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What would you like to see on the C3 dev board? — Parallax Forums

What would you like to see on the C3 dev board?

octaloctal Posts: 67
edited 2011-03-23 10:01 in Propeller 1
hello,
I'm planning to acquire some of the C3 dev boards for a project, but for having seen the documentation and the enthousiasme of all developpers here about it, I want to have a feedback from you.
For me, C3 is more a board for final product (or to embed in a final product) than a dev board for begginer.

For developpers here, if you had to add some devices or capabilities for the C3 to make it more DevBoard (for proof of concepts) than it is actually, what would you like to see added or changed to it?

Regards

Comments

  • octaloctal Posts: 67
    edited 2011-03-23 08:20
    36 view and no answer !

    Either the C3 as it is is too much for most developpers or either nobody own one :D
  • StefanL38StefanL38 Posts: 2,292
    edited 2011-03-23 09:21
    more or less senseful extensions

    more ADC-channels MCP3208

    stereo-audio-output

    bigger SRAM

    two connectros one for mouse and one for keyboard

    4 shiftregisters 74HC595 for outpout-expanding to 32 outputs

    4 shiftregisters 74HC597 for input expanding to 32 inputs

    but how would all this fit onto a credit card sized PCB?

    anyway for proof of concepts and developping the PPDB suits better
    best regards

    Stefan
  • octaloctal Posts: 67
    edited 2011-03-23 09:34
    1-more ADC-channels MCP3208
    Possible

    2- stereo-audio-output
    What do you mean by that? adding a DAC or an additional sterio codec chip (to decode mp3 for example)?

    3- bigger SRAM
    The problem is that SPI RAM chips are limited to 32KB! bigger RAMs are all parallel access

    4- two connectros one for mouse and one for keyboard
    Ok for that

    5- 4 x shiftregisters 74HC595 for outpout-expanding to 32 outputs
    6- 4x shiftregisters 74HC597 for input expanding to 32 inputs
    Possible !

    7- but how would all this fit onto a credit card sized PCB?
    Impossible unless you solder components on both sides and u add connectors on both sides of PCB. But is it important to have it credit card sized ?

    The main pb with that is that you can't have such board at $79.

    Would such board be SMT or DIP ?
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2011-03-23 09:42
    octal wrote: »
    3- bigger SRAM
    The problem is that SPI RAM chips are limited to 32KB! bigger RAMs are all parallel access

    Would such board be SMT or DIP ?
    If there is enough demand, I'll make a 32MB SDRAM board for C3. It would definitely be SMT and take most of the free pins on the expansion header including the VGA pins.
  • octaloctal Posts: 67
    edited 2011-03-23 09:47
    This is why I'm asking jazzed. Is it really usefull to have such ram? if it's only needed for 1% of applications, extension board like yours are excellent solutions, but for most applications I don't see any utility.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2011-03-23 10:01
    octal wrote: »
    This is why I'm asking jazzed. Is it really usefull to have such ram? if it's only needed for 1% of applications, extension board like yours are excellent solutions, but for most applications I don't see any utility.
    It is useful as: 1) a program memory store ala Zog C/C++, 2) a large disk buffer for SDcard, 3) a video RAM buffer, 4) other temporary storage. A slower SDRAM solution using fewer pins could be provided if that's valuable to anyone.

    Another board would have 2 W25Q or SQI flash chips on it like the SpinSocket-Flash or Rayman's FlashPoint boards. That would allow a large/fast read-only code/data store with only 10 pins. Off topic, but in support of the previous statement: SpinSocket-Flash is like a SpinStamp except exposes more propeller pins, has provision for 2AA battery operation, and will have 4MB flash on board.
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