I usually use it temporarily - then copy something onto KiCAD schematic editor on the computer or just scribble it on paper, create the PCB afterward. The solderless breadboard is usually good for temporary use. Another problem is, some breadboard can only handle 2 - 3 Amps before they get hot - I have experienced this problem before too, when I messed with the inverter setup - I never have shoved that much currents until recently... (yes, I did it with P8X32A-D40, driving out the squarewave pulses to the base of transistor. It was out of curiosity.) And some components with thick pins aren't going to do the breadboard that much good either.
I checked a breadboard spec. recently, as I was thinking of plugging a module with 0.64 mm square pins into it - up to 0.8 mm was OK. Here is the spec. I found:
Not bad at all: user-serviceable maintenance would be a plus.
And the pin inlet accepting up to 0.8mm is considered good enough for most projects.
One thing I am having problem with is current hold-down. It's rated for 1A and
my Radio Shack Archer Quik breadboard could handle much more...
I could say it's not too bad, considering the current consumption for many digital chips
being shoved onto the breadboard. Leon, I still like what you posted up: I like the user serviceability.
I took apart a breadboard to learn more about it. The pin sockets have a good deep design which is not as susceptible to dirt as I originally thought. It is possible for a large chunk of dirt to plug the top hole but then it could be removed.
The springs can lose their spring constant when too large wire is forced through, wires are kept inserted for extended periods of time, repeated setups and takedowns, or if splayed pins are inserted. I plan to post a section on breadboards, complete with photos, to save others the time and expense of tearing one apart.
It would be nice if the boards were user serviceable, I have several that need repair, however unfortunately the sticky tape side is a real mess and very difficult to remove and it's better to leave it alone.
Nice idea to keep the width to a minimum. I like it and thanks for the illustrative sketch. But for this idea to work, the desk would need to be very wide and very long. Mainly, full use of the floor is needed and then some way to walk on the ceiling or trapeze around it!
One idea I can see from the illustration is stack up long strips making it as narrow as only 1 or 2 groupings wide. The stack rack is currently the challenge.
Brains tend to employ convolutions to increase surface area. Might you try the same concept? How about some sort of giant accordion-like device in which board edges are hinged, with the whole thing hanging from the ceiling complete with counterweights to balance it while you add to it? That way you can fold and unfold sections of it to get access to wires, etc. but still be able to pack it into The Big Acrylic Cranium later on.
Indeed you did your homework well. One method of Brain Folding was addressed in a previous post. The concept applied here could be interesting. I was trying out this same idea yesterday using a mini shelving unit and clipboards to sub for the actual breadboards. Then various combinations of folding were tried. As you have surmised, the accordion worked the best for compactness.
In an earlier theme on the original 20 boards before they evolved to EXOskeleton, I did a "spinout board stack" but this worked only on the smaller lighter weight boards with a single supportive pivot.
Hinges are possible, attached to the clipboards and metal bases, but something more simple is needed for take-down and transport. I won't be able to ship or stick the device in luggage, so perhaps a disposable idea could work. Reinforced aircraft box style girders and pylons could be fabricated from duty cardboard. I'm entertaining that idea too. HD cardboard can be made to accordion in and out.
I have some circuits I use everyday which have been in solderless breadboards for over a year. I hadn't intended the circuits to remain in the breadboard state for so long; I just was busy with other things and hadn't transfered them to a PCB.
I've found that many of my breadboarded circuits have started to have problems. I think the little spring clips inside the breadboard lose their springiness. I would think you'll have connection problems if you leave you're circuits in breadboards for a long time.
Duane, this is a good point. Currently, with the Brain design, things can change every day or week so this is a good solderless breadboard phase. TG we have solderless breadboards or I can imagine the mess of soldering and unsoldering a pcb many times. After the design has everything included, it can be etched. Probably I'll give the design to Cluso and he'll make the boards.
Duane, how long were wires in your breadboards to have the spring clips fail?
Certainly you would need to know the approximate number and size of breadboards to think about a containment design and this is directly related to the number of Propeller chips.
However, each of the early breadboard aggregates are a different size and hold a different number of prop chips. I never released a statement of the exact number of Propeller chips for a reason based on the var design described below.
Finally I made the investment in solderless China breadboards and designed a unit (see posts) of higher density. Each of these new aggregate units holds 27 props. Older units were Taiwan brand breadboards - these hold 12 props but I designed an overlap to add on at least 3 more per unit.
First and foremost consideration is the size and number of Propeller Partitions. A Partition is made up of up to 50 props with the first and second Partition locked in at 50 props. The third partition has a hardware and software design so that it can function variable.
This is the VAR design. This way, say five props can be removed from it and put on loan to another project while the Big Brain can still remain functional. As you see, I must get maximum return from my prop investment for all projects.
The design is also good to add on the next fourth Partition, then the previous Partition number three becomes locked at 50 and we have 150 props added to the new Partition up to 50 more.
What does all this mean? Currently we have three partitions. The sizes of the Taiwan breadboard aggregates are each approximately 10x10-inches. The custom made China breadboard designs are around 9x12-inches.
A Partition is approximately equal to two custom made breadboards. In conclusion, we'll need containment for six large breadboard aggregates. This is for three Partition and expansion of each Partition would add on two more high density breadboard aggregates.
Is it that easy? No. There's the EXO too, which uses twenty PPPBs (as shown in the UltraSpark 40, each PPPB can support two props) and is also part of the Big Brain. But for now, it can set along side the containment for the aggregate of breadboards.
