What? Another FEZ already!?! No not yet but there are some talks about it.
Sine the early days of Domino, users complained about some weak points of the domino, like not enough IOs. This was not a limitation of GHI’s USBizi chipset but a limitation of the Arduino-like design. In order for the board to be arduino-shield-compatible, we had to make the board with similar pin-out…we still added tons of new features like USB host and SD card.
Now, if GHI were to remake FEZ Domino, but this time do it the GHI-way not arduino-way, what would you name this new FEZ? In general, the board will be of a similar size and price to FEZ Domino but has a lot more IOs/peripherals and will also be made to fit in an optional enclosure, just like FEZ Cobra does…and maybe a small display, why not GHI says
If you come up with a sweet name that we end up using, then one of this new FEZ devices is yours free of any charge…plus you will be the first to have one too which is priceless
So, what would it be? FEZ …?
Somebody voted for FEZ Panda, others named it FEZ Vector…and now it is your turn to give it a name
FEZ Omega
FEZizi
FEZ Fox
FEZ Black-widow
FEZ Wasp
FEZtini
FEZ Rhino (i really like this one for some reason.)
FEZ Lemur
FEZ Wombat
FEZ Tamarin
FEZ Macaque
If you want to play off the Domino name, you can modify it with some terms from the Domino game such as: Ace, Deuce, Trey, Doublet, Spinner. I think the ‘Domino Ace’ has the best ring to it.
Fez Domino Ultimate, or
Fez Ultimate Domino, or just
Fez Ultimate
Here’s what I’d hope to see. Make the board bigger than currently is, still with the Domino shield connections (I won’t mention the A word ) to retain compatibility with a large set of existing peripherals, and have all the IOs accessable on the outer part of the board away from the standard shield location.
Another goal I’d love to see met would be to keep the connections as another set of pluggable headers like today, and offer a “big” shield that would cover all the usual domino connections, but it’d be great to keep the overall dimensions within the board dimensions of the freeware Eagle version so that people can still custom design shields without exceeding the “free” boundaries.
[ and I love the fact that GHI are so receptive to ideas like this. But I have to say, now I have been playing with my Fez for a while, I’ve been playing with port expander options so I’m not as stressed about the smaller pincount any more! But go for it guys! ]
Brett, first congratulations on becoming a senior member.
No please no! No more “arduino” ugly designs. I am all for expandability but come one, who can figure out how to stack shields without causing conflict? How can you add couple shields and still be able to fit it all in an enclosure?
Take cobra for example, no shields but plenty of IOs + JST connectors to connect the many components + UEXT to connect the many expansion boards + enclosure + display board…just perfect in my opinion By the way, there is no such offer anywhere I have looked. (do not forget all the software that already comes free with it)
The board will be open source and will be made to work with free eagle so anyone can expand on it if they like to.
It is really impossible to make a board that is exactly what everyone wants. We have thousands of customers and they all have to like it…this is very difficult but I grantee you that GHI will put enough thoughts into this to make it as good as your dream board or really close
) to retain compatibility with a large set of existing peripherals, and have all the IOs accessable on the outer part of the board away from the standard shield location.
By the way, there is no such offer anywhere I have looked. (do not forget all the software that already comes free with it)