Unofficial GG Platform Design contest: Prizes Announced!
Oldbitcollector (Jeff)
Posts: 8,091
Unofficial Gadget Gangster Propeller Platform Addon Contest...
This contest ends on July 10th, 2011 Judges: Ken, Nick, Jeff
Deadline extended to October 10th, 2011
Contest Website: http://www.propellerpowered.com/designcontest/
PRIZES! Thanks to Parallax and Gadget Gangster for these great prizes!
1st Place : Gadget Gangster Full Kit (parallax) / Nook Color (gg)
2nd Place: Multicore Startup Special (parallax) / Gadget Gangster T-Shirt (gg)
3rd Place: El' Jugador (parallax) / Propeller Platform Kit (signed by Jon Williams) (gg)
30% community participation: Entrants are expected to help others and contribute design ideas on the forums or Object Exchange and use community resources.
* community participation: How to do this *
Start a thread for your project. (If you haven't done so already) Post a link to that thread in this one with your intent to enter the contest. Allow your project to develop publicly, working with other forum members to fine tune your design and code. Keep old designs and code in the thread so that we may track your progress and learn from it.
25% capabilities & design appropriateness: External hardware should build upon the capabilities of the Propeller Platform, maintaining compatibility with the existing configuration.
* capabilities & design appropriateness: How to do this *
Both the original Propeller Platform & Propeller Platform USB are considered fair game. As well as any compatible board. Understand that the Propeller Platform USB will be the most common, so if you are producing a product which might shared or sold, keep the onboard SD adapter in mind.
25% usefulness: The entry should be useful to others.
20% success easy to duplicate: All designs should be open source providing schematic, code, and PCB layout files (if possible).
* success easy to duplicate: How to do this *
Not understanding how to use a schematic tool, or PCB layout software won't throw you out of the contest. Document your work as much as possible, as plainly as possible. Provide videos if possible. Make your project as easy for someone to replicate as you can. Involve others who can help you in these areas if possible. (Community involvement is part of your score.)
OBC
This contest ends on July 10th, 2011 Judges: Ken, Nick, Jeff
Deadline extended to October 10th, 2011
Contest Website: http://www.propellerpowered.com/designcontest/
PRIZES! Thanks to Parallax and Gadget Gangster for these great prizes!
1st Place : Gadget Gangster Full Kit (parallax) / Nook Color (gg)
2nd Place: Multicore Startup Special (parallax) / Gadget Gangster T-Shirt (gg)
3rd Place: El' Jugador (parallax) / Propeller Platform Kit (signed by Jon Williams) (gg)
30% community participation: Entrants are expected to help others and contribute design ideas on the forums or Object Exchange and use community resources.
* community participation: How to do this *
Start a thread for your project. (If you haven't done so already) Post a link to that thread in this one with your intent to enter the contest. Allow your project to develop publicly, working with other forum members to fine tune your design and code. Keep old designs and code in the thread so that we may track your progress and learn from it.
25% capabilities & design appropriateness: External hardware should build upon the capabilities of the Propeller Platform, maintaining compatibility with the existing configuration.
* capabilities & design appropriateness: How to do this *
Both the original Propeller Platform & Propeller Platform USB are considered fair game. As well as any compatible board. Understand that the Propeller Platform USB will be the most common, so if you are producing a product which might shared or sold, keep the onboard SD adapter in mind.
25% usefulness: The entry should be useful to others.
20% success easy to duplicate: All designs should be open source providing schematic, code, and PCB layout files (if possible).
* success easy to duplicate: How to do this *
Not understanding how to use a schematic tool, or PCB layout software won't throw you out of the contest. Document your work as much as possible, as plainly as possible. Provide videos if possible. Make your project as easy for someone to replicate as you can. Involve others who can help you in these areas if possible. (Community involvement is part of your score.)
OBC
Comments
On PCB layout files, will PDFs of both sides of the board suffice?
OBC
Play wav files to it's digital I2S amp controlled with I2C
Digital tuned (I2C) FM radio with I2S audio out
to the amps second I2S port.
Record FM radio to the prop.
Only uses 4 pins for wav->I2S data, I2C is shared.
The speaker mounts in the big center whole
* An expansion board for multi-track audio recording *
Hardware:
* 2 sigma-delta ADCs with choice of inputs
- electret mic a-la demo-board
- stereo line-level inputs
- single balanced input (e.g. for XLR)
* 2 RC DACs plus amp for headphone / line driver
* OPTIONAL - high-quality CODEC chip (>= 16-bit at 44.1kHz) to basically replace all the above functionality
* SD (or uSD?) card socket
* PS2, VGA, TV connectors
* OPTIONAL - small LCD display interface (for complete hand-held recording)
* OPTIONAL - capacitive touch buttons / sliders (like on the new QuickStart board, only with the old diagonally-slashed-rectangle sliders instead of just butons)
Software:
* NTSC or PAL or VGA output
* keyboard input
* can record 1 (or 2 would be awesome) track(s) at a time
* while playing back up to 4 (8 would be awesome) tracks at the same time
* playback has volume control per track (not too fine, say 3dB per notch)
* can export raw tracks as WAV (to SD card, or over serial)
* can export mixed track as WAV
There's my proposition. I can help a bit with component selection and PCB layout, and I've done quite a bit of thinking about the software for this (actually for a related project...which was the whole reason I worked on the fast block driver for FSRW in the 1st place [8^)
Jonathan
OBC
Paul
For entries that would not be on PCBs, remember there are protoboards for the GG Propeller Platform. ProtoPlus
@OBC,
Is this contest for "any" Propeller Platform motherboard? Is it only for Propeller Platform USB or does it apply to the classic kit too?