And the pin inlet accepting up to 0.8mm is considered good enough for most projects. One thing I am having problem with is current hold-down. It's rated for 1A and my Radio Shack Archer Quik breadboard could handle much more... I could say it's not too bad, considering the current consumption for many digital chips being shoved onto the breadboard. Leon, I still like what you posted up: I like the user serviceability.
I plan to measure the size and extent of the breadboard connectors and that along with wire size and the number of chips and connections made it can give some ideas on amp carrying capability and signal. It would be nice to have all the equipment to measure many of the variables but some things can be calculated. Power rails appear to be intentionally made for distribution of higher current. Measurements will shed some light on this.
Where does Radio Shack get their boards from? It appears many of the China boards are lower cost and lesser quality and the Taiwan boards are very high quality and slightly higher in cost.
I was going to stay away from this thread, but I cain't he'p m'self. Even when asked a simple question ("How many Prop chips do you have?"), with a simple numerical answer, Humanoido uses nine paragraphs to avoid providing a substantive response. (I wonder what his take on Paul Revere would be.)
Tonight may be THE night as I'm going out to buy the new AMD Radeon HD card with 720 core streaming processors for the Big Propeller Brain project. This will be a really great startup system for the ideas that I want to accomplish. If it works well, there's the possibility of going much larger. By that time, I expect larger streams available in the thousands of processors, low end above 5,000 and high end maybe 10,000 to 15,000.
Current technology lets you add a full TeraFLOP of computing power for each board added to the the system. Let's hope these products are in stock. If all goes well, by tomorrow a complete new system may be in place. This will really be a big assist in getting the Big Brain project back on track and will accelerate development. It will also help in archiving, sorting, researching, sketching, designing, accelerating, programming, and numerous other related Brain activities.
Big Brain Book Begins Announcing the beginning of a New Big Brain Book
Project planning has anticipated a Big Brain Book that would begin around the half way point of project construction. Since this is approximately where the project is approaching, the book will begin preliminaries.
The idea was suggested to include a collection of the best features incorporated into the project. The theme of Big Brain is apparent, however material couldl apply to those who want to simply connect several props together and use the basics of parallel processing.
A single book or series of books could include ideas and development topics chosen for the Big Brain, its smaller siblings, specific inventions utilized, chapters regarding the spinoff technologies developed, sections on testing, assembly, parts, hardware and software, theory, and the Index.
The book could also include the six big main areas of parallel processing with the Propeller chip and the discoveries of how to program in Parallel. Some topics are looking at Propeller code presentations, schematics and maps, communications, loading, enumerating, distributing, injecting, accelerating, enhancing, bus, interfacing, neurons, neural matter, arrays, and a mass of additional chapters.
The best of positive comments will likely be included so here's a chance to contribute.
Brain Interim Test Machine - BIT Special test machine for Solo and Parallel performance is introduced
Brain BIT is made up of two Brain modules with solderless breadboards
One of the best advantages of Brain BIT is the one chip portion which is based on PEK. This can run many programs in SPIN for rapid testing, configuring and development.
Things are going well in the world of the Big Brain. It's time to introduce a new machine - though a small one. Previously in posts, two small Brains were introduced - the Baby (from 1 to 5 props) and the Brain Child (5 props). These are essentially miniature versions of the BIG BRAIN only in the smallest of configurations.
This describes the new Big Brain Interim Test Machine BIT for testing base programs and paralleled programs in multi-mode formats.
It can load and run different interface types at the same time and is modular. The unit is made from five main solderless breadboards and eight power rails. Three line up perpendicular to the others to delineate circuitry.
Included are seven LEDs, decoupling and power mains filtering capacitors, dropping resistors, crystals (one for each module), and two pushbuttons. The two supplies are 9 volts and 3.3 volts DC provided by a bench supply or batteries.
It includes five props in parallel and one solo without any initial connection to the others. This facilitates testing of different programs and the wiring of circuit combinations. Modules run one or the other, or both at the same time.
BIT includes two EEPROMS and duplicated Prop Tool interfaces. This enables testing of simultaneous At Once loading, distro, piggyback eeprom'ing and other nice features.
BIT has a wired Software Tool interface for program loading
Currently BIT includes a total of six props and three live communications related interfaces. BIT can also experiment with tandem eeprom'ing. More on this technique will be future discussed.
BIT expands from six to eight props or can use the extra breadboard space for other components.
I was going to stay away from this thread, but I cain't he'p m'self. Even when asked a simple question ("How many Prop chips do you have?"), with a simple numerical answer, Humanoido uses nine paragraphs to avoid providing a substantive response. (I wonder what his take on Paul Revere would be.)
-Phil
Phil, Humanoido said there were 3 partitions, with up to 50 Props per partition. The first two partitions are full, which means there are somewhere between 100 to 150 Props.
We still don't know what all those Propeller chips are actually doing, though. I suppose that they are flashing LEDs to show that they are working, but Humanoido has been very reticent about whether they are doing anything substantive.
Let's assume the average and say there are 125 propeller chips, that's a whole lot of propeller chips. At cost per chip of $7.19, the big brain is $898.75 in propeller chips alone. Humanoido is a much better Parallax customer than I am!
To me the appeal of a microcontroller is not is computational power, rather I find the appeal to be its small size and power consumption. If I wanted to invest $900 in CPU resources I'd likely go with an Intel i7.
In term of costs and efforts in Humanoido's Big Brain project - I am impressed because he have done a lot much lately, and yes his project is pretty expensive - he may have spent about five grands (just my guess - could be much more).
Humanoido, my Archer Quik is made in Taiwan, as it cost me $20 for "just right" size - 4 inch width x 8 inch long.
