Badge: First Impressions
Seairth
Posts: 2,474
As I will be attending OHS 2015 in a few weeks, where the new Badge product is being officially released, Ken was kind enough to advance me a couple of the badges to get a jump start on hacking them. I've only just started playing with them, but I figured I would provide a few early thoughts and observations.
First, the badge feels like a solid little product. It should easily be able to stand up to a bit of abuse while hanging around your neck at a conference. The LEDs (6 blue and 2 RGB) are nice and bright, which will help attract attention (for whatever reason). The 0.97" 128x96 OLED display (black/white) is okay, and I think it will be really good for text-driven interfaces. As a conference badge, the OLED might be okay for displaying a recognizable vendor/sponsor or stylized looping animation.
To round out the conference badge features, there are 6 button pads, one next to each of the blue LEDs. Additionally, the "Open Source Hardware" logo in the center of the board is another button pad, giving a total of 7 pads for user interaction. There is also an accelerometer, which could be used for gesture-based control (among other things). There is also an IR emitter and receiver, so that two badges can communicate by facing them toward each other. And, though not likely to be used while hanging around your neck at a conference, there is also a 3.5mm jack for simple A/V (stereo audio, composite video). Well, maybe the audio could come in handy.
Now, the point of this badge isn't to use it just as a badge. It's meant to be hacked! And with that in mind, I think the LEDs, OLED display, accelerometer, etc. provide a really nice out-of-the-box set of capabilities! I foresee quite a number of neat little projects that will use the existing hardware quite effectively. As it turns out, this badge almost exactly meets the needs of a project I have been planning. All that's missing is some expanded storage capability. With the prototyping area, I can easily tap into the I2C bus, so adding more storage will take no time at all. Now, writing the code, on the other hand... well, I suppose Parallax can do everything for me.
The badge also comes with a 2000mAh 3.7V rechargeable battery (the charging circuit is on-board), which will hopefully allow for a full day of usage at a conference. Conveniently, the board will still operate when USB power is connected. So, if you forget to recharge your badge at night (for a multi-day conference), you can still run it from an external USB battery. Regardless, it might behoove conference organizers to have a couple extra charged batteries on hand.
Because I am always looking for ways in which I think a product could be better, there are a few suggestions I'd like to make for future revisions of the product:
As I play around with the badge some more over the next 2-3 weeks, I will try to take some time to post more information. Maybe I'll even reveal that project I've been planning.
First, the badge feels like a solid little product. It should easily be able to stand up to a bit of abuse while hanging around your neck at a conference. The LEDs (6 blue and 2 RGB) are nice and bright, which will help attract attention (for whatever reason). The 0.97" 128x96 OLED display (black/white) is okay, and I think it will be really good for text-driven interfaces. As a conference badge, the OLED might be okay for displaying a recognizable vendor/sponsor or stylized looping animation.
To round out the conference badge features, there are 6 button pads, one next to each of the blue LEDs. Additionally, the "Open Source Hardware" logo in the center of the board is another button pad, giving a total of 7 pads for user interaction. There is also an accelerometer, which could be used for gesture-based control (among other things). There is also an IR emitter and receiver, so that two badges can communicate by facing them toward each other. And, though not likely to be used while hanging around your neck at a conference, there is also a 3.5mm jack for simple A/V (stereo audio, composite video). Well, maybe the audio could come in handy.
Now, the point of this badge isn't to use it just as a badge. It's meant to be hacked! And with that in mind, I think the LEDs, OLED display, accelerometer, etc. provide a really nice out-of-the-box set of capabilities! I foresee quite a number of neat little projects that will use the existing hardware quite effectively. As it turns out, this badge almost exactly meets the needs of a project I have been planning. All that's missing is some expanded storage capability. With the prototyping area, I can easily tap into the I2C bus, so adding more storage will take no time at all. Now, writing the code, on the other hand... well, I suppose Parallax can do everything for me.
The badge also comes with a 2000mAh 3.7V rechargeable battery (the charging circuit is on-board), which will hopefully allow for a full day of usage at a conference. Conveniently, the board will still operate when USB power is connected. So, if you forget to recharge your badge at night (for a multi-day conference), you can still run it from an external USB battery. Regardless, it might behoove conference organizers to have a couple extra charged batteries on hand.
Because I am always looking for ways in which I think a product could be better, there are a few suggestions I'd like to make for future revisions of the product:
- Move the "Open Source Hardware" button to the back. In it's current location, I find it hard to press without also touching nearby components (I have big fingers). Also, when using the IR communications, it would be nice to have a conveniently-placed button on the back.
- As the current board stands, eleven of the 12 prototyping I/O connectors are tied to the other hardware. I suggest swapping the 3 composite video pins (12-14) that aren't shared with the prototyping area with the three blue LED pins (6-8) that are shared. That way, if you are not using the 3.5mm jack for audio and video, then you would have a total of 6 consecutive unused/free I/O pins (6-11) available in the prototyping area. (note to readers: pin 11 is already available/free.)
