AKO Main Controller

The main controller coordinates the activities of the components via the AKONET. The main controller is what the end user actually programs with the API. An architectural diagram of the main controller is shown at the bottom of this page. Currently AKO, supports two devices as main controllers: a PC equipped with a PC-AKO adapter, and a custom control board known as the MCB.

On the PC side, any PC with a bidirectional parallel port to connect to the PC-AKO adapter can be used as a main controller. A USB PC-AKO adapter is planned. The PC-AKO currently has device drivers for Linux 2.2 and 2.4. A Windows driver is planned. Note that while an AKOI2C driver exists, the AKONET driver which works on top of it does not exist yet. This doesn't stop you from controlling AKO components, it just makes it harder ^_^

The MCB is a custom board we designed, based on a uCsimm and an AKOI2C. It has a Dragonball EZ processor, 8 meg RAM, 2 meg Flash EEPROM, 10Base-T Ethernet, a serial port, a 2x20 alphanumeric LCD panel, and some momentary push switches and LED's. We have run the MCB off a 7.2 V Ni-Cad battery pack for three hours without discharing the battery fully. The MCB runs uClinux. There are several pictures of it in the photo gallery.

Looking at the architectural diagram, the AKOI2C is ready, as well as the AKOI2C device driver. However, the AKONET device driver, AKOLIB, and AKOAPI do not exist yet. These are currently being developed.