Please keep in mind that the Propeller Platform USB's SDCARD on pins D0..3 does not have to be used for SDCARD.
The decision to put SDCARD on pins D0..3 was made without considering the advantages of those pins for other purposes.
Having other devices connected to pins D0..3 (without removing the pull ups) should not detract from someone's score.
Unfortunately a USB host idea on D0..3 with the pull-ups will probably not work at all.
If we can use JonnyMac's original Propeller Platform that solves this plus another physical limitation I run up against (need longer board)
How about it, OBC?
I did some measurements and it will have to be the longer board as some of the components are too tall for a shield.
Yes I would agree with that too. The way the pasm instructions work with the lower 9 bits mean that it is easier to use the lower pins for a bus such as to external memory. The SD pins can be any pins. Is there any rule that says P0-3 have to be the SD card?
Also VGA may be an issue - I have found that on a flatscreen LCD with large areas of black that noise becomes quite obvious. The shorter the distance of the prop to a plug, the less the noise. So this leads to a design where the VGA plug is on the motherboard and the prop is as close to that plug as possible. For non VGA designs one would just leave the socket and resistors out. I need to check some heights of components and see if the VGA socket can fit under the 'shield' part or if it has to go on the extended part of the board. Or... if the mother board can be bigger.
I can think of a number of add-on shields, including external memory, displays and various real world I/O.
Any further developments in the proposed design contest?
Paul
My 2 cents - I think it would be okay to use either Propeller Platform (Kit or USB) or another board like rayman's PTP. The PPLA works as a motherboard, too.
Just getting all the cool prizes and details set!
No, I don't see any problem with including designs which incorporate the original Propeller Platform. Just be aware that there are likely more of the USB version out in the wild due to them being sold at four different locations. So if you are looking to create something compatible with the potentially larger group, then take it into consideration.
<BING!> Email just arrived.. more prize data in my inbox! We'll kick this off officially tonight!
OBC
@Microcontrolled: NO! You can't! Just kidding! That is EXACTLY the same board I was going to start designing for myself! Of course you can enter it! I wasn't kidding about the board design. It's 98% exactly what I was starting to work on over here. Suggestion. A good part of the judging is collaboration with other members. Find a way to work with others to get some awesome software running on it! When you are done, you can count on me as wanting a couple of them. (Also consider me one of your collaborators... where's the thread for it?)
OBC
Maybe include the C3 spi bus strandard?
ftp://ftp.propeller-chip.com/PropC3/Designs/Schematics/prop_c3_rev_a_spibus.png
Users of the older/original board should be OK if they take the card out.
Everyone good on these?
OBC
Also, I have an idea for this, looks like I'll be buying some Propeller platform stuff when I am at UPEW.
My entry is a simple AVR based VGA generator to overcome the BPP limits in a simple maner for VGA gaming, etc... It is the KISS GG AVR VGA at:
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?131637-KISS-GG-AVR-(Atmega)-VGA-512x240-8BPP.&p=999682#post999682
I can certainly understand the necessity of making profit on your work if you have invested highly. However, this contest is intended to help add to the growing group of modules available for the Propeller Platform, and I want anyone to be able to replicate a board from the contest freely.
OBC
Fully open source means the design and manufacturing is there for the taking by anyone without reservations or repercussions. If it's truly a great thing, starving, razor thin margin, and incredulous producers may be the only winners.
Anyone with the right training and a sense of purpose can take whatever they want (lawyers do it all the time), but at least that takes some effort.
Both software and hardware can be difficult, but the cost of software is mostly time except for maybe the act of buying a copy something that enables participation. Asking someone to post Gerber artwork in exchange for the chance to win a contest is not a fair deal.
I'm sure there will be participants who don't mind giving away their rights just for the glory of winning something. It happens all the time. If you register to win a new car in a mall, all you have to win something is say you are over 25 and make $100K a year, give your name and address. Then they will call you and after you accept going to a condominium sales presentation, they will give you free stereo. There, you won.
So, I suppose it's good for the ones who want to win something to want to give away all their rights because not everyone will enter, and therefore the number of contestants will be smaller. By requiring people to give up their rights, you are immediately trimming out some quality prospects. Getting something for free does not mean it's perfectly suitable for anything or that it's really free. Free puppies are great examples of things that are not really free.
I know Nick would like to get more contributors, and that's fine. I know everyone appreciates having a chance to win things. I know everyone would like to see Propeller solutions grow, and that's fine too. I know you want to grow things too, but don't go overboard and sell the yard itself at your next yard-sale.
Anyone who contributes in a contest should not have to give up all their rights by being required to publicly bare their entire design and manufacturable artwork in order to participate. Intellectual property arrangements should be made (i.e. royalties or profit sharing as is done today on GadgetGangster) between the winners and those who stand to benefit the most.
There are also people who don't mind giving away intellectual property just for the sake of making it available to others. Not everyone wants to "win" all the time.
I would argue that the primary "cost" of the Gerber's is time as well.
Open source is all fun and games until it's your work someone wants for free...
C.W.
I'd like to challenge those who dare to participate in this "open source" based contest to go ahead and still sell their designs through Gadget Gangster. I'll put money on folks still making purchases of the products if for no other reason than time is worth money. The Propeller Platform is an open source project, and yet Gadget Gangster, Parallax, Digikey, and Mouser all carry and sell the product.
I had considered briefly looking at alternative license for this contest, but honestly, I don't see huge losses for folks who participate. Unless the sponsors have issues with this, the contest stands as is.
I'd challenge anyone to take a good look at open source business models. Strangely, they are actually working. It defies all reason, but still...
This contest is about benefit to the Propeller Platform community, learning, and having a little fun doing it.
OBC