It also includes the power posts which you can screw the wires in and plug the banana plugs into the power post.
And yea, I abused it by overloading it with a picture tube transformer's filament (or power) windings which is rated for 4 - 6 Amps - running off 5VDC (and then 12VDC) squarewave pulses. As long as I have been wiggling the transistor on and off rapidly with P8X32A running modified LED on/off example SPIN (modified to have the sharpest PWM possible as this transformer's just an inductor in the circuit), and I felt the metal plate that the breadboard was mounted - it was pretty much warmer. I didn't let it running too long, though (as transistor was starting to overheat - I didn't want to melt the breadboard).
At the opening of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, Carter followed by Carnarvon, peered through the broken seal of the door stamped with a royal necropolis. When asked by Lord Carnarvon if he could see anything, Howard Carter responded, “Yes, wonderful things.”
@ erco: Good one. When I read or hard the words, "I don't care if it's more sealed shut than King Tut's tomb!", I think of that "When it's open, it's full of wonderful things!"
It was a fruitful and productive weekend as a trip to the local apple store to obtain a powerful new Mac computer and AMD Radeon HD streaming card with 720 processors was very successful. It represents considerable more commitment to the Big Brain project and provides a gamut of new features and capabilities added on to the Parallax Propeller chips.
Doors were kept wide open for oxygen at the store as it was packed with about one thousand people and in the short time I was standing there waiting for the technician to bring up the computer box, about 20 macs were sold!
If you've never experienced the full power of an INTEL QUAD core computer made by Apple, in the TeraFLOPS range of computing, you simply must. I don't know how they get their GHz quotes but the machine appears far more powerful.
In all my life of working with computers I have never seen a computer this powerful and responsive. Whenever I launch a program, it's just there on the screen, no waiting for load at all. And the entire computer with OSX shuts down in 3 seconds (I timed it).
It looks like Apple did everything right and I feel like "welcome home" after doing the alternate win pc struggle for 3 years.
They've addressed backups perfectly. Time Machine is totally spectacular. It makes multiple backups, incremental, going back in time. (not trying to sound like a sales person here, just a satisfied customer)
Briefly tested, the installed schematic drawing program has features in the Pro version that are mind boggling, intuitive, powerful and graphically a dream come true. A small test diagram sketch proved this is the exact program I was looking for in the past several years.
No wires. It's easy to run stuff wireless such keyboard, printer, mouse, hard drives, and you guessed it - the Brain. The Brain has a wireless Parallax card just waiting for connection - which appears compatible with the Mac. More on this will follow as the wireless project unfolds.
This is a new experience on all fronts, especially the magnitude of Multiprocessing. Surprise, some of the developer apps are already installed at no charge. The store wanted to install all those free-in-china apps but I had to say no.
However, I will get the English versions at the online Apple Store. There's some rather amazing development apps there which the Brain thread may review in the future. Plus AMD is now releasing developer apps as open source software. Things are just getting better all the time as we continue to keep the Big Brain happy.
Do you know what all those Propellers are actually doing?
They are simulating neurons If you watch a real neuron in a living creature you won't see much action. It's the effect on muscle tissue that makes it do something. Wait till Humanoido connects up a few servos, and then you'll see something happen. Leon, you need to be patient.
You can see stuff happening in real brains with Functional MRI and other techniques.
Leon, exactly - a medical Big Brain functional X-RAY machine was invented using an adaptation of Big Brain data in Google Sketchup in real time.
It was amazing as you could scan the entire Big Brain in in full color XRAYs and could see directly through to the interior of the Big Brain through the EXOskeleton. This was based on the fine work accomplished earlier for the Big Brain by Google Sketchup artist NikosG.
The next step is now a machine much more advanced - as I mentioned recently, 3D graphics will have a new invention of circuit extrusion, creating multi-circuit layers of calculus or slices in which a machine, functioning very similar to a human medical NMRI machine, can be created. This is the next step to provide functioning medical data on the Machine Brain.
This was accomplished back in early March of this year. Developing Brain X-Rays now a Reality
It's not often that you have the opportunity with various scientific medical equipment to x-ray your project, for the reason of study, component placement analysis, project continuing extension and development, upgrading and enhancement, revision and various engineering requirements. With new emerging technology, you don't need a medical CT-Scan machine. For the first time with technical three dimensional data supplied by NikosG, it becomes possible to x-ray the Brain using the Google SketchUp CAD program.
You will note this is a static X-Ray, producing a Brain photo in xray mode, i.e. a still photo. It's the first step in a series of medical machines for the Big Brain. My interest in a future machine is to make it perform in real time. I think machines like CT-Scan for machine brains should be part of an array of medical equipment which accomplishes similar diagnostic objectives to those machines for human brains.
Big Brain Goes Robotic Servo stumps and a mobility platform
Big Brain Servos and a mobility platform is now allocated to the project. This adds the robotics side to the Big Brain that we've all been waiting for. This post will review some of the anticipated development and plans.
The Robotics Platform
Adding Boe-Bot to the Big Brain
A new Boe-Bot kit is now obtained for The Big Brain. The Brain will have a new robotics platform - a new Prime Boe-Bot to handle the base mobility functions and features, and connect directly to the Brain Stem. The Brain Stem is already developed and part of the EXO.
For a decade we've used the reliability of a Boe-Bot robot to handle robotics development and testing. Now a new updated robot Boe-Bot from Parallax will be added.
Boe-Bot is ideal for this purpose as it's a well developed robot in terms of both hardware and software and has educational material readily available for its use. Boe-Bot can handle the and amount of precision mobility and commands for all purposes considered. Recently Boe-Bot has become cross platform with the addition of the Propeller chip and Propeller boards.
