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New SX Development Board — Parallax Forums

New SX Development Board

Jim McCorisonJim McCorison Posts: 359
edited 2005-03-02 23:15 in General Discussion
Jon, Ken, or whoever at Parallax,

In mid December you teased us with a sneak peak at the new Professional Development Board saying it was due out in 6 to 8 weeks. So, any updated time frame?

Also, when it is released, will it be in a kit form like the SX Tool Kit Plus with key, SX chips, and books? Or will it just be a stand alone board?

See what happens when you tease us... we get anxious. smile.gif

Jim

Comments

  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2005-03-01 17:49
    Jim,

    We have a beta version in-house with the SX48. I'll get a picture and post it on the forum today.

    It will be released as a stand-alone board, at or near our cost. I hope to offer it at around $10.00, with the SX and the accessory hardware.

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • Jim McCorisonJim McCorison Posts: 359
    edited 2005-03-01 17:54
    $10!!!! I'll take a hundred of them!

    Oh, that was a typo. smile.gif



    Thanks for the update. I went ahead and ordered the SX Tool Kit Plus as it has everything to get started. I'll add the board later.

    Jim
  • JonbJonb Posts: 146
    edited 2005-03-01 18:36
    That sounds great, wheres that picture? [noparse]:)[/noparse]
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-03-01 19:14
    Ken are you refering to the prototype board here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=524031

    or the professional development board here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=519708

    ·
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2005-03-01 19:30
    Paul,

    My reference was to the prototype board. We have only two of them at the moment and they are both with Jon in Dallas. Therefore, I asked him to snap a picture and post it on this forum for us. He'll do that by the end of the day. Our intent is to offer these at or near our cost to stimulate interest in the SX chip. We have not ordered production units, yet, but we will do so within a few days. From then, it will be about six weeks until we have ample quantities.

    And the Professional Development Board is almost ready. We're waiting for the shipment from the supplier. Their initial estimate was the end of February. . .but you know how things go. At this point I expect them in a couple of weeks at the most.

    Ken Gracey
  • Jim McCorisonJim McCorison Posts: 359
    edited 2005-03-01 21:10
    Ken,

    I was asking about this board: http://forums.parallax.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=36667 which is supposed to handle both the SX and the Stamp.

    It looks like there was some confusion about my initial post. Since the board is for both the SX and the Stamp, perhaps the post should have been in the Sandbox. If you thought I was referring to the new bare SX 48/52 Proto Board, that would explain the $10 price you mentioned. Although even that seems like a heck of a deal. However, when you replied $10 when I was thinking of the other board... Well, you can understand my reaction. smile.gif


    Jim
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-03-02 02:02
    Here's the new SX48/52 Proto Board stuffed with an SX52.

    attachment.php?attachmentid=37191

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
    SX48-52 Proto Board.gif
    640 x 495 - 251K
  • ForrestForrest Posts: 1,341
    edited 2005-03-02 02:16
    Looks good. One question though - it looks like there's solder mask covering the the pads on the two SOIC8 patterns. Or is that just a reflection?

    You better order a lot of these boards - they're gonna sell fast [noparse];)[/noparse]
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2005-03-02 02:51
    How much does it cost?
    bugg

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Geordi: "It's like the laws of physics went right out the window!"
    Q: "And why shouldn't they, they're so inconvenient!"

    Geordi LaForge, Chief Engineer, USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D
    Q, Omnipotent Prankster
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-03-02 03:25
    For you ... two billion dollars. Okay, okay, we haven't set the final price yet -- our goal, however, is to make it (unstuffed) in the $10 range.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-03-02 03:28
    That and a couple other minor "gotchas" have been sorted out -- this is a first-draft prototype board.
    Forrest said...
    Looks good. One question though - it looks like there's solder mask covering the the pads on the two SOIC8 patterns. Or is that just a reflection?

    You better order a lot of these boards - they're gonna sell fast [noparse];)[/noparse]
    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
    Dallas, TX· USA
  • ForrestForrest Posts: 1,341
    edited 2005-03-02 18:06
    Maybe next time you can use the free Pentalogix Viewmate gerber viewer www.pentalogix.com/Download/download.html to check the designs before sending them to the board manufacturer.
    cool.gif
  • James NewtonJames Newton Posts: 329
    edited 2005-03-02 22:41
    Lots of wasted (empty) space on that board.

    The target price is nice, but will it be available with the SMT work done? E.g. for people who do want to save some $$ by soldering on thier own powersupply but don't want to do the soldering of the SX48/52?



    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    ---
    James Newton, Host of SXList.com
    james@sxlist.com 1-619-652-0593 fax:1-208-279-8767
    SX FAQ / Code / Tutorials / Documentation:
    http://www.sxlist.com Pick faster!



  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-03-02 22:51
    By the time you've run a board through a pick&place line and a reflow oven, the extra cost for a little bit more silicon is an irrelevance - might as well stick it all on at the same time... (and then there's the issue of testing an incomplete board).
    (Can you tell I've been through this loop before? [noparse]:)[/noparse]
    (same goes for shipping kits of surface mount parts - the easiest way to ship fine pitch parts in single quantities is to solder them to a PCB...)

    Steve
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-03-02 22:53
    Actually, I retract that, now I've looked at the board. Since the extra components are pinmount, odds on they'd be manually placed. Definitely a saving to be had by leaving them off. Sorry about the rambling...

    Steve
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-03-02 23:03
    It took me a little bit of practice to get the technique right, but wave tip soldering is actually pretty easy. The key is to hold the chip securely in place (a finger on the opposite side does just fine), place a nice stripe of flux on the pin to pad junction on one side, get a nice bead of solder on your iron and move with medium speed with the tip touching the pad and barely grazing the pins in a fluid motion, then after its cooled, heat each pad individually to reflow the solder on the pad and pin. Using this technique I soldered a 100-TQFP to the board perfectly the first time, no bridging at all. The key is to not get up on the pins, this is what causes the bridging.
  • SteveWSteveW Posts: 246
    edited 2005-03-02 23:15
    One slight suggestion about that board, if there's another respin in the pipeline:
    Is there any possibility of sticking a brownout detector in the power circuit? Doesn't need to be fitted by default, but I seem to see a few people on this list getting tripped up by servos dragging power lines / batteries down, or other power stumbles.
    Something as simple as an cheapie opamp and some bias resistors, spotting if the input rail gets too close to (or below) the regulated rail. Maybe a second opamp in the same SO8 to stretch the pulse into a LED, for convenience?
    Component cost should be 50 cents or so. Possibly less with a bit more cunning and a single channel opamp, doing the glitch capture with a diode/cap.

    Steve
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