Much like PC enthusiasts, robot builders have to make due with what is available to them when it comes to tweaking things the way they like them. According to a recent report from Robots.net, Gumstix microcontrollers are becoming popular with robot builders. When you see them in action, it is not hard to see why either. They just work.

The tiny Gumstix microcontrollers have become popular with robot builders since their release despite one major shortcoming - lack of I/O. But now they’ve announced two new boards to address the I/O issue: the Connex 200g and Connex 400g. The new boards include two RS232 ports, an LCD controller port, a USB device port, I2C, PWM ports, AC97 audio, and a JTAG port. The only downside to all that I/O is that’s it’s only accessible through two tiny Hirose connectors. Otherwise, the small Linux boards are similar to the older Gumstix boards, now called Gumstix Basix. The new boards include a 200 MHz or 400 MHz XScale processor and 64MB of SDRAM and 4MB of Flash. Gumstix also announced some new daughter boards providing Ethernet and a Type II Compact Flash adapter (for adding a WiFi card, of course!). The Connex 200g is $109 and the Connex 400g is $139.