Platform assembly is required so this will take some time. The platform is designed to give location mobility and orientation flexibility to the Big Brain's EXOskeleton. It can include ramping up and down, and making slow movements required to maintain the Brains stability. In the future, the motion control will minimize the sloshing of Brain containment liquids. The platform can function in tandem with the Servo Stumps for various positioning applications.
Big Brain Servo Stumps
The servos will add stumps to the Big Brain. Stumps are a more generalized configuration and representation of hands and arms. But they are not hands or arms. Their forms are possibly more alien and more artistically represented as globular or otherwise entities and don't take on any specifically or immediately recognizable shape.
Yet globular stumps have purpose and function. The can reach, retract, push, pull, nudge, move, signal, speak in sign language, wave, protect, protest, approve, hit, defend, block, create an alert, make a thud, knock, create momentum, move around a grounding shield, repurpose insulating dielectrics, affect inertia, and transform.
The transforming feature of the Servo Stumps could be integrated into the EXO. Servo Stumps could transform to change the shape and function of the EXO, though this shape shifting at the first level is superficial. Brain Shape Shifting opens up many possibilities. Brain wiring could be shape shifted or Shape Shifting could create smaller brain robots in some fashion. Some immediate useful features could include LCD monitors suddenly appearing and retracting back into their hangers, and automatic repositioning based on the brain reading its orientation through sensors.
Bigger Big Brain Containment Rack Containment Rack for Brain breadboards now completed
The Big Brain has continued to grow. It now has the vertical/ horizontal EXOskeleton and a series of large expanding breadboards. Each breadboard can hold up to 27 Propeller chips. The EXO holds a minimum of 20. There's additional smaller Satellite Brains that compliment the Big Brain.
A housing is needed for safe containment of the expanding breadboards. A type of enclosure decision is made for housing the Big Brain's large solderless breadboards and a smaller on-board support computer for loading programs.
The Big Brain EXO fits directly on top of the new Containment Rack. Instrumentation is now set while standing in front of the Big Brain unit. Balance is maintained with a heavy power supply of greater weight on the bottom tier.
This is a seven tier rack made from simple inexpensive poly kitchenware with a total investment of about $14.
The Containment Rack is a combination of two very strong yet light weight perforated poly shelving units stacked vertically. The completed duo unit weighs only a couple pounds and can be lifted with one finger when assembled unloaded.
The Brain containment rack stack is 15.75-inches wide with a depth of 11-inches. Height is 4-feet 1-inch. It includes seven tiers, each will a surrounding containment lip that's about 2.5-inches deep. The distance of equipment clearance between one tier and the next is about 7.25 inches. Hand insertion clearance for wiring and rewiring is 5-inches.
The large Containment Rack has eight tiers including
the upper reinforcement tier. Solderless breadboards simply
set inside the lipped rack shelves and can be removed
for inspection or wiring in an instant.
The top and depth of the lip is ideal for a quick cover place to prevent dust from settling on top of the equipment. This will probably be fabricated from cardboard flats.
Containment Rack Features
Very Lightweight
Expandable
Easily Assembles and Disassembles
Has Enough Tiers for Seven Breadboards
Protective Lip Prevents Breadboard from Sliding Out
Moves easily
Hand Clearance Between Breadboards for Wiring
Inexpensive
Perforations facilitate "any which way" wiring
Commonly Available as Kitchenware
View of the undeveloped raw Containment Rack. Compare the size of this new Big Brain Containment Rack (left) with the original Big Brain EXO (right). The amount of new real estate for the Big Brain is perfect for expansion.
One idea to be implemented is the addition of sub shelving inside the tiers to doulble the number of breadboards. This will be made up of smaller sides and a top platform to hold a breadboard.
The perforations in the rack are ideal for routing wiring. Wires can thread through for connections. Rewiring can take place in an instant.
For a moment, imagine if you will, the Big Brain automatically opens up its EXO hidden robotic hanger and one or more Brain operated remotely controlled tiny electric helicopters emerge. These little helicopters are a port of the Big Brain and can be remote controlled by the Big Brain which determines the mission.
The Big Brain is already a powerful master supermicrocontroller and can handle multi-navigation, flight data and can purpose the mission with GPS and other tools.
On board sensors purvey data regionally to ensure safety and the copters activate surveying equipment. Cameras map out the area and beam live images back into the Brain's vision centers for sampling. What can be sampled? Heat infrared sources, photo imagery, EM fields, light concentrations, localized temperatures, physical boundary mapping, and perhaps missions can be developed to seek out and irradiate bugs like mosquitoes one at a time.
Still many questions need to be answered. What is the smallest copter available and what weight payload can it handle? Where are these available and at what cost? What is their range?
Big Brain Living Environment Air filter and conditioning
Breadboards with arrays of Propeller chips require a small amount of maintenance. Keeping a solderless breadboard clean, free of dust and covered when not in use is important. A HEPA air filter can help keep solderless breadboards clean and adds to their reliability.
A HEPA air filter is now added to the Big Brain room to keep components, including solderless breadboards with Parallax Propeller chips, more clean and efficiently operating.
Environmental Investment
The project has now invested in a quality HEPA Air Filter. The Brain Room is apportioned off in glass, sealed to a area which is more readily filtered and environmentally maintained.
The Ravages of Development
During development in the past, the Brain was open to the environment. The surrounds are now more quality controlled. It's still not a a NASA White Room, but the quality is much improved.
