Propeller Controller Board for Robots (officially version 1.02)

Dual Exhaust

Here is a board I have created for my robots. It is intended for the Lynxmotion Quadrapod 3.

I think I read just about everything in the forums about creating a board and what parts to use. Hopefully this design will work well.

It was created with ExpressPCB. The software can be downloaded from: www.expresspcb.com

====================================

UPDATE: (6-11-06)

I completely revamped the board.

I realized that it would be better to put the main servo headers on the left side and that I have no use for the Rx, Tx, SDA, and SCL pins.

Added selectable power for the right set of pins.

Fully linked to the schematic.

====================================

UPDATE: (6-20-06)

Minor revisions to the PCB file. This is actually what I had prototyped.

====================================

I would appreciate any feedback.

(be sure to rename the sch1 file back to sch)

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Post Edited (Dual Exhaust) : 7/8/2006 5:57:13 PM GMT

kerryw

It looks good! I didn't see a power switch though. Do you just yank the battery cable?

Kerry

Dual Exhaust

I typically use in-line power switches. Same stuff from RC cars/planes.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Dual Exhaust

Be sure to re-download the files. I made some massive changes.

If people like this design, maybe we could share the cost of a "Full Production Service" with solder mask and silkscreen from ExpressPCB.

Unless I hear some negative feedback or suggestions, I'm going to order the proto boards on Monday. I think I've checked and rechecked each connection 20 times.

I canceled the first order I placed (I was just a tad too quick).

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Post Edited (Dual Exhaust) : 6/11/2006 5:50:27 AM GMT

Dual Exhaust

The boards came in and I've finished soldering all the hardware. I hooked it up and ran a demo perfectly!

I've included a picture of the finished board.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

RinksCustoms

Nice job maing!

Cliff L. Biffle

Nice, DE. I'm looking at building something quite similar (though in my case, I do have use for those I2C pins, to slave it off a Gumstix).

What'd you use for the etching? I'm having to relearn the state of the art. (It doesn't seem to be markers and acid baths anymore.)

Dual Exhaust

Cliff L. Biffle said...
Nice, DE. I'm looking at building something quite similar (though in my case, I do have use for those I2C pins, to slave it off a Gumstix).

What'd you use for the etching? I'm having to relearn the state of the art. (It doesn't seem to be markers and acid baths anymore.)

I use PCB Express for prototyping. Feel free to use and modify the designs I've posted.

www.pcbexpress.com

P.S. You can use any of the pins for I2C.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Dual Exhaust

Just wanted to give a heads-up. Brian Riley and I are working on making production versions of my latest board. I'll post pictures of the new prototype when it comes in.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Brian Riley

Mark McCann has designed this board and he went looking for someone to help out. I offered to back the venture and here is what we have worked out.

Pictured here on the forum was Mark's prototype 1.00 board which worked fine right out of the envelope. After we got together, between some of my suggestiosn and mark's further investigations we had a V1.01 that never made it to copper but served instead as a focal point for a series of revisions that brought about v1.02. The PRC v1.02 board prototype is in transit from the fabricators as this is being written. We expect to have it by 7/5/2006 and have it fully checked out in a matter of a day or two.

What remains then is how many production boards to order. We are going to do this. But the one item that remains to be determined is the size of the order. The goal here is to provide 10 boards for Mark's use and 10 boards for Brian's use, and have the sale of the remaining boards cover the costs of the whole production run and the two prototyping runs if possible.

To that end we are looking at a fabrication run of 50 to 200 boards. Interestingly enough, for this board, the price drops per board, for each 100 units past 200 units are not all that significiant. If we order;

- 50 boards they can be sold for about $12 each
- 100 boards they can be sold for about $8 each
- 150 boards they can be sold for about $7 each
- 200 boards they can be sold for about $6 each
- Shipping and handling comes to about plus $2 S/H for up to 3 boards, plus $1 for each two boards beyond that

So, if you might be interested please go check out the web page I put up at

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

I have a picture of the V1.00 board, the schematic and mechanical layout of the v1.02 board (the proposed production candidate) there is a link there so that if you might be interested you can email us and let us know how many baords you might be interested in purchasing. This is non-binding. Just for guidance. We just want to know if you are interested, and how many boards you might buy at what price. We estimate that we will order by 7/12, which means we would have boards available for shipment on or before 7/28.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Brian Riley

I want to thank all the people who have stopped by the PRC website in the last 24 hours or so. A number have expressed interest in the boards, not a lot yet, but then this is a holiday weekend.

