Re: [Balloon] Re: Next Balloon

Hi there,

A brief introduction... I work for the design group in the Cambridge
Engineering Dept, and I've been given a board to have a look at. The board
does look very good - just the sort of thing that we're looking for to use
in our robot project and beyond. But yes... we'd be looking for anything
that would keep the cost down.


> 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.

The small size isn't required for us, and presumably a larger board would
be cheaper, so we'd be keen on that. Is there any possibility of designing
the board once and then getting a computer to churn out 2 sets of actual
board layouts - a small one for those that need it, and a larger one for
when cost is an issue? Or is that a bad idea? I appreciate that this may
not be as simple as it sounds, or maybe its not desirable from your point
of view...



> 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.

If anyone would like to talk to me about what we'd like to do, then you're
more than welcome to ask (The guy in charge is away this week but should
be back next week). I'm afraid I can't say much about how we'd be affected
by using a PXA27X at the moment - I'll try and look up some info on the
web. Does anyone have an idea what the likely impact would be on the
board's cost?


many thanks,
Tim