After Development Upon conclusion of development, the Brain can be hermetically sealed, contained in a miniature atmosphere of specialized air, surrounded by containment solution, or simply vessel encapsulated. It can also undergo supercooling, hypersensitization, and take on localized enhancing.
(Remember that localized enhancing can include just one or more chips subjected to either software enhancement or physical enhancements. For example, a specific array of Propeller chips can be supercooled, it these were in the high speed thinking Cortex region of the Brain, while the remaining chips can remain at ambient.)
Planning
Originally planned, concern was more about temperature and humidity regulation. However, dust has moved to the forefront picture of required solutions.
Local Environment
The location here is frequently prone to massive dust storms, sand storms, blowing dirt from high wind, and pollution storms of smoke and caustic burning chemical. Even when windows are closed, the particulates force into the room. The giant skyscraper also creates a spiraling wind effect that creates an inducement pressure and other effects.
Dust
In only 1, 2 or 3 days time, the surfaces can become visibly "dusty." A cleaning service is hired to help but this in not enough. The HEPA air filter helps to remove smoke and dust in the Big Brain room. Even so, most things are kept covered in plastic or sealed when not in use.
List of Equipment
Equipment and machines currently in the Big Brain Home Room, to make Big Brain more comfortable and perform more reliably:
HEPA Air Filter
Air Conditioner
Twin Tank Humidifier
Ceramic Heater
Ambient Air Fan (dehumidifier, ambient air cooler)
Comments
I usually use it temporarily - then copy something onto KiCAD schematic editor on the computer or just scribble it on paper, create the PCB afterward. The solderless breadboard is usually good for temporary use. Another problem is, some breadboard can only handle 2 - 3 Amps before they get hot - I have experienced this problem before too, when I messed with the inverter setup - I never have shoved that much currents until recently... (yes, I did it with P8X32A-D40, driving out the squarewave pulses to the base of transistor. It was out of curiosity.) And some components with thick pins aren't going to do the breadboard that much good either.
http://www.rapidonline.com/netalogue/specs/34-0550T.pdf
I'm using something that probably isn't as good, though. I might buy a couple of those ones from Rapid.
And the pin inlet accepting up to 0.8mm is considered good enough for most projects.
One thing I am having problem with is current hold-down. It's rated for 1A and
my Radio Shack Archer Quik breadboard could handle much more...
I could say it's not too bad, considering the current consumption for many digital chips
being shoved onto the breadboard. Leon, I still like what you posted up: I like the user serviceability.
I took apart a breadboard to learn more about it. The pin sockets have a good deep design which is not as susceptible to dirt as I originally thought. It is possible for a large chunk of dirt to plug the top hole but then it could be removed.
The springs can lose their spring constant when too large wire is forced through, wires are kept inserted for extended periods of time, repeated setups and takedowns, or if splayed pins are inserted. I plan to post a section on breadboards, complete with photos, to save others the time and expense of tearing one apart.
It would be nice if the boards were user serviceable, I have several that need repair, however unfortunately the sticky tape side is a real mess and very difficult to remove and it's better to leave it alone.
One idea I can see from the illustration is stack up long strips making it as narrow as only 1 or 2 groupings wide. The stack rack is currently the challenge.
Indeed you did your homework well. One method of Brain Folding was addressed in a previous post. The concept applied here could be interesting. I was trying out this same idea yesterday using a mini shelving unit and clipboards to sub for the actual breadboards. Then various combinations of folding were tried. As you have surmised, the accordion worked the best for compactness.
In an earlier theme on the original 20 boards before they evolved to EXOskeleton, I did a "spinout board stack" but this worked only on the smaller lighter weight boards with a single supportive pivot.
Hinges are possible, attached to the clipboards and metal bases, but something more simple is needed for take-down and transport. I won't be able to ship or stick the device in luggage, so perhaps a disposable idea could work. Reinforced aircraft box style girders and pylons could be fabricated from duty cardboard. I'm entertaining that idea too. HD cardboard can be made to accordion in and out.
Duane, this is a good point. Currently, with the Brain design, things can change every day or week so this is a good solderless breadboard phase. TG we have solderless breadboards or I can imagine the mess of soldering and unsoldering a pcb many times. After the design has everything included, it can be etched. Probably I'll give the design to Cluso and he'll make the boards.
Duane, how long were wires in your breadboards to have the spring clips fail?
Certainly you would need to know the approximate number and size of breadboards to think about a containment design and this is directly related to the number of Propeller chips.
However, each of the early breadboard aggregates are a different size and hold a different number of prop chips. I never released a statement of the exact number of Propeller chips for a reason based on the var design described below.
Finally I made the investment in solderless China breadboards and designed a unit (see posts) of higher density. Each of these new aggregate units holds 27 props. Older units were Taiwan brand breadboards - these hold 12 props but I designed an overlap to add on at least 3 more per unit.
First and foremost consideration is the size and number of Propeller Partitions. A Partition is made up of up to 50 props with the first and second Partition locked in at 50 props. The third partition has a hardware and software design so that it can function variable.
This is the VAR design. This way, say five props can be removed from it and put on loan to another project while the Big Brain can still remain functional. As you see, I must get maximum return from my prop investment for all projects.
The design is also good to add on the next fourth Partition, then the previous Partition number three becomes locked at 50 and we have 150 props added to the new Partition up to 50 more.
What does all this mean? Currently we have three partitions. The sizes of the Taiwan breadboard aggregates are each approximately 10x10-inches. The custom made China breadboard designs are around 9x12-inches.
A Partition is approximately equal to two custom made breadboards. In conclusion, we'll need containment for six large breadboard aggregates. This is for three Partition and expansion of each Partition would add on two more high density breadboard aggregates.
