Carl W. Moser asks:

Anyone have any experiences using cheap PC parts for use in embedded
controllers?  How about modems, cables, Power Supplies, memory, and other
devices?  Any useful connectors?  I just read a post about someone using
a
PC sound card.


Carl -

We used a PC modem in one of our products, and it was a nightmare.  We
found a nice small one, designed around it, and when we went to buy for
production, it was discontinued.  We found an alternative, but then we
had to tweak both the code and the packaging.   We bought a bunch for our
early production run, which went well, and when we went for the second
run, guess what?  DISCONTINUED.

The other problem we had with these parts was poor documentation.  Not
bad from a PC owner's perspective, but from the perspective of an
embedded designer, the vital statistics weren't there.  They were buried
in the driver code that comes with the product.  We were able to get by
because at the very basic level there is some standardization in modems,
but it was still a pain in the butt to find the info we needed.

My suggestion is: if you want to use PC cards, use a PC.  If you don't
want to update your product every 6-9 months, don't use a PC.

Don