Archive for the ‘News and Discussions’ Category

Some (Free!) Feedback for TI MSP430 LaunchPad’s Development and Marketing Team

Posted on: October 18, 2011 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
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I finally got a minute to play with the MSP430 LaunchPad Kit I received, well almost for free from TI and immediately got some feedback to share with the development and marketing team.

First overall I think Launchpad is a great product and I am looking forward to seeing it improve, secondly my understanding is that its targeted market is starting engineers , hobbyist and alike … and I am speaking from that perspective.

I know you might hate me for this and maybe this is a banned word in your company but you should really look at Arduino and try to understand why it became so popular, in a nutshell let me break it down:

- the secret is in details, you might have a better product at a better price but if you can’t present it correctly it will not catch up with developers
- simplicity , simplicity , simplicity, too much information is as bad as no information, getting started manual DOES NOT have to be 182 pages long, half of which are telling about the entire TI lineup and various clock setup , get straight to the point show us the fun part !
- people don’t want so many options, so you must make choices for them , for example – choose a fixed clock mode (crystal or internal clock) and make it standard, let advanced users hack it if necessary, this will also make Launchpad programs more portable if you choose and “official” operating clock speed.
- make a free compiler and IDE : it makes no sense to have a paid compiler and charge a developer “pennies” compared to what that developer can bring you in hardware sales if he uses your chips , instead of spending money on giveaways and free lunches at trade shows , etc, just give the developers a free unlimited IDE and compiler, best promotion you can make and best boost in hardware sales for the future ! It is no coincidence Arduino was based on AVR the only major MCU manufacture to have multi-platform free compilers and IDE (both Microchips and TI’s free editions are limited and crippled).
- give free and no “string attached” MCU samples as Microchip has, same reason as above , you can’t cook dinner with MCUs if someone is ordering them they are an engineer and they might make a product that will use millions of your chips in the future, if you don’t make samples easy and fast , he might choose Microchip because today he is a student and he is broke, call it fate or whatever – unfair but fair ..
- in coding hide all the ugly details like the clock setup , in worst case scenario make a “launchpad” header file to contain all the technical stuff, if you make the “blinking led” program a one or two line program than you know you’re on the right way !
- make changing pin direction (output / input) prettier and more straightforward and avoid the | (OR) bit assignments, in worst case you can use some macros (as I explain here http://www.starlino.com/port_macro.html) , this style of assignments is confusing for beginners

Well that’s it for now, i might add more ideas … so check back or contact me directly if you’d like more feedback.

Arduino – to clone or not to clone ?

Posted on: July 27, 2011 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
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Microchip started marketing an Arduino clone called chipKit. Is this a correct decision to clone an open source platform as opposed to Texas Instrument's decision to create it's own platform LaunchPad ?

 

 

By the way the TI's platform is really cheap, I would say cheaper than components and PCB + shipping. Obviously TI wants more people to use it, however what it is lacking is the relaxed open-source crowd around it.

Is Arduino really something to follow ? What do you think ?

Radioshack Replies

Posted on: December 29, 2010 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
Tags: , ,

So we finally received a reply from Radioshack "Wake Up Letter to Radioshack"  it was posted in the comments (and has been confirmed to be coming from Radioshacks corporate). Here it is:

Dear Electronics Hobbyists of America,

We have heard your voices. We are not going to deny that we have let the hobbyist business run on auto-pilot for several years now. The times changed, so we changed with it. Now the times are changing again. Hobbyists have remained dedicated to RadioShack for the better part of a century and we recognize that you deserve the same dedication from us. Our goal is to substantiate our loyalty to you. We know we must have a greater selection of products that you want and as much of it as you need. We promise we are working on it and that it is as important to us as it is to you. In the last two years, we have added over 150 new items to our technical assortment. We are working on a plan to get more hobby kits and test equipment into stores but we don’t expect that to be the end of the conversation. We do not underestimate the power of the online community, and we would love to hear more from you. We think this is a great beginning to a dialogue and we are listening.

RadioShack-Team Technical

Well Radioshack first thank you for replying and not ignoring us altogether. But we would like to see more actions being done. As a reply I will leave you with a related comment from a 10th grade student:

Hello, my name is Nic. I'm in grade 10 and I have an interest in electronics. But I have a lot of restrictions. I live in Canada in a town where there is no electronics shop other than "The Source" (Radioshack was bought out by The Source) which sells overpriced components that aren't the greatest quality, I'm far away from A1 Electronics which is a brilliant store in missisauga. And There is no Electronics course in my high school.  …

[Source: http://www.instructables.com/id/New-Life-for-Old-Printed-Circuit-Boards/ ]

 

IMU breakout boards from ST

Posted on: November 11, 2010 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
Tags: , , , ,

Sign that someone from ST is reading the blogs – a series of breakout boards directly from ST , just couple of good ones:

$26.95  STEVAL-MKI093V1 ( breakout for LYPR540AH  – 3 axis analog gyro )

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/STMicroelectronics/STEVAL-MKI093V1/?qs=Mmr5WwCtLzNTGieQUi715w%3d%3d

