I'm planning to develop a small status and control application to run on a Chumby One (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumby). I wanted a lightweight control system for TinyG, and realized that rather than building an Arduino unit up, I'd be better off using a "Robot mode" Chumby I have lying around. It runs on 5v, has a color touchscreen that's about 640x240, and have a rotary encoder dial and a large button for input.
I've already been able to talk to TinyG via the Chumby's USB port and minicom. I have to do some design work, particularly around the framebuffer.
I'm thinking of having three main states - manual jog/homing, status, and G code file selection and loading. The large button I can use as a start/emergency stop button.
I suspect there are only 3-4 people that intersect Chumby and TinyG, but if you're interested in this let me know. Feature suggestions are welcome.
I am right on the edge of trying to build a TinyG based system, and have also been pondering options to set it up without a computer dedicated to it, and some simple UI option. I had to go look up the Chumby One, as I'm not in the small intersection.
That said, I was thinking of an Arduino with an SD card shield, to load g-code, and an even simpler UI via and an LCD keypad arrangement. I was also assuming jog/homing, status line, and file selection, all accessed via an ATM-like UI.
I understand using the Chumby because you have it, but was there some other reason you dismissed any sort of Arduino-based option?
Nope, you have it in one. I also have an Arduino Uno and was considering going down the exact chain you are, but decided that I'd be better off if I used a box that already had all the features (and then some) I was looking for.
I'm starting to put together a development setup now. Since my primary interest is getting something put together that's durable and quick and it's been a few years since I was a hardcore programmer, I still haven't decided what to code this in. I think it's mostly going to be driven by how I want to interact with the Chumby screen, and so more experimentation is needed.
It's all talk until you share the code, right? :-)