Amicus shields

[Bruce]

Lester,

Do you have a board layout pattern folks can use to create new shields for your Amicus board?

I plan on using DipTrace for the boards. The shield board will use RF Digital 2.4GhZ RF transceiver modules with built-in chip antenna. Could make for some very interesting projects.

RF Digital has agreed to supply a few parts & the boards I design, so these might be a fun set of boards for your contest.

[lester]

Hi, we have nothing in diptrace format. On the amicus18 site the users have been making their own shields, and some have published the board laouts, here is one that relies on express pcb for the board production, so uses express pcb files.

Link to the board layout files

And more here in ISIS/Ares format

[dhouston]

Surely someone at Crownhill has the dimensions - or maybe the PCB fairy did this...

[dhouston]

Do you have a board layout pattern folks can use to create new shields for your Amicus board?

Bruce,

This may or may not help. The Arduino Internet Shield page at SparkFun has a reference design link (as well as numerous disparaging comments on that product). It has a layout with a .BRD file extension. I have no idea what CAD or PCB Layout program uses .BRD but if you can read it, you can get the dimensions you need.

If you can read it of find the necessary dimensions elsewhere, let me know - I'd like to do a shield layout for the Tibbo EM500 ethernet module.

[dhouston]

After seeing the £1199.99 inc. VAT prices for bare shield boards on the Crownhill Amicus18 page I'm really certain that I want to design my own.

That might explain why they don't want to give us the dimensions.

[dhouston]

Do you have a board layout pattern folks can use to create new shields for your Amicus board?.

There's a .PDF with the dimensions needed on this Amicus18 related page.

[Bruce]

Thanks Dave,

I did finally manage to find a shield layout, and I think it's spot-on. I just kinda assumed, since the Arduino & Amicus boards were such an "open platform" that someone that already had shield board layouts would be a tad more "open" with the physical board layouts for shields..;o)

RF Digital has agreed to provide a couple PCBs, parts, and more, so I want to get a shield board ready soon, and was just looking to save a bit of time.

Microchip now offers a PIC32 board that's compatible with the Arduino compiler, shields, and more, so maybe I'll put together a few apps for this one, Arduino, and Amicus boards!

An Arduino compatible board, with a PIC32 processor, running at 80MHz, looks pretty darn enticing.

Check Microchips website for the details. I'm going to grab one and develop a few shields/code examples for them.

The only reason the Arduino is so popular, is because they don't say, buy our boards, buy our shields, or figure it out for yourself - so here's my contribution to the mix. Haven't had a board made yet, but dimensions match one from a link Lester provided. There's a .DXF and DipTrace board file for a blank shield.

Might save someone a few minutes not having to design the shield from scratch, and you can use the free version of DipTrace to make your own shields.

[Gevo]

Hi Dave & Bruce,

I see that the shield dim PDF from me. Ik will take a look for a physical PCB layout.

I think, Microchip get never so much ground in the open source like the Arduino. The Arduino is world famous and very very popular by hobbist, education, profs etc.

But, it will be nice that some shields be compatible.

Good luck, Bruce with the RF shield.

/ Gevo

[dhouston]

Here is my initial layout. It lacks connections and needs a few other tweaks. I'll wait until I receive the Xino Basic board I ordered and until Tibbo releases the long-promised firmware for the EM500/GA1000 combo.

My health won't let me do much besides the prototype. If Bruce or Lester wants to offer it, the layout is my donation. Although, if Crownhill prices the bare shield at the £1199.99 inc. VAT price their web page has for the other bare shields, I'll want a cut should they ever sell one.

These are much larger than life-size. Maybe a moderator can reduce them a bit.

[Gevo]

Nice work Dave,

A big shield for little hardware :-)

I work on a carrierboard with the Ami18 Stamp Module, maybe we have some place for the Tibbo module.

Best regards,
/ Gevo


Yes, the Crownhill shields a little expensive :-)

[dhouston]

I see that the shield dim PDF from me.

I captured it, redrew all the dimensions with a larger, darker font and created a new, more readable PDF.shield_v1.pdf

[jdaniels]

Thank you for posting this...