Mark sent me the parts list and I looked up part numbers etc and HTMLed it. It is now posted on the PRC webpage. If there is enough interest I will kit asll the non-Parallax parts. The URL is ...

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

P.S. This IS GOING TO HAPPEN what only remains to be revealed is how many boards Mark and I get when its done to use for coasters and other odd uses, and of course how inexpensive we can make them for the others interested.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

kerryw

It looks good Brian. Reading the website I don't understand the following:

"All the pins (00-27) have jumpers for direct connect (wire jumper) or resistors (individual 1/4 watt or isolated resistor network dips)"

Can you explain that in more detail? I don't see where you would connect these jumpers.

I like the design, I just want to make sure that working with external 5 volt parts won't be real difficult. We can't take a direct 5 volt logic level into the Prop chip. So I'd like to use standard 3 pin connectors (GND, POS, Signal), but have an easy way to put a resistor inline to protect the Prop chip. Hope that makes sense.

Kerry

Dual Exhaust

kerryw said...
It looks good Brian. Reading the website I don't understand the following:

"All the pins (00-27) have jumpers for direct connect (wire jumper) or resistors (individual 1/4 watt or isolated resistor network dips)"

Can you explain that in more detail? I don't see where you would connect these jumpers.

I like the design, I just want to make sure that working with external 5 volt parts won't be real difficult. We can't take a direct 5 volt logic level into the Prop chip. So I'd like to use standard 3 pin connectors (GND, POS, Signal), but have an easy way to put a resistor inline to protect the Prop chip. Hope that makes sense.

Kerry

What you are asking is exactly what it does. It's more of a bridge than a jumper. It's the first two rows of sockets (width of a standard 16 pin dip) next to the Propeller. You can put a jumper wire, resistor, or an isolated resistor network dip.

Soon we will have pictures and it will all make sense.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

kerryw

Dual Exhaust said...

What you are asking is exactly what it does. It's more of a bridge than a jumper. It's the first two rows of sockets (width of a standard 16 pin dip) next to the Propeller. You can put a jumper wire, resistor, or an isolated resistor network dip.

Soon we will have pictures and it will all make sense.

Sign me up for one then [noparse]:)[/noparse]


Kerry

Dual Exhaust

kerryw said...

Dual Exhaust said...

What you are asking is exactly what it does. It's more of a bridge than a jumper. It's the first two rows of sockets (width of a standard 16 pin dip) next to the Propeller. You can put a jumper wire, resistor, or an isolated resistor network dip.

Soon we will have pictures and it will all make sense.

Sign me up for one then [noparse]:)[/noparse]


Kerry

I think everyone will be very happy with the design and the features.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Brian Riley

The final prototype is in and it works. Mark has done a really great job. He emailed me late last night with the word and backed it up with pix. We have two small adjustments to make to some hole sizes and we are ready. You can see the actual board pix now at my website;

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

So now the question becomes ARE YOU ALL READY?

I want to thank all the persons who have emailed and expressed interest and tentative committments so far. If most of these guys had their way. I would have to have ordered the boards last week. Thanks for the support guys.

Anyway, I need to have an idea on quantity by 1300 EDT on Wednesday 12 July 2006. ExpressPCB's production queue management protocol uses 1400 EDT as a cutoff time on its day counts. This would give us a delivery date on or before 28 July 2006 and boards in the mail on or before Saturday 29 July 2006.

Pricing; It is still difficult to tell but I feel comfortable right now making these statements in terms of maximums and minimums

- Bare Boards - Paypal, Shipping, handling - $2 for up to 3 boards plus $1 per two additional boards

- Bare Boards - single board $10-14 each, two-three boards $9-13 each, four-five boards $8-12 each, six-nine boards $7-11 each, ten or more boards $6-10 each.

- Non-Parallax parts kits, each bundled with a board for 1-9 boards $20 each (plus cost of board), 10 or more $18 each(plus cost of board).

