zeke

Such as: "http://www.43oh.com/launchbay"
Do you have a name for the store? I was thinking "LaunchBay" would be a good name, being similar to "LaunchPad", and based around the LP. It would be similar in name to "eBay", and convey the two ideas as one.
 
Seems to be fine, I'm just helping out, and I've been busy with other things lately. I'll post the url under The Gaming Thread.

Don't feel bad!
 
Making mistakes is perfectly normal and they are perfectly acceptable. Anyone who criticizes you for making a mistake deserves to be knocked to the ground!
 
Making mistakes means that you're that much closer to achieving your goal!
 
The first thing that I would recommend is that you go to your local tool store (Harbour Freight, Princess Auto) and buy a set of digital calipers. Use them to measure all the important mechanical dimensions of your parts. Compare them to the datasheet. If they agree then create the component footprint yourself. When it comes to datasheets, they LIE sometimes. Engineers are not known for their love of documentation. They hope no one notices.
 
The second thing to do would be to have someone you trust to take a look at your schematic and layout. Ask them to be objective and act as an Editor. Give them permission to question your design decisions. They just might save your bacon with a simple question "Does this look right?"
 
 
In the future, I would be willing to take a look at the pcb layout and offer comments if you think you might benefit from that.
 
And that offer stands for anyone else doing pcb layouts.

TI Deals should be updated tomorrow (Tuesday) with a new product. So far, it seems that the site is exclusively used for MSP430 promotions, as they are targeting the hobbyist with the MSP430 but not really with their other products so much (aside from EvalBot).
 
I understand that this new eval board has color OLED, MicroSD, and CAN among other things, but the price seems to be rather high for what it offers. ST's kit is sub-$20. I guess that the feature set on this new board puts it a bit more in-line with the MSP-EXP430F5529 USB Experimenter

Uhm, from a power dissipation point of view, using a linear regulator to drop 12V to 3V would be a rather hot proposal. Literally.
 
Depending on the current draw of the circuit, you would have (12-3)Volts * Amps = Power dropped across the regulator. It comes out as heat.
 
Might I suggest a switching regulator to do the same thing?
 
Here's a part to prime your imagination.
 
Just a thought to consider.

http://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/252419.jsp
 
This page says that you can order a free kit even. But the link take you to another site, http://www.samplecomponents.com (appears to be a Digikey site).
 
I just ordered a sample. It appears to have a shipping date of 11/4/2011.
 
 
These things are always more expensive when ordered from another site. The old ST discovery value line board was always priced higher than the $10-$15 that ST advertises. And even at that price, I've kinda avoided it due to the issues I mention above.

I have Seth Godin's blog in my RSS reader.
 
He comes up with some poignant statements a lot of the time.
 
Today he talks about people like us.

One last kick at the cat.

I've got my version 2 intervalometer up and running and gave it a quick test this evening. It seems to work okay.
 
I've just got to finish the PCB layout and I'll create a new project thread for the version 2. For now, here's my first ever time lapse video:
 

And, if you're concerned about a custom pcb then consider this: there are some eager folks right here that would design you a circuit board in short order ie: me.
 
You may think you're an old guy but you're not. When you turn 80 then I'll let you call yourself old

I think the RF2500T's are the most valuable part of that deal.
 
Each RF2500T is $20. It's like they threw in the solar stuff for another $15. :think:
 
Nice deal but I'm going to pass this one up for now.

Self-control and self-discipline are virtues worth cultivating.
 
There's more important things like bills and food and kids (if you have them) and peace with the wife (if you have one).
 
My reasoning is this: if I have a project that I'm developing and it just so happens to depend upon this technology then it's a good choice to buy it ie: gwdeveloper's project. If not then I'll walk away. I'm just being tempted to spend money on an impulse.
 
The deal is not worth it if you're emotionally churning about it.
 
Your peace of mind and heart are more important than having a new shiny gizmo.

Okay, I started brainstorming. Sometimes I come up with something useful.
 
What do you think of these logos?
 
I'm kinda partial to the Richard Petty version but that might not suit #
 
Thoughts or reactions?

Okay. Now I'm just screwing around for fun.
 
This is supposed to suggest low power requirements.

I'm critiquing the logo. Nothing personal okay?
 
I think you should get rid of the tag line from the logo. Then you can use the logo on everything from letterheads to invoices
 
I think the binary O is not hard enough. If you stand back a little then the O sorta disappears. Maybe you could put a 50% transparent donut behind it? Something to make it stand out a little more? Maybe coloring it red and bolding the font might work?
 
Also, would you want to encode a meaning into the binary value? Easter egg style?
 
I'm not sure about the crystal in the middle. What's the intended meaning of it?
 
And is that an antenna above the O?
 
Color color color!
1. Color Scheme Designer
2. The most powerful colors in the world
 
Personally, I think you should pick RED so that you can associate yourself with TI subconsciously.
 
I think what's missing is a visual element that suggests the MSP430 identity. Something you'd look at and say "Hey! He's referring to an MSP430." ie: Apple logo: It's an object that says the word apple in your head. or TI's logo: It's the state of Texas so it gives you the first word.
 
I'll brainstorm here and see what ideas I can generate. Can't step on TI's intellectual property toes.

I have Seth Godin's blog in my RSS reader.
 
He comes up with some poignant statements a lot of the time.
 
Today he talks about people like us.

Cool!
 
Then here's the pdf version again:
QuadUSBUart.pdf

Cool!
 
Then here's the pdf version again:
QuadUSBUart.pdf

Cool!
 
Then here's the pdf version again:
QuadUSBUart.pdf

Bumped to 512KiB.

This is an awesome idea. Something an embedded engineer should have on his desk. I'll buy one if price is reasonable. I can also help with a blog post, once your site is up.
 
Keep us posted.

I've been working on a little project here and I thought I'd share it with you.
 
It's a quad USB UART based on an FT4232 chip.
 
This may not sound special but I've got a surprise for you. All four serial ports will operate at 1 Mbit/s.
 
The plan is to design the pcb so that it will fit into a Hammond 1553BBK enclosure.
 
Here's the schematics that I have so far:
QuadUSBUart.pdf
 
Comments are welcome.

I've been working on a little project here and I thought I'd share it with you.
 
It's a quad USB UART based on an FT4232 chip.
 
This may not sound special but I've got a surprise for you. All four serial ports will operate at 1 Mbit/s.
 
The plan is to design the pcb so that it will fit into a Hammond 1553BBK enclosure.
 
Here's the schematics that I have so far:
QuadUSBUart.pdf
 
Comments are welcome.

You could right click>open in new window.
Otherwise, a handy link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/538662/cc1101.png

That crystal placement is questionable. You should try to have it as close to the IC as physically possible. Try nudging it left and upwards.
 
Then, try nudging IC1 upwards as well. Now that I think about it, I think I'd try to move it to the top-left area of the board.
 
After moving all the components around will allow your copper pour will flow completely around all the components.
 
You could also put a copper pour on the blue layer as well. It will be extra RF insurance for a two layer pcb.
 
As a result, you'll have a great ground plane that triangular void in the bottom left of the board will be gone.
 
What do you think?

If implementing the sump protocol is an alternative, then a client is available right away. It's also Java and apparently supports some sort of plugin system, so you could probably even tweak things to your liking (haven't actually checked, this is just based on a cursory look at the sump site).
 
Dangerous Prototypes' Logic Sniffer and Logic Shrimp are examples of things implementing the protocol and taking advantage of the existing sump client.
 
Ed.: There are apparently more sump clients available/in development, see http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Ope ... r_Software for a nice round-up.