The secret-for-now gadget, with the USB and Ethernet ports...?
General plan calls for having an app that runs on the PC, maybe written in Ruby with a Qt-based GUI. Or, maybe, it's an occasion to learn some practical subset of C++, and still use Qt.
But, for futures... I took a look at "what's a cheap PC-type thing." Netbooks are out. New thing is Chromebooks. Cheap. And... well, I dunno how you'd go about installing furrin applications on one of those, but an idea comes to mind.
I probably ought to recycle the web interface from one of the mil-gadgets from a couple of years back. Used AJAS (Asynchronous Javascript And SCPI) to do a pretty basic GUI. If I can insist on a modern browser, there's no reason I couldn't do up a nice instrument front panel in HTML5, still using the SCPI port to communicate with the instrument, right?
Except that what led to this train of thought was a notion for beta-testing the gadget, and maybe shipping a cheap netbook with the software pre-installed, to save trouble. And the beta-test site that comes to mind is under pretty tight security, and I dunno how they'd like having a Chromebook in their lab, busily trying to talk to The Cloud.
Oh, well: refurbished laptops can probably be had cheap. Have a quick look at Newegg: yeah. Many refurbs with plenty of capability (for this sort of thing) in the under-$200 category. So, if I want to ship it with the software installed, a refurb laptop is probably the way to go.
The super-deluxe model could maybe come with a built-in RasPi and monitor or something. (Yes, you can run Ruby+Qt apps on the RasPi. Performance isn't wonderful, but it does work.)
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