- Boards and Parts kits - Paypal, Shipping and Handling - $3 for first and $1 each additional

So that is it ... I hope you all like what we have to offer, I will do my best to keep the prices down. We have commitments now for about 38 boards. If we get committments for at least 20 more boards I can say with some assurance the price per board will be in the middle of each range quoted above. If at least half of the total boards committed go out with parts the parts price will hold. If a greater percentage orders parts as well I may be able to shave $1 to as much as $2 off of that.

cheers ... Brian and Mark

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Kaos Kidd

Ummm, I'm a little unclear about somethings...
{Estimated at the high end, in USD}
1 Board + 1 Part kit + shipping & handling == $14.00 + $20.00 + $3.00 == $37.00, delivered. OK, not a bad price at all.
Please see a PM to you.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Just tossing my two bits worth into the bit bucket


KK
·

Dual Exhaust

Here are some pictures of the prototype PRC (Propeller Robot Controller) in action.

Be sure the check out the web site.

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Kaos Kidd

where did you get the 'legs' from?

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Just tossing my two bits worth into the bit bucket


KK
·

Dual Exhaust

Kaos Kidd said...
where did you get the 'legs' from?

www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=34

I have an older model, but it is basically the same.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
- W. Edwards Deming

Brian Riley

OK, we have a pricing schedule. and an production schedule. I will make the board order for the PRC on Wednesday as promised. I will order at least 80 boards of which nearly 50 are committed to people on this forum and to Mark and myself. We also plan to send a couple to Parallax as well. I have updated the web page with ordering info. Its all specific no more guessng the ranges of prices. I worked it a bunch of ways. The board price is $12 each for one and $11 for the second board and $10 each there after. I was able to get the parts kit down to $18 each to as little as $16 each plus price of the pc board depending on how many you order. Take a look at the webpage.

Hard numbers here, a single board and kit of parts will cost $30 plus $3 S/H = $33 total for one, but if your order four it's $112 plus $6 S/H = $118 total for four which is under $30 each. Six boards and kits comes in at $29 each. Its all there to see, check it out.

I have kept the prices down as low as I could to still cover our production, development, and overhead expenses. This is the only place it has been advertised. So its our small way of saying thanks to you guys for your support and encouragement. On 21 July, the day I plan to order the parts for the kits, the price per board and per kit of parts will rise $1 each ($2 total for a board and a kit of parts)

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

We still anticipate to begin shipping on 29 July 2006.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Paul Sr.

Brian Riley said...
OK, we have a pricing schedule. and an production schedule. I will make the board order for the PRC on Wednesday as promised. I will order at least 80 boards of which nearly 50 are committed to people on this forum and to Mark and myself. We also plan to send a couple to Parallax as well. I have updated the web page with ordering info. Its all specific no more guessng the ranges of prices. I worked it a bunch of ways. The board price is $12 each for one and $11 for the second board and $10 each there after. I was able to get the parts kit down to $18 each to as little as $16 each plus price of the pc board depending on how many you order. Take a look at the webpage.

Hard numbers here, a single board and kit of parts will cost $30 plus $3 S/H = $33 total for one, but if your order four it's $112 plus $6 S/H = $118 total for four which is under $30 each. Six boards and kits comes in at $29 each. Its all there to see, check it out.

I have kept the prices down as low as I could to still cover our production, development, and overhead expenses. This is the only place it has been advertised. So its our small way of saying thanks to you guys for your support and encouragement. On 21 July, the day I plan to order the parts for the kits, the price per board and per kit of parts will rise $1 each ($2 total for a board and a kit of parts)

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

We still anticipate to begin shipping on 29 July 2006.

Brian

Thanks for the update. I placed my order on the site for 2 kits as previously discussed.

Paul

Brian Riley

The PC board order went in 20 minutes gao and the confirmation email says delivery on or before 28 July. I will do everything in my power to have the parts kits together in labeled but unsealed mailers awaiting the boards and have them into the mail 7/29. If the UPS man doesn't get here too late on the 28th some of it may be in the mail the 28th.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Brian Riley

I was making pasrt order lists and verifying all the parts numbers against the Mouser online catalog. I was also verifying pin outs for appropriate parts etc. I made a mistake in the published (on the website) parts list with regards to the voltage regulators. the 3v regulator originally specified has a different pin-out. The corrected specification for both regulators and Mouser Part Numbers is on there now.

I also discovered an anomaly in the Mouser Search database. For some weird reason, the Microchip Serial EEPROM, Mouser Part number 579-24LC256-I/PG, will not be found on the Mouser site if you search against the whole part number, if you search against "24LC256" it will be found.

