At 12:42 10/12/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Check out http://kila.com/

Thanks for all the help so far- I've got lots of helpful leads to follow
up!  On the subject of helpful UK suppliers, I've just got to pass on a
funny story from a phone call to one this morning- I've posted it to
comp.arch.embedded too but I expect PICers might appreciate it too...

I phoned up one of the UK suppliers this morning to try to get some
beginner's information and advice on embedded systems.  At one point, I
asked about the power consumption and supplies of the board.  The
'engineer' said that it needs 5V.  I asked if they had converters so we
could supply it from our 12V gel cells, and he said "No, it should be OK
running at 12V, 5V is just the minimum".  I was surprised (as the catalogue
we both had in front of us says 4.75-5.25V), but he was quite insistent and
offered to try one of their 5V boards on a 12V supply- well, what could I
say...

This worries me... if any UK embedded PC suppliers read this list, and see
a potential problem with the above experiment, could you please have a
_real_ engineer contact me?

Nigel
--
Nigel Orr                  Research Associate   O   ______
        Underwater Acoustics Group,              o / o    \_/(
Dept of Electrical and Electronic Engineering     (_   <   _ (
     University of Newcastle Upon Tyne             \______/ \(