Looks like , Mouser has all datasheet , pictures and descriptions wrong at the time of this post.

correct datasheet   http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/bd/17906/steval-mki093v1.pdf

 

 

$26.95 STEVAL-MKI064V1 (breakout for LSM303DLH  3-axis magnetometer + 3-axis accelerometer)

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/STMicroelectronics/STEVAL-MKI064V1/?qs=Mmr5WwCtLzNMjRxMWs1ArA%3d%3d

correct datasheet http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/bd/17844/steval-mki064v1.pdf

 

Order while they are in stock :-)

ST launches Multi sensor application (MuSA) board platform

Posted on: September 20, 2010 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
Tags: , , ,

For $99  MuSA  could be a nice hackable platform for all sorts of motion-enabled applications.  It has a  built-in accelerometer , LCD  and a simple casing. Here is the description from ST:

"The platform comes with the LIS331DLH preinstalled on the board, but can support any digitaloutput accelerometer from ST in 3×3 or 3×5 mm packages connected to the microcontroller through an SPI interface, as well as the LIS344ALH analog-output accelerometer.

The MuSA platform features four buttons for navigating the menus. A mini-USB connector is available to exchange data with a PC, depending on the specific application, and also recharges the internal Li-ion battery. The battery is capable of providing power for approximately 7 hours of operation."

For device demonstration see video here:

http://www.st.com/stonline/domains/support/edemoroom/index.htm?id=14

Wake-up letter to Radioshack – the hobbyists are back !

Posted on: September 16, 2010 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
Tags: , ,

Have you been to Radioshack lately ? You might have needed a part for that last moment project, of course you could buy it online but you need it NOW! So you finally decide to step into that quiet  long forgotten Radioshack store. You walk in and you see cell phones , batteries , chargers , computer accessories, more cell phones ! , and finally in the back, here they are , on the dusty shelves some electronics parts. In an uninviting  metal drawer cabinet you see them nicely marked by category, you look around , is it safe to look inside  ? or should I call the clerk , "Naaaah he probably has no clue", is it locked ? will the alarm sound if I open it ? You finally gather the courage to look inside , and you feel like an explorer opening the cabins of Titanic, here is a transistor, a voltage regulator , a kit of resistors – "I might need it", a proto-board – "Nice!". You finally grabbed a cart of parts, although you didn't find what you were looking for in first place, you're little disappointed.  You're  finally  heading to the register, not without stopping to observe the Radioshack branded  multimeters and charges – and the whole place still feels just like a museum . The clerk was getting nervous already, you didn't even notice that an hour has passed. Now he is scanning your parts, he looks scared, half of the things he is scanning look dangerous to him, "this guy is up to something dangerous, we are dooooomed !". Oh no , now he is asking your address , is he going to call the cops ? :)

If you found yourself in this funny situation you're not alone, the truth is that at this time  there are no serious retail stores for the electronics hobbyist, however there's a booming market !  Due to the current economic environment I doubt that someone would venture to open a nation-wide retail chain like the one Radioshack has, this being the reason I decided to write an open letter to the company. You might not like the Radioshack company but the truth is that we need them and they need us !

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Hobby electronics is a serious business !

Posted on: September 15, 2010 by starlino
Category: News and Discussions
Tags: ,

I can't help myself but notice that more and more electronics giants are starting to realize that hobby electronics is becoming a serious business !

Newark has just launched their new hobbyist / maker oriented web site www.element14.com as well as their own video blog  persona Ben Heck. When I first saw Ben I thought "I didn't know Conan O'Brian is into electronics. Wait that's not Conan !". Just like David L. Jones from EEVBlog , Ben likes to take things apart even before turning them on. I enjoyed very much his X-Box tear down and custom foot controlled XBox controller  and I am looking forward to seeing more videos like this.

Jameco has teamed up with Make Magazine 's   Collin Cunningham and forged a series of video tutorials aimed towards electronics beginners. And yes they finally carry Arduino in stock  !

In the same spirit , Texas Instruments launched few months ago a subsidized development platform MSP430 LaunchPad trying to win the hearts of all those Microchip PIC and Atmel AVR fanboys out there. But word along the benches is that it ain't gonna happen unless they make it Arduino shield pin compatible :).

Old news already – but ST tried a similar move with their STM8S-Discovery kit , not sure how many people they converted but it's interesting to see some competition going on for this hobbyist /  maker , no-longer-niche market.

Adafruit and Sparkfun  are two wonderful pioneer companies that showed to the world that   [title of this post]  = TRUE  ! They started  from zero and reached millions of dollars in sales in just few years. A good example that if you like what you're doing and you are passionate about it – you're going to go a long way.

Overall my feeling is that we are witnessing a new boom right now.  Robotics and Electronics is for 2010's what  Internet was for 2000's and personal computers for 1990's. For all those still in doubt , or who haven't  send their college applications yet – this is THE FIELD to work in the next decade ! A lot of wonderful things are just waiting to happen ! Stay tuned and enjoy the ride.