The parts list is now correct as it stands, all the parts fit in the right places etc.


www.wulfden.org/PRC/

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Brian Riley

Just a quick reminder for those actually interested in purchasing the PRC board, in case you are holding off until the last minute. Tomorrow (Friday 7/21) at noon I am putting the order in to Mouser for the parts for the PRC parts kit. At that time the price per pcboard and the price per parts kit goes up $1 each ($2 total on a board and parts kit purchase).

www.wulfden.org/PRC/

Thanks to all those who supported this effort so far.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Bean

Your board doesn't happen to fit the BOE-BOT chassis does it ? I mean the mounting holes...

Bean.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Cheap 4-digit LED display with driver IC·www.hc4led.com

Low power SD Data Logger www.sddatalogger.com

"Remember, you are unique, just like everyone else." Unknown.
·

Brian Riley

Bean (Hitt Consulting) said...
Your board doesn't happen to fit the BOE-BOT chassis does it ? I mean the mounting holes...

Bean.

Unfortunately I didn't take this into consideration until after I ordered ths first round of boards. Mark designed it for a different robt mount. However I took apart one of my BOEBOT chassis and played around a bit and one could easily drill 4 new holes without getting in the way of anything, and if you have the three slots long the front end free, one would only need to drill 2 new holes.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Kenny Gardner

Do you send out Order Confirmations?

The only confirmation I've gotten is the PayPal receipt.

I want to make sure you aren't getting caught up in my Spam Filters.

Kenny

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
--

Kenny Gardner
GAP Development Company
http://www.gapdev.com/
·

Brian Riley

Kenny Gardner said...
Do you send out Order Confirmations?

The only confirmation I've gotten is the PayPal receipt.

I want to make sure you aren't getting caught up in my Spam Filters.

Kenny

As I state on all the order pages on my website, the PayPal receipt is your order confirmation. I have been doing business via PayPal for over two years now and have found it to be extraoridnarily reliable in that line. I acknowledge that some people have had some problems with Paypal, but it hasn't happened to me or my cutomers. I have handled about 11-1200 transactions inn two years.

A "Pre-Order" situation like ths is always a bit tough. I have prided myself in this little business that I get orders out the door in a single business day. The reality usually is that any order received by noon is out the door that same day, if the Post Office is open; otherwise, it goes out the next day the USPS is open. So the "Shipping Status List" link on the order pages will generally almost immediately reflect the order as soon as it comes to my attention and is packed. But, when you have a "pre-Order" awaiting delivery of PCBoards, I can understand that the lack of seeming confirmation can make one uneasy.

That said, I might have had to come back and tell you I didn't have any record of an order from "Kenny Gardner", until I went back and looked at your post again and noted the "Gap Development" tacked onto your signature. There was no name at all attached to your PayPal order to me from GapDev.

The one and only dispute I have ever had on my PayPal record went round and round for two weeks and it was not until the fifth or sixth exchange of emails that this individual got around to mentioning his PayPal email address, which was completely different from the email address with which he was addressing me while making the complaint. The matter then was resolved immediately.

Four paragraph's later ... <grin> ... YES, I have your order; thank you very much ... and ... NO, I generally do not issue order confirmations beyond the PayPal confirmation.

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/

Kenny Gardner

Brian,

I don't have any problems with PayPal other than the fact that when I switched over to them from Authorize.net, I'm getting more declined Credit Cards for no reason or because the customer wrote "6th Street" instead of "Sixth Street" so the AVS fails.

Can't wait to get the boards. Thanks much,

Kenny

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Kenny Gardner

GAP Development Company

http://www.gapdev.com/

Brian Riley

Well, it is coming down to the wire ... a fresh supply of 4x6 resealable poly bags arrived yesterday and today the UPS man brought the kit parts from Mouser. I sat down to night nad made up 50 kits (see picture) Tomorrow or Thursday I will do the labels and prepare the packages, Friday, late afternoon, unfortunately I am now at the end of the route instead of the beginning, the boards will arrive and I will select two parts kits and two boards at random and assemble and test both. Then finish packing and off to the Post Office. I promise that all orders to date will be in Monday's (7/31) mail. I will get what I can into Saturday's mail. No promises. Enjoy!

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
cheers ... brian riley, n1bq, underhill center, vermont
See the K107 Serial LCD Controller at
www.wulfden.org/k107/