Is it that easy? No. There's the EXO too, which uses twenty PPPBs (as shown in the UltraSpark 40, each PPPB can support two props) and is also part of the Big Brain. But for now, it can set along side the containment for the aggregate of breadboards.
I plan to measure the size and extent of the breadboard connectors and that along with wire size and the number of chips and connections made it can give some ideas on amp carrying capability and signal. It would be nice to have all the equipment to measure many of the variables but some things can be calculated. Power rails appear to be intentionally made for distribution of higher current. Measurements will shed some light on this.
Where does Radio Shack get their boards from? It appears many of the China boards are lower cost and lesser quality and the Taiwan boards are very high quality and slightly higher in cost.
-Phil
Tonight may be THE night as I'm going out to buy the new AMD Radeon HD card with 720 core streaming processors for the Big Propeller Brain project. This will be a really great startup system for the ideas that I want to accomplish. If it works well, there's the possibility of going much larger. By that time, I expect larger streams available in the thousands of processors, low end above 5,000 and high end maybe 10,000 to 15,000.
Current technology lets you add a full TeraFLOP of computing power for each board added to the the system. Let's hope these products are in stock. If all goes well, by tomorrow a complete new system may be in place. This will really be a big assist in getting the Big Brain project back on track and will accelerate development. It will also help in archiving, sorting, researching, sketching, designing, accelerating, programming, and numerous other related Brain activities.
Announcing the beginning of a New Big Brain Book
Project planning has anticipated a Big Brain Book that would begin around the half way point of project construction. Since this is approximately where the project is approaching, the book will begin preliminaries.
The idea was suggested to include a collection of the best features incorporated into the project. The theme of Big Brain is apparent, however material couldl apply to those who want to simply connect several props together and use the basics of parallel processing.
A single book or series of books could include ideas and development topics chosen for the Big Brain, its smaller siblings, specific inventions utilized, chapters regarding the spinoff technologies developed, sections on testing, assembly, parts, hardware and software, theory, and the Index.
The book could also include the six big main areas of parallel processing with the Propeller chip and the discoveries of how to program in Parallel. Some topics are looking at Propeller code presentations, schematics and maps, communications, loading, enumerating, distributing, injecting, accelerating, enhancing, bus, interfacing, neurons, neural matter, arrays, and a mass of additional chapters.
The best of positive comments will likely be included so here's a chance to contribute.
A disclaimer will follow.
Special test machine for Solo and Parallel performance is introduced
Brain BIT is made up of two Brain modules with solderless breadboards
One of the best advantages of Brain BIT is the one chip portion which is based on PEK. This can run many programs in SPIN for rapid testing, configuring and development.
Things are going well in the world of the Big Brain. It's time to introduce a new machine - though a small one. Previously in posts, two small Brains were introduced - the Baby (from 1 to 5 props) and the Brain Child (5 props). These are essentially miniature versions of the BIG BRAIN only in the smallest of configurations.
This describes the new Big Brain Interim Test Machine BIT for testing base programs and paralleled programs in multi-mode formats.
It can load and run different interface types at the same time and is modular. The unit is made from five main solderless breadboards and eight power rails. Three line up perpendicular to the others to delineate circuitry.
Included are seven LEDs, decoupling and power mains filtering capacitors, dropping resistors, crystals (one for each module), and two pushbuttons. The two supplies are 9 volts and 3.3 volts DC provided by a bench supply or batteries.
It includes five props in parallel and one solo without any initial connection to the others. This facilitates testing of different programs and the wiring of circuit combinations. Modules run one or the other, or both at the same time.
BIT includes two EEPROMS and duplicated Prop Tool interfaces. This enables testing of simultaneous At Once loading, distro, piggyback eeprom'ing and other nice features.
BIT has a wired Software Tool interface for program loading
Currently BIT includes a total of six props and three live communications related interfaces. BIT can also experiment with tandem eeprom'ing. More on this technique will be future discussed.
BIT expands from six to eight props or can use the extra breadboard space for other components.
To me the appeal of a microcontroller is not is computational power, rather I find the appeal to be its small size and power consumption. If I wanted to invest $900 in CPU resources I'd likely go with an Intel i7.
Humanoido, my Archer Quik is made in Taiwan, as it cost me $20 for "just right" size - 4 inch width x 8 inch long.
It also includes the power posts which you can screw the wires in and plug the banana plugs into the power post.
And yea, I abused it by overloading it with a picture tube transformer's filament (or power) windings which is rated for 4 - 6 Amps - running off 5VDC (and then 12VDC) squarewave pulses. As long as I have been wiggling the transistor on and off rapidly with P8X32A running modified LED on/off example SPIN (modified to have the sharpest PWM possible as this transformer's just an inductor in the circuit), and I felt the metal plate that the breadboard was mounted - it was pretty much warmer. I didn't let it running too long, though (as transistor was starting to overheat - I didn't want to melt the breadboard).
At the opening of King Tut’s tomb in 1922, Carter followed by Carnarvon, peered through the broken seal of the door stamped with a royal necropolis. When asked by Lord Carnarvon if he could see anything, Howard Carter responded, “Yes, wonderful things.”
@ erco: Good one. When I read or hard the words, "I don't care if it's more sealed shut than King Tut's tomb!", I think of that "When it's open, it's full of wonderful things!"
It was a fruitful and productive weekend as a trip to the local apple store to obtain a powerful new Mac computer and AMD Radeon HD streaming card with 720 processors was very successful. It represents considerable more commitment to the Big Brain project and provides a gamut of new features and capabilities added on to the Parallax Propeller chips.
