EXT connectors
- Thread starter WizardStan
- Start date
peca
Active Member
I'm willing to make some. It could be 10, it could be 20, it depend on demand. But my time is limited, so overall quota stay rather low. I'd PMed to WizardStan my offer and I hope that it will help. Big complication (of custom made TV-OUT cables that I see) is connector housing. If custom made cable would look good, it must be definitely something better then 1 meter of sellotape
So I think that casting resin or some silicone substrate could work. On other side, sellotape (or similar) mean that it will be easy to repair or extend (add some extra wiring).
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dreamer
Active Member
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How long have you been on this board? :blink:
http://www.pandorawiki.org/Hardware_hacking#Ext_Connector
WizardStan
Mega GP Mania
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$500 pledge now. That's about 700 connectors.
I've put in some RFQ for lower quantities. We'll see if anything happens.
I've put in some RFQ for lower quantities. We'll see if anything happens.
may88
Well-Known Member
A long time but like I said we have USB 2.0 so I don't see why we would need the EXT for hacking if somebody could explain this to me instead of just showing me a link that I do not understand that would be great :mellow:
If this is just a TV out thing than why not just wait for you're TV out cables unless the EXT can do digital out??!?!?!
Prometheus
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It's not just a TV-out thing, at all.
(And in fairness, I would have thought that this would be obvious from the link that dreamer provided...)I'll try my hand at explaining it, but I'll forewarn that I'm not exactly an expert.
My understanding is that the things listed as "UART" in the link that dreamer posted allow for serial port access. You can learn more about UART here - it's a Wikipedia page (first thing I had to hand) so take it with a pinch of salt, but it should be good enough to get the gist of it from.
The TV-out thing is obvious, so I know there's no need to explain that.
That said, I gather that most people aren't after these connectors to make TV-out cables.Stereo line-in and stereo line-out allow for recording audio, and outputting it to a stereo system (in a better fashion than just using the headphone port for it), respectively.
The GPIO ("General Purpose Input/Output") thing that is mentioned is especially useful. My understanding is that this could be used for custom peripherals and accessories - for example, interfacing the Pandora with robotics kits, or hooking up an accelerometer (why is another question - this is just an example), or something of that nature. Again, this is my understanding of it.
I'm afraid I can't explain PWM very well at all, so I'll have to just refer you to here (again, it's a Wikipedia link, so it should be alright to get the gist of it, but do take it with a pinch of salt, because it's a Wikipedia link).
I hope that that gives you a better idea of why these connectors are so desired.
WizardStan
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Pulse Width Modulation is typically used in LED brightness control. The simple way to reduce the brightness of an LED is to lower the voltage: a lower voltage means less power means less bright. This is usually accomplished with a resistor pair, or variable resistor. The result is not actually very efficient, a lot of energy is wasted through the resistors.
Pulse width modulation, on the other hand, drives full power in pulses. It's like flicking the lightswitch on and off a few hundred times a second. The LED gets turned on for that brief moment and then off again, making it seem to be dimming. It has other uses in audio manipulation and motor control, but light brightness is typically the big application. It's what controls the brightness of the Pandora's other LEDs, the power and charge ones, anyway. PWM is much more efficient than restricting the power.
Prometheus
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^ Thanks for that, Stan.
panik
Member
PM sent. Great!
slaeshjag
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, it's possible, but would require extensive hardware hacking, and is not something you can get with the EXT-connector.
Speaking of Digital TV-out, and sliding a little off the rails here...
The Beagleboard (original) shares the same SoC as the Pandora, and supports analog TV-out and LCD signals from the SoC itself, and DVI/HDMI out through a separate chip. Looking at the schematics it's a bit unclear - would there be any way to add a similar HDMI chip to the Pandora using the various GPIOs we have available?
The Beagleboard (original) shares the same SoC as the Pandora, and supports analog TV-out and LCD signals from the SoC itself, and DVI/HDMI out through a separate chip. Looking at the schematics it's a bit unclear - would there be any way to add a similar HDMI chip to the Pandora using the various GPIOs we have available?
WizardStan
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The SoC has two digital out ports. On the BeagleBoard, which is pretty raw, one is sent to an HDMI chip, the other is left as a headless set of points which you can solder to. The digital out can also be configured for GPIO. The Pandora, with it's keyboard, game buttons, touch screen, wifi, LEDs, etc... needed as many IO pins as it could get, so unfortunately the extra digital lines were co-opted for their GPIO uses. The BeagleBoard didn't have that requirement, it was able to just dump all the spare lines out as empty lines for whoever wanted to do whatever they wanted with them. Maybe the next SoC MWeston investigates will have more free GPIO lines so the second digital out port can actually be used for HDMI. Perhaps something to consider investigating in a few years when Pandora 2 (should such a thing actually come to fruition) rolls around.
slaeshjag
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Though I still see the possibility to intercept the RGB-signals going to the LCD and at least get digital output at 800×480.
kwh2010
Still Fresh
Okay, my attempts to order a sample connector have failed, you're my only hope, PM sent
John Bedlam
Still Fresh
PM sent.
may88
Well-Known Member
How's this looking WizardStan?
Do you want money yet?
Do you want money yet?
WizardStan
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Just got a few more pledges in today! I need to add up all the numbers, but I think there's enough interest now. I'll give a few more days for any last minute interests, Tuesday I'll break down the list, and if there's no objections (people saying "I was hoping to get X pieces for my Y pledge" sort of thing) I'll order up on Saturday. Then it's just Two Months to delivery
may88
Well-Known Member
Cool. and thanks.
