Montreal Parking Meters Run Linux 506
jbecherv writes "According to LinuxDevices.com, new-fangled Montreal parking meters run embedded Linux (Google Cache). The City of Montreal is planning to roll out 500 to 800 wireless, solar-powered parking payment stations based on embedded Linux. There is even a
device profile
(Google Cache) that show some details about the meters... These meters run kernel 2.4.19 on a 206MHz StrongARM SA-1110. Each system has 64MB of RAM, boots from a CF device, and is networked wirelessly via GPRS."
Press Release From Last Year (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I know little about embedded devices (Score:5, Informative)
Oods are this is using a SODIM setup. In which case 64MB is the smallest amount of RAM you can get.
Re:Solar powered? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:great. (Score:5, Informative)
Parking meters in London [cityoflondon.gov.uk]
London Congestion Charge [cclondon.com]
The congestion charge has pros and cons. It seems to reduce traffic somewhat, generates money to be used for buses, and probably cuts pollution. Some argue it works too well, hurting businesses in the central zone, and some people are occasionally sent a fine for not paying the charge even though they never went near the central zone. It works by a camera trying to OCR the license plate. The recognition can go wrong, and the camera can take snaps of people who don't actually enter the zone occassionally.
Still, personally I'm in favour of it - I don't drive in London because it gets in the way of my drinking.
Re:Simple and Reliable (Score:4, Informative)
Where did you get the idea that old style parking meters "just work." Many are based on a wind up mechanism for the timing. They are notorously inaccurate. There is a reason people switched from wind up watches to digital watches.
Re:great. (Score:4, Informative)
The last parking meter I parked at was 25 cents for 10 minutes. That's just nuts. This will just enable them to have meters that take credit cards forcing even higher rates.
Want a way to stop people from coming downtown? Raise the rates on the meters even higher.
You ever tried to find parking in downtown Montreal during an event? Hell, there is a reason when I lived in Montreal I did not even bother to get my drivers licence. The transit system there is wicked, and you can get pretty much anywhere you need to with it. But parking in the downtown core? It was always a pain in the ass. There is just not enough parking there, hell, when I went back to visit, I parked on the outskirts and took the metro to get downtown. I saved time on the parking.
Look at it this way - it is a tax on those who are too lazy to take the public transit system, which is better for the environment anyhow. With the amount of parking space that is there I have no sympathy for anyone who drives in circles around the St. Catherines St Laurent area looking for a spot.
Re:I know little about embedded devices (Score:4, Informative)
And I wouldn't use it for swap space, anyway. When developing an embedded system, you really should slim your memory footprint as far as possible, so you'd fit inside your available RAM.
The way old-timer software developers talk about it, your really start thinking of proper memory usage as a nearly-lost art.
Re:Where is the soruce code? (Score:1, Informative)
http
this is toolchain which is IMHO all you need.
Meters? Feh. Use your cell phone! (Score:1, Informative)
It doesn't actually talk to the meter at all, so basically these are just stickers you can paste anywhere to charge for parking. Ahahah, a landlords dream! The meter maids (or meter dudes) walk around with their own phones (WAP? J2ME?) to check that you're paid. Anyways, seems to me this has to be cheaper than some freaking rocket science parking meter that's more complicated, vandal-prone, buggy, etc. One PDA patrols a helluvalotta parking spaces.
I've actually used this thing in Seattle and Vancouver. They had a WAP service and it was alright, but I ended up using the touchtones. My experience the first time was actually pretty painful. You have to enter your Visa # once and your license plate(s), but then it uses Caller ID and a PIN for when you call back in the future.
Keep your WiFi/WAP/Bluetooth/RFID. Gimme touch tones!
Re:The truth how they work (Score:1, Informative)
It's not every single meter that is like that. It's a kiosk on a small block where you go buy parking time. Then you put the ticket in your car.
The trick is that in theory, you buy more time than you need. But since you leave with the ticket, the next guy has no idea how much time is left. So the city gets to charge twice (or more) for a certain period of parking time.
Parking tickets in Montreal... (Score:2, Informative)
Pretty ridiculous if you ask me..
Re:great. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:parking tickets (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, they make more money writing tickets, even taking the cost of employing people to write tickets into account. As for time and complaints, I've never seen a municipal office that wasn't perfectly willing to let you waste your time complaining to them... :)
Parking Meter Overkill (Score:5, Informative)
I work for Precise Parklink [preciseparklink.com], the provider for the Toronto Parking Authority and many municipalities in Ontario and Western Canada. Our machines are solely based on a EPROM with very little data stored. Why would anyone need 64MB? Our machines also operate on GPRS GSM 'and' Mobitex, solar power, wireless, etc. There's no kernel, no flash card, and works great. One thing that would really impress me is if these Linux machines could accept debit, and most of all, if someone is able to hack it. Also, storing credit card data on a compactflash card garentees the data always exists, which is a bad thing if someone were to tamper with the machine. With our machines, the transactions aren't stored on the EPROM, but instead on RAM. If the machine is turned off or reset, the cc data is lost and the parker is safe from someone stealing their credit card number. Bottom line, the more advanced technology gets for parking meters, the more susceptable to fraud, bugs, and security issues.
Re:Another reason to steal parking meters... (Score:3, Informative)
That parking meter looks on par with a telephone circuit box. you could probably take it out with a chain and a chevy. It looks less imposing than an ATM.
Of course an angle grinder would be the best bet. then you can just open it up like a tin can, take the parts out you want and not have to deal with all that large bulky incriminating evidence.
Re:Not cool from city's point of view (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think in this state they can suspend your driver's license or anything for parking tickets.
Where I live they get you when you renew your plates. I'll mention that to Arnie next time I see him, he can use the money.
Re:Solar powered? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Solar powered? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I know little about embedded devices (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Another reason to steal parking meters... (Score:2, Informative)
Do you recognize how noisy angle grinders are? Hopefully you will before you go at it. You'd not even be able to hear the squad car approaching if it had the siren going.