Doors were kept wide open for oxygen at the store as it was packed with about one thousand people and in the short time I was standing there waiting for the technician to bring up the computer box, about 20 macs were sold!
If you've never experienced the full power of an INTEL QUAD core computer made by Apple, in the TeraFLOPS range of computing, you simply must. I don't know how they get their GHz quotes but the machine appears far more powerful.
In all my life of working with computers I have never seen a computer this powerful and responsive. Whenever I launch a program, it's just there on the screen, no waiting for load at all. And the entire computer with OSX shuts down in 3 seconds (I timed it).
It looks like Apple did everything right and I feel like "welcome home" after doing the alternate win pc struggle for 3 years.
They've addressed backups perfectly. Time Machine is totally spectacular. It makes multiple backups, incremental, going back in time. (not trying to sound like a sales person here, just a satisfied customer)
Briefly tested, the installed schematic drawing program has features in the Pro version that are mind boggling, intuitive, powerful and graphically a dream come true. A small test diagram sketch proved this is the exact program I was looking for in the past several years.
No wires. It's easy to run stuff wireless such keyboard, printer, mouse, hard drives, and you guessed it - the Brain. The Brain has a wireless Parallax card just waiting for connection - which appears compatible with the Mac. More on this will follow as the wireless project unfolds.
This is a new experience on all fronts, especially the magnitude of Multiprocessing. Surprise, some of the developer apps are already installed at no charge. The store wanted to install all those free-in-china apps but I had to say no.
However, I will get the English versions at the online Apple Store. There's some rather amazing development apps there which the Brain thread may review in the future. Plus AMD is now releasing developer apps as open source software. Things are just getting better all the time as we continue to keep the Big Brain happy.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging Equivalency
Leon, exactly - a medical Big Brain functional X-RAY machine was invented using an adaptation of Big Brain data in Google Sketchup in real time.
It was amazing as you could scan the entire Big Brain in in full color XRAYs and could see directly through to the interior of the Big Brain through the EXOskeleton. This was based on the fine work accomplished earlier for the Big Brain by Google Sketchup artist NikosG.
Here's some related links:
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?124495-Fill-the-Big-Brain&p=1009917&viewfull=1#post1009917
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?124495-Fill-the-Big-Brain&p=979867&viewfull=1#post979867
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?124495-Fill-the-Big-Brain&p=979268&viewfull=1#post979268
There's an XRAY post about this technique in this thread. You're welcome to scope out the index.
The next step is now a machine much more advanced - as I mentioned recently, 3D graphics will have a new invention of circuit extrusion, creating multi-circuit layers of calculus or slices in which a machine, functioning very similar to a human medical NMRI machine, can be created. This is the next step to provide functioning medical data on the Machine Brain.
EDIT:
Actually Leon, I found the post for the Big Brain X-Ray machine here
page 18, post 343
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?124495-Fill-the-Big-Brain&p=982137&viewfull=1#post982137
This was accomplished back in early March of this year.
Developing Brain X-Rays now a Reality
It's not often that you have the opportunity with various scientific medical equipment to x-ray your project, for the reason of study, component placement analysis, project continuing extension and development, upgrading and enhancement, revision and various engineering requirements. With new emerging technology, you don't need a medical CT-Scan machine. For the first time with technical three dimensional data supplied by NikosG, it becomes possible to x-ray the Brain using the Google SketchUp CAD program.
You will note this is a static X-Ray, producing a Brain photo in xray mode, i.e. a still photo. It's the first step in a series of medical machines for the Big Brain. My interest in a future machine is to make it perform in real time. I think machines like CT-Scan for machine brains should be part of an array of medical equipment which accomplishes similar diagnostic objectives to those machines for human brains.
Servo stumps and a mobility platform
Big Brain Servos and a mobility platform is now allocated to the project. This adds the robotics side to the Big Brain that we've all been waiting for. This post will review some of the anticipated development and plans.
The Robotics Platform
Adding Boe-Bot to the Big Brain
A new Boe-Bot kit is now obtained for The Big Brain. The Brain will have a new robotics platform - a new Prime Boe-Bot to handle the base mobility functions and features, and connect directly to the Brain Stem. The Brain Stem is already developed and part of the EXO.
For a decade we've used the reliability of a Boe-Bot robot to handle robotics development and testing. Now a new updated robot Boe-Bot from Parallax will be added.
Boe-Bot is ideal for this purpose as it's a well developed robot in terms of both hardware and software and has educational material readily available for its use. Boe-Bot can handle the and amount of precision mobility and commands for all purposes considered. Recently Boe-Bot has become cross platform with the addition of the Propeller chip and Propeller boards.
Platform assembly is required so this will take some time. The platform is designed to give location mobility and orientation flexibility to the Big Brain's EXOskeleton. It can include ramping up and down, and making slow movements required to maintain the Brains stability. In the future, the motion control will minimize the sloshing of Brain containment liquids. The platform can function in tandem with the Servo Stumps for various positioning applications.
Big Brain Servo Stumps
The servos will add stumps to the Big Brain. Stumps are a more generalized configuration and representation of hands and arms. But they are not hands or arms. Their forms are possibly more alien and more artistically represented as globular or otherwise entities and don't take on any specifically or immediately recognizable shape.
Yet globular stumps have purpose and function. The can reach, retract, push, pull, nudge, move, signal, speak in sign language, wave, protect, protest, approve, hit, defend, block, create an alert, make a thud, knock, create momentum, move around a grounding shield, repurpose insulating dielectrics, affect inertia, and transform.
