The kits are selling for $75 each, and include all of the parts required to build a functional ybox2.

Here is the cool part: You don't need any extra tools to reflash the firmware! The EEPROM in the kit comes preloaded with an ethernet bootloader I wrote, which allows you to upload new firmware to the device over the network! This works so well that over the past month or so I've used my prop-plug only two or three times. 90% of my development—including development of the bootloader—has been over the network.

More information is available in the FAQ.

UPDATE: The ybox2 made it on Engadget!! w00t!

It works! Woo-hoo! Now comes the hard part: the Propeller TCP/IP stack.

Keep in mind that this is just a prototype. The next version will be cooler.

Oh. Maybe not. Well, it was pretty cool.

There is a special place in my heart for the original ybox, as it is what finally got me into tinkering with microcontrollers. However, the more I've learned, the more things I can find wrong with it's current design:

• It's expensive! The XPort component is $51 in single quantities!
• The XPort shielding isn't properly grounded on the original PCB, so if you have stray VDD wire touch the XPort, you just fried a $51 part! (I speak from experience)
• The PCB seems largely autorouted, with lots of vias and unnecessarily long traces for the video signal.
• Did I mention it was expensive?

So I've set out to make a better and less expensive networked set-top box in an altoids tin. It should be around $40 cheaper to build. This is what the board is looking like:

Ain't it beautiful? Anyone care to guess what it does?