Strato Pi – An Industrial Raspberry Pi
Ive worked in industrial manufacturing before, and I presently work as an engine mechanic in a small chain of midwestern diesel repair stores.  I use <i>regular</i> raspberry pi's to pull data from ECU/OBD systems, and I even store that data on a PI server as part of a customers work ticket data.<p>the problem with anything thats 'industrialized' is that so many companies use this as a chance to gin up the price and double down on rent-seeking behavior.  This thing takes a $45 pi and jacks the price up to $250USD.  Some of the goofier features include:<p>- on-board buzzer.  You know, because over the constant din of lathe, shave, and heat treat assembly line systems you're surely going to pay attention to the buzzer from something the size of a pack of smokes.  anything essential should be shown on the light tower or picked up by QA.<p>- standard RS-232 and RS-485 interfaces to the Raspberry Pi serial line, with opto-isolator and electrostatic discharge protection: Motoman, Fanuc, Mitsubishi, and almost every other automation hardware have used cat5 for a decade.  doesnt the pi have grounded cat5?<p>CAN network support - god no.  This jumps into the realm of medical systems, elevator controls, and passenger vehicles.  all of these are made of intrinsically isolated circuits and go through some of the most rigorous testing imaginable.  For example, RF leakage common in a PI could cause aberrant failures or signaling problems in robotics that arent expecting it.  CAN type controllers can withstand shock/heat/humidity many times that of what a normal computer can handle.  Introducing the PI as a CAN device is asking for grievous bodily harm as a service.