+++ Steve Wiseman [04-07-21 13:04 +0100]: > 21/07/2004 11:43:40, Laurie van Someren > wrote: > > >Does the board have to stay the same size, in all dimensions ? > > It would be exceedingly convenient... > > >It would be easier to manufacture and use if it were a bit bigger. > > How about emptier, rather than bigger? That would have the desired effect. You should be aware that we currently have serious interest from the engineering dept (Cambridge) in using ballon, or something like it, as a standard computing education tool for schools and colleges and universities - to get students back to the idea of dealing with the computer in a rather lower-level way than they do with PCs these days. Useful for robotics (robot wars type stuff), and all sorts of other interesting devices, along with a suitable array of cheap add-on boards (they already have a load of i2c designs which could be relaid for use with the balloon connector). The only thing wrong with balloon from their POV is cost - it's really a bit too expensive at the moment. They can potentially help here somewhat due to a tie-in with farnell (who supply all the bits for these projects, and could also supply balloons (maybe). They'd like to do a reduced-cost redesign, but of course that gets us into the 'balloon-a-likes' problem we are hoping to avoid. A prompt redesign which could be made somewhat more cheaply but was still 'balloon compliant' would suit them down to the ground. They'd really like to have something to trial for next academic year if possible - I have no idea if that's actually practical. Laurie can fill you in on more details about why it's a very pleasing idea that sits will the balloonboard projects philosophy. It would probably be really effective if you spoke to the guy in charge about what they want and whether it easily fits into rev3 of the board. Wookey -- Aleph One Ltd, Bottisham, CAMBRIDGE, CB5 9BA, UK Tel +44 (0) 1223 811679 work: http://www.aleph1.co.uk/ play: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~wookey/