> Looks like I'm late to the party but..

Me also, sorry.

Short answer: try a DreamPlug, or a PandaBoard, or something Linaro targets.

Long answer:

Another option is PandaBoard. In current Android ASOP 4.0, its the only
one that works out-of-the-box. I just talked to some Canonical ARM QA
guy at LFNW over the weekend, and he had many Pandas, a few Beagles, and
OEM proto boards.
http://pandaboard.org/

The FreedomBox project tracks low-cost [mostly ARM] hardware capable of
running a Linux box with multiple servers. They currently use the
GlobalScale Technology's DreamPlug as a dev board. (I have one, quite
nice. Works on AC or DC. A friend has it connected to an RC car, using
it's battery to power it.) There is a DreamPlug2 out now, too. Another
reason to track FreedomBox hardware is that the project is Free
Software-backed, and they're working to get the entire toolchain working
using fresh GNU tools, not vendor/mgfr toolchains with non-free loaders
and tools.
http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TargetedHardware
http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/p-43-d2-plug.aspx

Also, I'd consider an ARM dev board that supports the Linaro targets.
Then you don't have to build your own Ubuntu or Android kernel, if you
don't need to.
http://www.linaro.org/downloads/

This is also a nice list for comparing ARM boards.
http://www.gnuarm.com/ArmDevices_frame.html

OP was asking for some tutorials.
http://elinux.org/
http://free-electrons.com/docs/

Rasberry PI sounds like it will nice. But AFAIK it is still mostly
future-tense for now, so unless you need to wait so you can buy a much
cheaper board, there are great options out today. Anyone, please speak
up if you know of a shipping source. :-)

  > [...] Both the BeagleBone and BeagleBoard
  > XM are widely used and you can get videos on Youtube [...]

I agree orig Beagle and Beagle XM are widely used, but I didn't think
Bone was that widely distributed yet. I've yet to get a BeagleBone, but
they do sound interesting. OP wanted a box with room to grow, so isn't
the Beagle XM better than the Bone? I thought Bone was trimmed done XM.

Hey Guys, I have an Armdroid I original, complete with Teach pendent, Conveyor
Track/Belt with built in power supply, a couple of IO Boxes, and manual.

I have no time to play with it, and in the process of moving into a condo, so
will have no more space to store it.
Anyone Care to make an offer?

check the quick pic http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3550457/IMG_1344.JPG

I will have more at this place later, as well as some videos.
http://www3.telus.net/public/verste60

>> [...] Both the BeagleBone and BeagleBoard  > XM are widely used and you
can get videos on Youtube [...]

>I agree orig Beagle and Beagle XM are widely used, but I didn't think Bone
was that widely distributed yet. I've yet to get a BeagleBone, but they do
sound interesting. OP wanted a box with room to grow, so isn't the Beagle XM
better than the Bone? I thought Bone was trimmed done XM.

Yup BB doesn't have as much on it as an XM. It seems to be at all my
favorite distributors so it would seem to have a pretty healthy stock out
there. If I couldn't make do with the I/Os below I would definitely go with
an XM, or that Panda board (2 ARMS!  Sweet!). The BB is a little smaller
than an Arduino Mega card (1cm shorter than the mega, and about half the
size of the XM) if that matters in the design.


Here are the I/Os:

   Power 5V, 3.3V , VDD_ADC
   3.3V I/O on all signals
   McASP0, SPI1, I2C, GPIO(65), LCD, GPMC, MMC1, MMC2, 7
   AIN(1.8V MAX), 4 Timers, 3 Serial Ports, CAN0,
   EHRPWM(0,2),XDMA Interrupt, Power button, Battery Charger,

(This is the expansion connectors A, B) there are also a USB in for power
and programming,  Ethernet and a USB out. It also has a micro SD connector
which seems pretty handy for moving code around.

