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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : E100 WiFi

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JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4035
Posted: 04:13am 20 Oct 2016
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Thanks for clearing that up - though google didn't manage to find me many boards except by MikroE themselves. (For that matter I only found about 60 UEXT boards, on a quick count.)

Anyone making their own can sure save a LOT of pennies!!

JohnEdited by JohnS 2016-10-21
 
srnet
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Joined: 08/08/2014
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 164
Posted: 06:20am 20 Oct 2016
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  JohnS said  
  srnet said  I'm a programmer but can suggest UEXT or Arduino shields. There must be others - probably several or even many.

Adopting something where in effect you're forced to make your own add-ons due to the excessive price of the few existing ones made me think: why?

John


UEXT is fine for a single device, but not practical for multiple modules as you would need a controller with several SPI and I2C interfaces.

Arduino shields are also fine in singles, but not really practical in multiples.

Although you alude to their being 'many' of this type of modular board, I am not aware of them.

The WEMOS boards are very similar to the Mikrobus, and a adapter plate between the two looks possible.

There is a Mikrobus LoRa board promised for RFM95, but none for DRF1278, DRF1276 or RFM98.

So in the absense of an available module for LoRa I needed to decide which format to do it in, if the receiver was to be modular.

Mikrobus is the obvious choice, given the large range of modules already avaialable.
$50SAT is Silent but probably still working.
For information on LoRa visit http://www.loratracker.uk/
 
JohnS
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Posted: 06:48am 20 Oct 2016
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Thanks for that, though Olimex sell a UEXT x 5 to allow multiple boards.

I take it then that the MikroBus allows more?

I'd not met the WEMOS ones so again thanks.

Is the lack of a long-established standard cheap interface/etc just that for so long no-one wanted to be non-proprietary? It's not as if uC boards just suddenly got powerful and cheap.

(I'm thinking USB, CAN, Ethernet etc are only OK in certain respects, not apparently suitable here.)

With so many ways of interconnecting things (the endless buses etc), I'm surprised MikroBus is apparently about all there is.

John
 
srnet
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Joined: 08/08/2014
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Posted: 06:57am 20 Oct 2016
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  JohnS said   Thanks for that, though Olimex sell a UEXT x 5 to allow multiple boards.

I take it then that the MikroBus allows more?


The UEXT stuff is 10 pins only, so some of the boards use pins that on other boards are the SPI and I2C. So one board stops another board working because of a conflict.

This conflict does not occur in the Mikrobus boards as the common pins SPI, I2C are common across modules and not intended to be used for other purposes.

Edited by srnet 2016-10-21
$50SAT is Silent but probably still working.
For information on LoRa visit http://www.loratracker.uk/
 
JohnS
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Posted: 07:32am 20 Oct 2016
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Seems odd then.

If MikroBus is about all there is, I'm really surprised. There must then be a giant hole in the market for one with cheap boards!

I was expecting there would be several, with at least one having hundreds or thousands of boards from many makers, cheap to buy. (A bit like how the IBM PC boards were.)

JohnEdited by JohnS 2016-10-21
 
MicroBlocks

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Joined: 12/05/2012
Location: Thailand
Posts: 2209
Posted: 08:12pm 20 Oct 2016
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Personally i like Gadgeteer Sockets
Microblocks. Build with logic.
 
srnet
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Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 164
Posted: 09:16pm 20 Oct 2016
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  MicroBlocks said   Personally i like Gadgeteer Sockets


They have the same issue as the UEXT.

Because there is pin sharing, what you plug into one socket may stop another from working.

The format would work if it was more pins, say 16. Then you dont end up with conflicts on the SPI or I2C.

Formats such as those may be from an era when IO pins were limited, so sharing was inevitable. More recent processsors are not really short on IO pins. Edited by srnet 2016-10-22
$50SAT is Silent but probably still working.
For information on LoRa visit http://www.loratracker.uk/
 
MicroBlocks

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Posted: 09:42pm 20 Oct 2016
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UEXT and Gadgeteers could still be used and NOT share pins on the connectors.
When many connectors are used then just use a bigger MCU's to keep pins on the connectors unique.

With the micromite having a range from 28 to 100 pins this works very well as both sharing and unique pins would then be possible.
Microblocks. Build with logic.
 
srnet
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Posted: 09:51pm 20 Oct 2016
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  MicroBlocks said   UEXT and Gadgeteers could still be used and NOT share pins on the connectors.
When many connectors are used then just use a bigger MCU's to keep pins on the connectors unique.

With the micromite having a range from 28 to 100 pins this works very well as both sharing and unique pins would then be possible.


With say, four sockets, you would need a micro with 4 SPI interfaces and 4 I2C interfaces.

You could of course use soft SPI and soft I2C, if available and at reduced performance, but that can mean modifying standard libraries and routines. Edited by srnet 2016-10-22
$50SAT is Silent but probably still working.
For information on LoRa visit http://www.loratracker.uk/
 
MicroBlocks

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Joined: 12/05/2012
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Posted: 10:31pm 20 Oct 2016
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Four sockets could share the SPIs CLK,DAT pins and have a specific CS pin. The I2C could be on all four of them as it is a bus!
The whole point about the Gadgeteer sockets is that it can be used however you want it. Especially when you are the one designing the board. Just having the location of certain pins fixed allows for modules to be made. If the SPI pins are always on the same pins then you could share them over four connectors if you have one SPI channel available or you could give each connector its own SPI channel.
It is very flexible.
It is very similar to the mikrobus which allows for the same thing.
My only problem with the mikrobus is that it has a footprint that is not friendly to use when you want to mount a module not directly on the pcb.



Microblocks. Build with logic.
 
lew247

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Joined: 23/12/2015
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1702
Posted: 11:50am 19 Nov 2016
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Can anyone confirm the pic below has the tracks correct please>?
 
jman

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Joined: 12/06/2011
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 711
Posted: 12:21pm 19 Nov 2016
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@ Lew247

Your red lines are incorrect TX and RX are swapped

Regards
Jman
 
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