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I'll take a bunch!


Where are you sourcing? We had a thread going on the other board but everywhere we tried had fairly high minimum numbers and no one wanted to step up to buy 500-1000 of them, with good reason.
 
Just making sure I understand--you're talking about buying connectors for the combined video & audio out / serial ports port on the back?
 
I'm sorry, but i'm not a techy and am still not clear what it is you intend to provide.


What exactly do these breakout connectors do?


What advantage do they have over the TV out cables? I've already ordered one, so am curious about what I might be missing out on. :huh:
 
I'm sorry, but i'm not a techy and am still not clear what it is you intend to provide.


What exactly do these breakout connectors do?


What advantage do they have over the TV out cables? I've already ordered one, so am curious about what I might be missing out on. :huh:

These are just the bare connectors. Ordering them separably gives us the possibility to access the serial communication lines. For the regular user, this is pretty worthless (consider: how often do you use the serial ports on your computer?)
 
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These are just the bare connectors. Ordering them separably gives us the possibility to access the serial communication lines. For the regular user, this is pretty worthless (consider: how often do you use the serial ports on your computer?)


Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the serial port the old fashioned way of connecting a printer? (this is the only thing that comes to mind).


If this is so - what possible use does the serial port have in this modern age?


Am I completely missing the boat here?


Zev obviously has some rather exciting intended purpose for these breakout connectors and I'd like to know what that is...
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the serial port the old fashioned way of connecting a printer? (this is the only thing that comes to mind).


If this is so - what possible use does the serial port have in this modern age?


Am I completely missing the boat here?


Zev obviously has some rather exciting intended purpose for these breakout connectors and I'd like to know what that is...

Mostly used for lowlevel debugging when developing and playing around with hardware hacking (the serial UART lines are generally easier to interface.) Could be a few more uses that I've missed, but I guess it gives you an idea.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the serial port the old fashioned way of connecting a printer? (this is the only thing that comes to mind).


If this is so - what possible use does the serial port have in this modern age?


Am I completely missing the boat here?


Zev obviously has some rather exciting intended purpose for these breakout connectors and I'd like to know what that is...

There were only a few printers that used serial interfaces, but they mostly used a parallel port connection.. Even my Okidata 80 printer made in 1979 that uses typewriter ribbons used a parallel interface. Parellel port was used mainly until USB came around.


Serial interfaces are handy for a tty interface to the pandora, it can be used to get a command line on a remote system. For example if you mess up your display setting and can't connect through Wifi, you can use the remote serial connection to log in and edit the config file. restart the X session and you have proper display again. Just one example. It can also be used to show Debug information.
 
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I'm sure there'd be a good use for one of these connectors, a breadboard, components, and an Arduino. Sure, you could do serial over USB, but hey, native serial! (Just need to convert the voltage levels)
 
8 weeks lead time... sorry my xt720 doesn't handle multiquotes well... not as bad as I figured initially... knock on wood.


Sourcing: www.onlinecomponents.com/buy/AMP-TYCO/1717169-2/


Going full 1000 batch run. My christmas bonus put to good use ^_^
That's one of the sources we looked at that wouldn't do less than 1000. Does that mean you're going to get 1000? I hope you know what you're doing, I don't think there's that big of a market yet.
 
I have this http://openpandora.ca/hack_guide/PANDORA_Hackers_manual_v101.pdf :p


The URL is from a PM with MWeston dated July 8 2010 (@gp32x.de), so I had thought he would have posted this never version URL somewhere, but it seems not*, so there you go.


I Hope I'm not doing anything wrong - I'm assuming all revisions of the Hackers Manual are supposed to be public - it has just a few bug fixes, etc.


* didnt check but since Gruso pointed to v100, I'm pretty sure :p
 
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Edit: I would leave the serial alone in all seriousness, just use that board for audio... good practice is to never I/0 audio recordings thru a 3.5mm jack if I can help it.. however there could still be made a controller through this method... perhaps a footswitch for midi...
The regular TV-out cable has RCA jacks for line input and output - of course, when those are actually going to be produced is anyone's guess.
 
Edit: I would leave the serial alone in all seriousness, just use that board for audio... good practice is to never I/0 audio recordings thru a 3.5mm jack if I can help it.. however there could still be made a controller through this method... perhaps a footswitch for midi...
The EXT port has 2 serial ports, both of which can be reconfigured to GPIO. They aren't just serial, they're 6 extra buttons or LEDs you can slap on wherever you want, 4 of which are PWM capable for variable brightness LEDs if you want. Also, per the hackers manual, "UART3 can also be configured for IrDA (Infrared Data Association) or CIR (Consumer Infrared Modes)" meaning you are a couple of cheap components away from turning the Pandora into an IR remote control.


The serial ports are useful, as a lot of GPS, compass, and accelerometer components output their data as a serial stream, but they also go beyond that. MWeston put a lot of thought into the design to make it very hacker friendly: I WANT THOSE GPIO LINES! RARG!


(there's also a GPIO line in the back of the lid that I'm very interested in)
 
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..."UART3 can also be configured for IrDA (Infrared Data Association) or CIR (Consumer Infrared Modes)" meaning you are a couple of cheap components away from turning the Pandora into an IR remote control.
Pandora TV remote!!!


Muh ha ha ha!!!


"I didn't turn off the TV, I'm just playing video games."
 
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