MikroElectronika has some for various microcontrollers- they don't have packaging, but the whole thing is pretty self contained. The link above is for Microchip PIC32, but there are a bunch of other microcontroller boards available from them.

Dell has been supporting Linux on servers for well over 10 years. You've always been free to install Linux on your laptop- just don't expect to get (consumer level/any) support.

The hardware cost is just a fraction of what you pay. In a previous life, when I worked at a little company in Round Rock, TX that rhymes with hell, testing took up the vast majority of development effort, and every additional OS added to that test effort/cost. If/when the analysis says it can make a profit that is similar to the other lines of business, that path is taken.

What really makes the Beagle useful is the software- allowing to collect data, filter on certain packets, statistics, and timing. Just looking at high/low traces is useful, but, particularly when dealing with serial protocols, can get old, really quickly.

What I would really like would be some way to use the Wireshark interface with these tools looking for these protocols. Maybe there is a way, but I haven't figured out the proper hardware/software combination.

"Walking Dead" - you can never start the preparations and training early enough.

Until I2C is 100% released, this is not complete- that's my minimum benchmark. I've got a Saleae 8 channel and it looks like it supports it- but the last thing you want to be doing when you're working on a project like this is debugging your test hardware.

I like the portability and flexibility of the Saleae device, but if I'm getting deep into the protocol... the Beagle from Total Phase works much better. Total phase also has a decently affordable USB analyzer. What I've found is that a simple analyzer works fine for basic debugging, but once you start getting into complex debugging or real-time, the software layer that resides on the PC is what really differentiates what is a "real tool."

Collecting data is one thing, but sorting through it is where the skill is involved, and decent software becomes vital.

Watt is a unit of power, energy is the integral of power over time. A common unit for energy is the Joule. Measuring power is a complex task (both the mathematical and figurative use of complex).

I don't think there has been a new car with carbs in the US market (American Marque or not) in at least 20 years- excluding limited production cars, at least. Meeting new car emissions requirements with carbs is virtually impossible.

Most open source makes it clear "no guarantee" "you are responsible" etc. When you're fiddling around with your computer, not a problem, you are pretty limited in the scope what you can really mess up (and your ISP has a pretty easy switch to cut you off). But, when we start looking at cars- most places have liability insurance requirements, because when things go bad, they can really go bad- far faster than most people have cash reserves to cover (in the case of someone else's injuries). How do we extend this to cars? It must be in place to some extent, since people have been modifying cars since there were cars.

Print out the datasheet for a microcontroller and hand it to him. It might discourage him, but you could just be creating a prodigy.

You can't see it because it is pointing straight at you, no matter what direction you look.