It's a little cheaper than the XM at 89.00.  There are a ton of tools for it
from what I can tell so far, but I haven't done much with it..yet. I'm still
tinkering with Sensor code on the Arduino right now for fun. The BB  comes
with an Angstrom Linux distro, and seems fairly easy to use the cloud 9 IDE
stuff. I probably will use Eclipse and gcc instead but it's there and might
be helpful if you are use to the Arduino or something similar. There seem to
be several shield like boards (capes) though I doubt you will see nearly as
many capes as shields. I think with I2C and one of the expansion breakout
capes, it would be easy enough to add Grove sensors or Pmods for whatever
expansion you want but probably cheap enough to use the bigger board upfront
if you need the I/O. I like the flexibility of smallish boards, and I didn't
really need more I/O than that for this project.

On a completely different note, I have a PIC32 based chipKits board (max32)
on the way. It is a 32 bit board with an  IDE that is identical to the
Arduino. One of the TRG guys swears by it, and loves Microchip for support,
but it's a MIPS core. It does accept Mega shields and there is a Uno sized
version that takes Uno shields as well. If I didn't need a full Linux I
would look at that one too.  (It has no MMU and they don't plan to add one
as far as I know.)

I ordered a Raspberry in march some time and the delivery date was August,
but recently some folks that got August dates at first, are getting notes
saying July now. Sadly, I'm not one of those people. For 35.00 bucks I can
be patient on that one.

I see I've again got carried away. I've just spent a lot of time trying to
figure this which controller to use thing for the last month myself.

I have to say after having been away from development for 10+ years, it's a
GREAT time to do development! So many very nice, cheap and easy to use
options now. I've ordered several but haven't picked a winner myself just
yet. I'm having too much fun playing.

B




------------------------------------

Visit the SRS Website at http://www.seattlerobotics.orgYahoo! Groups Links

Folks,

 

Just a quick question – is it possible to solder LGA surface mount packages? The specific one I’m looking at is a LGA-14 so all of the pins are on the edges of the device. For prototyping I get the impression that I could set the part on the board, possibly with some solder paste on each pad and then heat each pad to solder it. Does anyone have experience doing something like this with this package type?

 

Thanks,

Lloyd

 

On 5/3/12 11:54 AM, Richard Greenway wrote:
> Usually that would be a DLF/DFN package.

My understanding is that although DFN packages' leads extend to the side
of the package, LGAs' don't (at least according to the package diagrams
I have). This would make it hard to hand-solder them with an iron, the
way you can do with DFNs; but I would think that a skillet-reflow
approach would work okay. The hard part would be inspecting the result
for bad joints--- much like a BGA, they're all hidden.

I've never worked with LGA packages (is this the popular Freescale
accelerometer?), I'm just reasoning by analogy from other packages.

The LGA-14 is 0.9mm pitch - quite large by todays standards! AFAIK the pads
don't quite reach the edge.

If you have a pcb then I guess you can use a toaster oven and extra-long
pads. The pads will conduct the heat in.

You can prototype them dead-bug style. I'd glue it onto the copper side of a
piece of stripboard then hand-solder short wires onto the pads. I use single
strands of multi-strand wire - it's a lot easier than self-fluxing enamelled
copper wire.

For protoyping on a solderless breadboard I'd probably start by soldering
pins onto the stripboard to make a chip-carrier.

Peter

Interesting reading -

-------- Original Message --------

enjoy!

http://books.google.com/books?id=qS-PSsQRnFUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_\
summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

- m


_______________________________________________
Rcm-students mailing list
Rcm-students@...
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/rcm-students

This will be a continuing and evolving event happening every 4th Saturday at
2:30pm.
The location is Studentrnd in Bellevue, WA, USA: 1405 132nd Ave, Suite 3
http://www.facebook.com/events/378188422232793/

Introduction class (students: $5, adults: $10):
Introduction and demo to 3D modeling and printing.
A 3D software modeling lesson and lab (please bring a laptop, limited loaners
are available).
Free time to design models and get your work printed

Advanced group (free to all):
Come checkout the many variations of 3D printers available.
Talk to and learn from veterans of the 3D printing world.
Bring your printer in any status ( assembled, broken, uncalibrated, prototypes).
Work on building, hacking, and repairing your printer or just assist others.
If you can make it please bring your printer!!

We use a similar connector for our ICP of the NXP micro-controller.  The header
both surface mount and through hole and the matching cable are available from
Samtec via Digi-key.  I don't have the part numbers handy but there is a mention
of this in the LPCXpresso manual.


