My apologies to Tibbo (maybe)

[lester]

I questioned Tibbo about the availability of WIFI on the EM500, they advised;

Dear Lester, The WiFi feature for the EM500 is ready and we will release it soon. The WiFi and flash Disk will be available for the customers and the related documentation will be published on our website. We will announce this news by the newsletter once we release, kindly inform your customer to register at www.tibbo.com so that they can receive the newsletter once we release any new features or products.

To that i responded:

I'm sure that they will ask, "when is soon", as some customers say they have been waiting for some time already.

It is probably better to sell the product on the basis of functionality that IS available. with a road map showing planned development. That way the customer is always pleased to get NEW functionality not disappointed with a broken promise. Just an idea !

I really don't have any issues with Tibbo, they produce nice products that work. However i can see that some people want everything NOW and Tibbo are a little too forward in promoting planned functionality. Maybe they need a reality filter between the development engineering staff and the marketeers !

Never the less, as with our beloved PBP and many of todays leading edge products...everything comes to those who wait.

[dhouston]

Hmmm, I don't think being unhappy with more than a year between promise and a renewed promise of EM500/GA1000 interoperability is a mark of impatience. However, I am 70 years old, have had a severe spinal cord injury for 43 years, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure 8 years ago, have had lung cancer and prostate surgeries in the past year and usually have my ice cream at breakfast - just in case. My outlook may differ from yours.

PS: My email from Tibbo was word-for-word like yours.

PPS: I've been registered with Tibbo for a few years and have yet to receive a single newsletter.

To try to put an end to this: If they deliver the long promised EM500/GA1000 interoperability in the next few days as implied, I'll be ecstatic; if not, I already have designs that use ConnectOne modules.

[lester]

Just incase anyone is reading this and wondering what an EM500 is:

The EM500 is a miniature stand-alone BASIC-programmable embedded module, designed to be used in combination with a standard LED/magnetics RJ45 jack. The combined footprint of the EM500 and a standard jack is only 28.5x18.5mm.

The EM500 can be ordered standalone or in combination with an industry-standard RJ45 jack and/or all discrete components required to complete the circuit.

And it looks like this (video): http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/content.php?r=371

http://www.crownhill.co.uk/product.php?prod=2826

And they are extreemly easy to setup and use, a short video demonstrates:

As i've metioned before, we are really impressed with Tibbo, they produce easy to use professionally presented products, with functionality that is easily accessable to our client base ( predominantly developers using BASIC) The Tibbo modules are BASIC programmable, providing a quick and easy route for our client base to extend the functionality of theor ethernet based projects.

The following video gives an overview of the functionality and the professionally presented FREE development tools:

[lester]

And for those that are interested, these videos show just how easy it is to setup and generate an application running on the Tibbo module:

Note how much time and effort Tibbo put into explaining how to set up the deveice and how to create your first application. Even down to explaining the syntax of the BASIC language used to create the hello world web application. (in video 2)

All the way through to a video showing set up of serial over WIFI

[lester]

And finally a user project demonstrated in this video:

[lester]

Tibbo is a great company, with great products, ok i'm biased, we're a distributor!

Never the less, users of this forum and all of our support forums, appreciate the value of support.....so does Tibbo. One of the most impressive things about the company, apart from its attention to detail and excellent products, is its commitment to providing good support to enable its product users to access the functionality of the deveices.

Tibbo BASIC and the the development environment are FREE to Tibbo users and they are backed by an excellent, informative web site with detailed on-line and downloadable manuals. A support forum powered by getsatisfaction.com, (if i was starting over, this forum would be running on getsatisfaction).

Email support and regular updates via their blog and email news sheets.

More.... unlike many companies - that should know better - they publish on-line without restrction their evaluation board scematics and all certification for CE and FCC approvals. ( i know that some companies do this, but not enough do!)

and a great tutorial on using Visual basic to interface to their devices (BASIC again...I love it)

There's much more than i've mentioned here, if you're interested look around their web site www.tibbo.com

Crownhill Associates have been Tibbo distributors for many years now. We moved to Tibbo having used similar products from Digi and Lantronics. Price, functionality and support...made the decision an easy for us !

[dhouston]

• and a great tutorial on using Visual basic to interface to their devices (BASIC again...I love it)

  It would be better if it were using PureBasic, a cross platform (Windows, Linux, OSX) basic that sells for $100 (lifetime license for all Operating Systems).
  • http://www.purebasic.com/

[dhouston]

The EM500 can be ordered standalone or in combination with an industry-standard RJ45 jack and/or all discrete components required to complete the circuit.

You can do your EM500 customers a favor by also stocking the low-profile SMT 2x11x1.27mm socket Tibbo uses on the bottom of the EM500EV. Jennifer agreed to stock it but I suggested it made more sense for dealers to stock it. I've the PN and DWG if you need them.

This method of mounting makes the unit a plug-in and eliminates the need to solder the 1.27mm spaced pins. Or desoldering if there is a problem. Users will need a board maker who can handle the non-plated holes on such close spacing. CircuitMart (they've recently posted to Adverts) had no problem with them.

The socket needs to be low profile to make sure the pins are securely gripped - too tall and they don't make contact.