- Minor: It would be nice is a small LED would light up while the on/off button was being pressed. Without it, there's no immediate indication whether the badge has power. As a battery-powered prototyping board, it would be nice to have some positive feedback indicating whether it's the battery or the board that's dead.
As I play around with the badge some more over the next 2-3 weeks, I will try to take some time to post more information. Maybe I'll even reveal that project I've been planning.
Comments
Some quick notes that might help ...
1. The badge will have an 800mAh 3.7V rechargeable Li-ion battery officially. Interesting the serious battery manufacturers all seem to claim that 800mAh is pretty much the limit for these size batteries, and that any number over that is pure marketing or pure nonsense. Whilst waiting for the new Parallax branded batteries to arrive we did source some "high-street" batteries, which are labelled 2000mAh as you note. Although tests seem to show both "genuine" 800mAh and "high-street" 2000mAh batteries last about the same time- something like 16 hours running the same test code as I recall, with constant OLED and LED action.
2. OSHW button on back.... we did experiment with that, but found it was rather prone to false triggering when worn. In the end we added a couple through-holes below the OSHW logo, which you can touch from the back and make the button trigger! You can also add parallel resistance there, or do various other <top secret> cunning things
3. Like the idea. I suppose you could still add wires from the AV socket TH pins to some spare "proto" TH pins...... BTW... What about a lanyard with 3.5mm jack plug on the end? And even with built in earphones... (And when your badge gets stuck in that elevator door, the jack will unplug, instead of your neck! Great for public service workers too- safety first!)
4. Interesting. We did have a power-on led in an earlier version, but that was wasting power. But an led that comes on for a few seconds (or during) each button press could be something. BTW... we left the "PG" pad on the front of the badge, so you could add an led to show USB power is good. Or you could add an led from one of the 3.3V rails too, which are switched fully on/off when USB is not connected, thus an indication of battery powered on/off state.
(As I recall the 3.3V rail will be about 2V when USB is connected and the badge is off - FTDI sourced "parasitic" power - so if you use an LED with close to 3.3V Vf and a decent size series R then that same LED will indicate power state for both USB and Battery power. We may change that in future versions, and add some other battery polarity and safety circuitry too, but for this first version we've gone with simple-as-possible and no-protection approach, to allow users maximum unhindered hacking possibilities!).
Enjoy !
The issue with using the AV socket as spare "proto" is that there are resistors and capacitors in the circuit, as well as the fact that three of the P1 I/O pins are tied to a single socket contact.
Actually, I suggest that it only be on while the button is pressed. That way, the user knows that the button is doing something and that the battery has a charge. Once the user releases the button, the LED would turn off again. From there, It's up to the P1 programming to indicate to the user that it's actually running.
Ahh, this explains the ghostly OLED image I see while USB is connected.
The caps are only on the audio side, and those 2 pins (P9, P10) are available at the proto-area before the caps, so you can ignore them in most cases.
The video feed is a curious one indeed, which is why it was left off proto... As you spotted, 3 I/O's are joined together via different series resistances. That said... Still perfectly usable if you connect the video pin to your proto area. And you can choose what input/output series R you want for your external circuit from the R values given!! If you wanted to control the current to an external device by 3 discrete levels, you're good to go !!
Those pins could also talk to each other- might be handy for WAITPNE/PEQ across cogs for learning if nothing else. You could even remove those 3 resistors, and just take the IO pins directly to the proto area. Or swap R507 for a diode and have yourself a simple 1-wire serial bus! Join badges together with super-long cables that plug into the AV socket, and tx/rx messages/etc........
So many possibilities! It's great fun watching people figure out what can be done. You're gonna have a great time at the OSHW show- I hope some interesting modified badges appear by the end of the day!
You know the badge can be mounted to the top of "things" too -- maybe useful as control panel....??!?!?!! The 2 holes at the middle of the lanyard slots are just the right size and spacing for..... <say no more>
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Oh, and yes,.... them be the Ghosts !!!
Simple to change that behaviour with one component.... but let's leave that challenge for the students to figure out!!
True, the audio pins are already exposed. However, I had not thought about the fact that the three video pins were tied together, at least not from the perspective of using them as proto pins. That would certainly make them less generally usable. Oh well.
Yep, all the pins have their function, and video does need 3 IO pins.... But don't let that stop you making use of those IO's if you need them.
The badge concept is not to lock everything down with perfect interfaces... rather it's all about keeping the interface circuits arranged in the most open way so that users can tap in and change function where they dream to.
And don't overlook that if you do hook something to the video pin, you don't need to use all 3 IO's just because they are there for the video function.... Just set 2 as inputs and use the 3rd for whatever you need. With such low value series R, those pins are essentially OPEN to the world!
Have fun !
Is there a picture / link / price for this ?
Someone mentioned Frequency Counter in another thread, and a Prop with a small LCD looks ideal as a Frequency Counter ....
As for your idea, that's a great use case! It would make a great platform for a multimeter, frequency counter, etc! Maybe even a simple 1-channel scope.