+++ Steve Wiseman [04-07-21 13:04 +0100]:
> 21/07/2004 11:43:40, Laurie van Someren
> <laurie@aleph1.co.uk> 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
--
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