----------------------------------------------------
"What the detractors and critics of electric vehicles
have been saying for years, is true. The electric
vehicle is not for everybody, given the limited range
it can only meet the needs of 90% of the population."

Ed Begley Jr.
----------------------------------------------------


---------- Original Message ----------
From: Kevin Impson <internetgiest@...>
To: seattle robotics <SeattleRobotics@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [SeattleRobotics] Trying to find connector
Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 10:50:59 -0700 (PDT)

Hello Everyone, I was wondering if anybody had any idea's where to look for a
2x3 .5 pitch IDC ribbon cable connector. I have tried all the standards,
Digi-key, Jameco, Mouser, Futurelec and such... with no success. I have like 70
small stepper motors that a male header which is 2x3 .5 pitch that are soldered
to a small pcb that is then soldered to pins on the side of the motor. I'm
wanting to build a brigade of small robots for swarm experiments in the lab,
rather than using the usual size robots I build that can run through walls and
such if confused with experimental swarm code. Plus, they are easy to wrangle.
Any help would be appreciated. Best Regards, Kevin I.

Hi,

I am entering three of the four competitions (line following, line
maze, and mini sumo) and I have a few questions...

1) Line Following
------------------------

How does the robot know it has completed the course?

Is a 38Khz IR remote "Emergency Stop" function OK?


2) Line Maze
------------------

What is the maximum error on the minimum line width? ie 1/4" +/- 1/x"
(it may be difficult to detect a 1/8" or smaller line reliably)

Is a 38Khz IR remote "Emergency Stop" function OK?


3) Mini Sumo
-------------------

I understand the robot may not begin action until 5 seconds after
starting, but can other servo's mounted on the bot that do not cause
the bot to move operate before the 5 seconds expire?

Is a 38Khz IR remote "Emergency Stop" function OK?


I am a bit surprised that there are not many more entrants.

Bill

----- Original Message -----

From: Lloyd Moore

To: SeattleRobotics@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 9:03 AM

Subject: RE: [SeattleRobotics] Robothon competition questions

William,

 

Let me chime in here on the questions you have below:

 

1.       In general the “indoor” robot events do not have a requirement for an “Emergency Stop” function. If you want to include one that should be fine, however there is no requirement to do so. In the case of MiniSumo the robot is expected to be under radio control anyway, and in that case the emergency stop function would normally be a part of the RC hardware. (Most RC units are set up to stop or hold last position if the radio signal is lost.)

2.       The lines are made from ¼” wide tape, so while I don’t have exact tolerance numbers on this I would expect it to be pretty minimal. I think you can safely assume +/-1/16” max in general. I would however expect to see some small alignment errors greater than this where the tiles for the course meet up. During setup we will keep these as minimal as possible (1/10” max), but of course the better a bot is at handling these cases the less chance there is for a problem during the competition.

3.       Take a look at the SRS page for the Line Following – the robot has completed the course when it reaches the end of the line – basically the line just has two ends, one is the start, the other is the end.

 

Thanks,

Lloyd

 

From: SeattleRobotics@yahoogroups.com [mailto:SeattleRobotics@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of William Henning
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 5:39 PM
To: seattlerobotics
Subject: [SeattleRobotics] Robothon competition questions

 

 

Hi,

I am entering three of the four competitions (line following, line
maze, and mini sumo) and I have a few questions...

1) Line Following
------------------------

How does the robot know it has completed the course?

Is a 38Khz IR remote "Emergency Stop" function OK?

2) Line Maze
------------------

What is the maximum error on the minimum line width? ie 1/4" +/- 1/x"
(it may be difficult to detect a 1/8" or smaller line reliably)

Is a 38Khz IR remote "Emergency Stop" function OK?

3) Mini Sumo
-------------------

I understand the robot may not begin action until 5 seconds after
starting, but can other servo's mounted on the bot that do not cause
the bot to move operate before the 5 seconds expire?

Is a 38Khz IR remote "Emergency Stop" function OK?

I am a bit surprised that there are not many more entrants.

Bill

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