize the second cpu core and full memory bandwidth.

RobotMan · Answer

Have you looked at the Nano-itx or Pico-itx boards?

Lumpy · Answer

This is the info I needed. Going to embed R2.

jstarne1 · Answer

Great lumpy glad to see the info was useful

rgordon · Answer

Josh, Could you also point me to the correct part numbers for the the RAM, Video Board, Bluetooth sub adapter and what ever else I need to get this up and running? Sorry,, I just don't want to order all this stuff without knowing for sure if I am getting the right combination of parts. I'm very much a newbie when it comes to this kind of computer hardware and will definitely need help getting it set up and working with the EZ-B. I know you are very busy so take your time getting a reply back to me. I very much appreciate all the help How will I hook it to a monitor? I assume keyboard and mouse will need to be Bluetooth?

R2D2 · Answer

Go! I thought the connection to the mini itx ez-b was made with a cable, I never imagined that was done with a Bluetooth adapter, while the computer and ez-b within the robot. Is not there a way to connect with a cable? Does anyone know the answer?

robot56 · Answer

I seem to remember Nieks omnibot project used a cable adapter from sparkfun instead of the Bluetooth piece. I know it can be done. I just don't remember the specifics of it.

rgordon · Answer

Been doing a little homework based on Josh's recommendations and here is the link list of parts. Josh when you get time please double check me on these parts. Also, I'm not sure yet about the power supply. The motherboard says 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector(s) & 1 x 4-pin ATX 12V power connector(s) The power supply says it "Fits any motherboard equipped with a 24pin ATX connector." Is 160W enough? Mini ITX Motherboard 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)  Mini Bluetooth Dongle USB 2.0 (100M range) Power Supply

jstarne1 · Answer

Everything looks good except the hard drive. You selected a 2.5 inch and that is a size and style a laptop uses. You want the 3.5 inch desktop version. I searched new egg and they were out of stock on all 3.5 inch so just grab a regular one. Its only going to make about 20 seconds difference on initial boot up but after it loads everything is in your ram while running. Yes 160 watt power supply is enough.

jstarne1 · Answer

Cheap drive western digital https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-WESTERN-DIGITAL-160-GB-SATA-8-MB-CACHE-3-5-7200-RPM-DESKTOP-HARD-DRIVE-/180970856837?pt=US_Internal_Hard_Disk_Drives&hash=item2a22b42185 39.99

rgordon · Answer

Thanks Josh for taking time to help. I was thinking a solid state hard drive would be better for a mobile robot. Or is it just the fact that it is an internal type drive? confused What do you think is the optimum amount of HD space for robot applications? What is the difference between a EATX Power connector and an ATX Connector?

R2D2 · Answer

Thanks for the info 56 robot! give out the link, surely has to be a plug and play style, I would avoid the process of choosing a COM port and connect wirelessly, greetings.

jstarne1 · Answer

Eatx is not a common term but it means enhanced atx connector which supports two addition al 12v lines. Its the seperate 4 wire plug that's often called the p4 connector. Plus it has 24 pin main connector. Anyways a 120 gig or so sized drive is great. When you first load windows create three partitions. One for windows one for a backup for system restore and third. Just for ezb files. Split them up equally.

jstarne1 · Answer

This way if you get a virus or somthing you didnt loose all your robots files and the system restore partition being that large has plenty of space to make lots of restore points..

Herr Ball · Answer

@R2D2 Here is the video of Nieks robot and his cable connection to the Mini board: https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/778&page=3

R2D2 · Answer

Thanks Herr Ball! Now all I need to know if communication is established by com port or something else is needed, Greetings!

Gunner · Answer

@R2D2 I have been looking at similar options so I can put my net-book on my robot and remote in using Team-viewer or Logmein. As DJ said in this link Replace Bluetooth with USB It seems that most any TTL-USB adapter will work by swapping it in where the current Bluetooth module fits (make sure to match pins/connections as some may differ in order). After that, then yes, is connects to your computer's USB port and communication via virtual COM port (Windows should recognize and install drivers). Thus you connect in EX-Builder the exact same way, by choosing the correct COM Port. Hope this helps.

R2D2 · Answer

Thanks Gunner, Your information helps me, I guess the data transfer will be faster with a ttl-usb converter, that with BT.

rgordon · Answer

Thanks Josh for all your help!

jstarne1 · Answer

Your welcome man!

rgordon · Answer

I finally got in the ASUS ITX + 128 GB SS Hard Drive + 4GB of RAM. Still waiting on a power supply from www.mp3car.com. These are Christmas presents so I can't use them until after the holidays. stress I have a few more questions: The SS Drive is:link The Newegg site does not provide good details about hook up. Does this HD get its power thru the SATA III cable? Or will I have to get something different? This is a laptop HD. Will it work with the ASUS ok? It was what the guy @ Newegg recommended but I have doubts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have a CFSOUND III link that I want to use for the robot sound and voice. It uses wav files instead of mp3s. It has a RS-232 DB9 serial connector. The format of the serial data is default @ 2400 baud (changeable), 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no flow control. Sounds may be started, queued, and stopped using a simple ASCII protocol. The serial port can be configured to appear as a Terminal (DTE) or Modem (DCE). CFSound_III_Users_Manual Can anyone tell me if this will work with the EZ-B? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When loading Windows 7, I understand I should use 64 bit. However, will I have problems with using EZ-SDK? Can't find it now but, seems like there was an issue with the SDK needing 32 bit? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, will I be able to hook up a CDROM drive that came out of an old desktop computer to the ASUS Mini ITX so I can load Windows? Sorry for being such a noob about all this. But I don't want to screw this up. Rex

bret.tallent · Answer

Hey Rex, I'm going to have the very same questions when I get to this point with another bot I am planning/gathering parts for. So this is good info for me as well.

Gunner · Answer

@rgordon The SSD you got will function and connect just like a standard HDD, the SATA cable will go to the ITX and power will come from the power supply you are still waiting for (assuming it has SATA power plugs... what model did you order?). The CDROM may not connect directly if it is an older IDE style connection, but you can use this to do the trick. USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE Adapter with Power Adapter and you may need this as well SATA 15Pin to Molex 4Pin Female Adapter

rgordon · Answer

Thanks for replying Gunner. Here is the user manual link for the power supply linky I'm still not certain even after looking at it. What do you think? The performance reviews for the USB 2.0 to SATA/IDE Adapter with Power Adapter from Newegg are really bad. eek But thanks, now I know what to look for.

rgordon · Answer

Yeah Bret. This will be quite a learning experience! I'm diving in with both feet. I'm so glad their are so many kind and helpful people on this forum.

Gunner · Answer

That PSU does come with both PATA (molex) and SATA power plugs so all you will need is a USB to IDE adapter sans power. I just snagged one of the cheaper examples; performance will be low, but not an issue with just a once in awhile install or use.

rgordon · Answer

bump

rgordon

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