John

[rmteo]

.....Microchip now offers a PIC32 board that's compatible with the Arduino compiler, shields, and more, so maybe I'll focus on that rather than code or shields for an Amicus board.

An Arduino compatible board, with a PIC32 processor, running at 80MHz, looks pretty darn enticing.

Are you referring to this? http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/...=CHIPKIT-UNO32

[dhouston]

Are you referring to this? http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/...=CHIPKIT-UNO32

That's also missing the 4-pin power connector so it confirms the need for me to use the other power point.

@Any moderator: Why is the EDIT function for recent posts so random? Sometimes I see it but most of the time, no.

[ScaleRobotics]

Theoretically, you should see an edit button for 60 minutes past your posting time.(Edit: used to be 60, but sounds like that's been changed to 20) Then it would dissapear. If it's not appearing directly after a post, let us know. We had an issue in the wiki area a while back ...

[dhouston]

If it's not appearing directly after a post, let us know.

I only see it about 1 time in 10.

[Bruce]

Dave,

Xino Basic board I have on order

Any reason you would prefer the Xino over an Amicus18 board? The Amicus18 is pretty nice, supports any compiler, and it's fast!

Rmteo,

Are you referring to this? http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/...=CHIPKIT-UNO32

That's it. Have you tried one yet?

[dhouston]

Any reason you would prefer the Xino over an Amicus18 board?

Bruce,

I really don't use PICs beyond the 8-pinners and and occasional 16F688 or 16F88. For bigger projects I use ZBasic, who have added a lot of low level features that I've requested. At my age (70), I haven't the time to learn (or debug) the low level techniques like you and Darrell plus I've always subscribed to the view behind the Basic dialects that there are far more experts in non-computer fields than there are computer experts who can write the code the former could use. PICAXE and Xino fit right into that. And, I'm a big fan of versatility (PIC, PICAXE, Genie E28 whatever that is). Finally, I'm just plain cheap.

This is from the web page where I ordered the Xino...

Designed to be the most economic way possible of running a PIC or PICAXE/Genie with Arduino shaped plug and play shields.

The inspiration for this adapter board came from a number of educational users. They said they wanted a child friendly development board like the XINO Pro but at pocket money prices. We like a challenge, so the thoughts began.............

• It had to be very low cost.
• It had to support a wide range of microcontrollers, especially those that were already "in education", as well as "proper" compilers for bare PIC's.
• It had to remain "Arduino" shaped.
• It had to be robust enough for tiny hands.

The XINO Basic appears adequate to the limited testing of prototype Amicus18 shields I plan.

[dhouston]

If the danged EDIT feature was working I'd have added...

It also seems like a good way for noobies, etc. to be able to do hands on testing of things like the EM500, GA1000, ConnectOne modules, etc. before committing to a dedicated PCB design. Thus, I plan shields that have sockets for such devices like the one in this thread.

And building it will kill some time while I continue to patiently await the long-promised firmware for the EM500/GA1000 combo.

[rmteo]

Rmteo,

That's it. Have you tried one yet?

I have not tried it as I no longer work with MCHP MCUs. I did take a look at this one as it uses an ST32 processor http://leaflabs.com/devices/maple/

[dhouston]

Right now it looks like the ds30 bootloader will work with the 16F88 so I may end up with a nifty little, super economical development system for prototyping, testing PIC code and prototyping, testing shields. I'll be able to say a bit more once I get the XINO kit. There's a dearth of online documentation so all is possible until I get the hardware and documentation and reality sets in.

For working with the EM500/GA1000 (if the long-promised firmware is ever released) we only need a serial link and a reset line with very simple code since all the heavy lifting takes place in the EM500 (which requires coding in Tibbo's Basic dialect).

I think I can do a similar simple shield for the ConnectOne Socket LanReach and mini iWiFi modules (one only plugged in at a time).

Oh, one change to the layout. I've doubled the pads around the perimeter so a scope or logic probe can access pins which are not used on the shield but may be employed in the PIC program being developed for a more permanent design.

[dhouston]

I did take a look at this one as it uses an ST32 processor

Impressive. I wonder how they handle USB on the PC end.