You guys helped in the design of FEZ Panda so it wouldn’t make sense for us to make the prototyping board without consulting with the FEZ community first
So, learning from what you guys need, we have this small list:
IOs…IOs…IOs…and more IOs!
XBee (wireless)
SD cards
JTAG
enclosure
The attached image is for the alpha layout of the prototyping board. We are making this board, open source of course, then you can make it yourself and we will also make it available for convenience. Nothing will be soldered on this board,not even the SD card connector. FEZ Panda will sit on top so you can still plug shields right into FEZ Panda and at the same time, add all kind of circuitry in the prototyping area.
The board is made to fit in the FEZ Cobra enclosure. No the enclosure will not be decustomised for this board, it is time to get the drill and the blade After all, all the soldering and the drilling will make this more exciting I think.
We are open to suggestions but remember that the main goal is make it so flexible while keep the cost to minimum, which means nothing will be soldered on the board.
I will give 1000 points to whoever shows an application that uses all FEZ Panda IOs…no not LEDs…I mean really use all IOs in a very beneficial way.
The one and only thing i want on GHI PCB’s: EING. Get us some gold plating, it’s only a few cents more per board usually and doesnt tarnish. Plus, EING looks damn sexy.
Can you tell me what the 20pin header to the right is going to be used for?
What would be great was to have a row of servo headers with separate power rails. Maybe also a power and ground rail on protoboard part?
The only “problem” is when you want to go to “production boards” : you miss each and every resistor or capacitor for pull-up/down inputs, LCD, and so on…
Since what I was doing was meant to be mounted by individuals, it was finally not a good solution.
I’ve been programming such board (EasyPic 5) with success to monitor and activate focusing device and collision detection on a telescope. After some time, I’ve moved to a Phidget 1060 board which is a little smaller :whistle: (see image at the bottom of the page)
panda can be cheap, have an expensive protoboard for it and then a cheap one too.
If i use a panda and a bunch of sonar’s to make a 3d image from the sound using all the IO’s… is that considered cheating since it’s all the same sensor?
Yeah! That prototype board is amazing. If only it were available when the Panda was released.
I’m definitely interested in getting one when it is released.
I will be perfect for my UAV. Plenty of space for servos, sensors and Zigbee for communications back to base.
I’d like to reinforce some of the suggestion I read on this thread: GND, 5v, 3.3V rails would be beneficial. Servo headers would be good too, but I could always add them myself.
This probably won’t keep the costs down, but inclusion of input output sockets with selectable 3.3V or 5v would be very beneficial.
[quote]I will give 1000 points to whoever shows an application that uses all FEZ Panda IOs…no not LEDs…I mean really use all IOs in a very beneficial way.
[/quote]
Gus,
I send you an e-mail showing you my project that I had in mind even before Panda exist.
And tell me what you think!
After all, all the soldering and the drilling will make this more exciting I think.