The transforming feature of the Servo Stumps could be integrated into the EXO. Servo Stumps could transform to change the shape and function of the EXO, though this shape shifting at the first level is superficial. Brain Shape Shifting opens up many possibilities. Brain wiring could be shape shifted or Shape Shifting could create smaller brain robots in some fashion. Some immediate useful features could include LCD monitors suddenly appearing and retracting back into their hangers, and automatic repositioning based on the brain reading its orientation through sensors.
Containment Rack for Brain breadboards now completed
The Big Brain has continued to grow. It now has the vertical/ horizontal EXOskeleton and a series of large expanding breadboards. Each breadboard can hold up to 27 Propeller chips. The EXO holds a minimum of 20. There's additional smaller Satellite Brains that compliment the Big Brain.
A housing is needed for safe containment of the expanding breadboards. A type of enclosure decision is made for housing the Big Brain's large solderless breadboards and a smaller on-board support computer for loading programs.
The Big Brain EXO fits directly on top of the new Containment Rack. Instrumentation is now set while standing in front of the Big Brain unit. Balance is maintained with a heavy power supply of greater weight on the bottom tier.
This is a seven tier rack made from simple inexpensive poly kitchenware with a total investment of about $14.
The Containment Rack is a combination of two very strong yet light weight perforated poly shelving units stacked vertically. The completed duo unit weighs only a couple pounds and can be lifted with one finger when assembled unloaded.
The Brain containment rack stack is 15.75-inches wide with a depth of 11-inches. Height is 4-feet 1-inch. It includes seven tiers, each will a surrounding containment lip that's about 2.5-inches deep. The distance of equipment clearance between one tier and the next is about 7.25 inches. Hand insertion clearance for wiring and rewiring is 5-inches.
The large Containment Rack has eight tiers including
the upper reinforcement tier. Solderless breadboards simply
set inside the lipped rack shelves and can be removed
for inspection or wiring in an instant.
The top and depth of the lip is ideal for a quick cover place to prevent dust from settling on top of the equipment. This will probably be fabricated from cardboard flats.
Containment Rack Features
View of the undeveloped raw Containment Rack. Compare the size of this new Big Brain Containment Rack (left) with the original Big Brain EXO (right). The amount of new real estate for the Big Brain is perfect for expansion.
One idea to be implemented is the addition of sub shelving inside the tiers to doulble the number of breadboards. This will be made up of smaller sides and a top platform to hold a breadboard.
The perforations in the rack are ideal for routing wiring. Wires can thread through for connections. Rewiring can take place in an instant.
More information about the supporting computer
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?132692-Netbook-for-hosting-prop-development&p=1014430&viewfull=1#post1014430
Mini missions with the Brain Copter?
http://www.fadwebsite.com/2011/04/06/is-this-art-mid-air-ping-pong-with-tiny-helicopters/
For a moment, imagine if you will, the Big Brain automatically opens up its EXO hidden robotic hanger and one or more Brain operated remotely controlled tiny electric helicopters emerge. These little helicopters are a port of the Big Brain and can be remote controlled by the Big Brain which determines the mission.
The Big Brain is already a powerful master supermicrocontroller and can handle multi-navigation, flight data and can purpose the mission with GPS and other tools.
On board sensors purvey data regionally to ensure safety and the copters activate surveying equipment. Cameras map out the area and beam live images back into the Brain's vision centers for sampling. What can be sampled? Heat infrared sources, photo imagery, EM fields, light concentrations, localized temperatures, physical boundary mapping, and perhaps missions can be developed to seek out and irradiate bugs like mosquitoes one at a time.
Still many questions need to be answered. What is the smallest copter available and what weight payload can it handle? Where are these available and at what cost? What is their range?
Air filter and conditioning
Breadboards with arrays of Propeller chips require a small amount of maintenance. Keeping a solderless breadboard clean, free of dust and covered when not in use is important. A HEPA air filter can help keep solderless breadboards clean and adds to their reliability.
A HEPA air filter is now added to the Big Brain room to keep components, including solderless breadboards with Parallax Propeller chips, more clean and efficiently operating.
Environmental Investment
The project has now invested in a quality HEPA Air Filter. The Brain Room is apportioned off in glass, sealed to a area which is more readily filtered and environmentally maintained.
The Ravages of Development
During development in the past, the Brain was open to the environment. The surrounds are now more quality controlled. It's still not a a NASA White Room, but the quality is much improved.
After Development
Upon conclusion of development, the Brain can be hermetically sealed, contained in a miniature atmosphere of specialized air, surrounded by containment solution, or simply vessel encapsulated. It can also undergo supercooling, hypersensitization, and take on localized enhancing.
(Remember that localized enhancing can include just one or more chips subjected to either software enhancement or physical enhancements. For example, a specific array of Propeller chips can be supercooled, it these were in the high speed thinking Cortex region of the Brain, while the remaining chips can remain at ambient.)
Planning
Originally planned, concern was more about temperature and humidity regulation. However, dust has moved to the forefront picture of required solutions.
Local Environment
The location here is frequently prone to massive dust storms, sand storms, blowing dirt from high wind, and pollution storms of smoke and caustic burning chemical. Even when windows are closed, the particulates force into the room. The giant skyscraper also creates a spiraling wind effect that creates an inducement pressure and other effects.
Dust
In only 1, 2 or 3 days time, the surfaces can become visibly "dusty." A cleaning service is hired to help but this in not enough. The HEPA air filter helps to remove smoke and dust in the Big Brain room. Even so, most things are kept covered in plastic or sealed when not in use.
List of Equipment
Equipment and machines currently in the Big Brain Home Room, to make Big Brain more comfortable and perform more reliably: