Really irked by a "submarine" design change!!!
Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)
Posts: 23,514
Today I received two Prop Activity Board WXs. Yesterday I submitted a PCB design for fabrication that will plug into this board -- several pins around the breadboard area and the WX receptacle (the six-pin receptacle, not the DIP receptacle that the WX plugs into). Since I don't have DipTrace and can't read its layout files for pin positions, I used the dimensional diagram on the last page of the PAB WX manual in a CAD system to locate them. In that diagram, the WX receptacle's pins are on 0.1" centers. On the actual Rev C board, they're on 2mm centers. So the plug-in board I designed will not line up with that socket. Even the pin lengths would have to be different, since the 2mm receptacle has a lower profile.
Parallax, it would be helpful to customers to keep your documentation up to date. But more to the point, why change the receptacle to begin with? It's at odds with every other pin spacing on the board. This really irks me, and I'm on a strict deadline to get this system working.
Very stressed right now,
-Phil
Comments
Only thing I can offer to that- if you (or anyone) is ever designing a breakout board that needs to mate with pins on a Parallax board, feel free to ask for a technical file.
Either pm me, or email support@parallax.com
Gerbers, Diptrace sources and dimensioned drawings are all possible. I'm always ready to provide the data quickly.
Also about Diptrace, in-case you hadn't seen it and dismissed it already, they have a freeware version which can be handy in a pinch to view files : https://www.diptrace.com/download/download-diptrace/
Hope you figure a solution for your prototype. Maybe you have space to add a double-stack of headers, and provide space for necking down the 0.1" to 2mm.
Thanks for the offer! I'll definitely consider it next time around. In the meantime, I think I've got a workaround figured out.
Sorry for the rant. The boards showed up at the end of an already stressful day, and it was kind of the last straw.
-Phil
Hello!
@"Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)" can you explain further what this plugin board is intended for? I mean what will it (the design) do?
Mascot off.
It's for a local high school drama production. More later in a separate thread.
-Phil
You can get diptrace trial version, if you haven't had it yet. Otherwise it ranges from $75-$995 to buy it.
Here's my workaround for the 2mm/0.1" discrepancy:
Pretty simple. But another submarine design change manifested today when I received my boards. The position of the breadboard and the receptacles surrounding it has shifted! Here's what it looks like when my board is plugged into the ABWX:
My board lines up perfectly with the old AB and, presumably, with the one illustrated in the ABWX manual -- but not with the boards Parallax is shipping! So the mounting holes don't line up, precluding the use of threaded standoffs.
I really have to take the Parallax developers and documentarians to task for this:
You guys simply have to do better than this.
On the plus side, the ABWX looks to have a more robust power supply than the old AB version, whose supplies have failed on me several times. And it has a wider voltage input range.
-Phil
Unfortunately the chap who revised those things is no longer at Parallax so we cannot get answers to those questions.
What I can always do is share the gerber file with all the hole positions absolutely marked - just request at support@parallax.com.
Also, could you please share a link to the document you are working from? Then I can investigate and have it updated. Thanks.
https://www.parallax.com/package/propeller-activity-board-wx-product-guide/?wpdmdl=3287&refresh=63490528a3d731665729832&ind=1600699386320&filename=32912-Pro.pdf
Last page.
Thanks,
-Phil