OK, I've created a new balloon-dev mailing list but I have done so warily.
By rights we really ought to be using the perfectly good balloon mailing
list for this purpose (it's hardly high traffic). An open project shouldn't
be making a special 'core' list for developing the design.
However I do think that there will be enough traffic generated by the
detailed design and manufacturing process that various people who are
'somewhat interested' in balloon3, primarily as users/potential users, would
find it tiresome, so having this extra list makes sense.
Neverthless - think carefully about whether the info you are posting should
really go to balloon rather than balloon-dev or not? Anything which is
organised enough to be of significant interest beyond the tedious details of
who's getting PCBs manufactured and 'jim have you done the wotsit yet?'
should go to the balloon list. That means your forthcoming spec chris, and
the imminent silicon BOM.
For those of you reading this on the balloon list - due to the need for
Cambridge University Engineering Dept (CUED) to have working boards in
September, and Toby Churchill Ltd (TCL)'s desire to move on generally,
balloon3 is now on full-steam ahead. Prototypes are being paid for by TCL
with extra costs due to excessive speed covered by the eng dept. This means
that they get significant extra say in what exactly happens. Anyone else
wanting to stick their oar in, bear in mind that schedules are tight and
design descisions are been finalised right now. If you aren't putting money
in to the project then the people doing the work will feel free to ignore
you.
If you are _really_ interested in the sordid details of layoiuyt and
planning the build or can help with VHDL code for the CPLD and FPGA logic
options, or want to write an updated jflash for initial JTAGing or help with
the bootloader porting then join balloon-dev.
Background - the story so far
Balloon 3 design has been going on for a while, deciding specs, picking
chips, working out how to maximise flexibility without incurring excessive
cost.
Expect a spec for what has been thrashed out so far within the week. The
main area where input might still be useful is in which combinations of IO
people expect to be using so that we can plan pinouts and connectors for
maximum efficiency.
Peter Long (CUED) is in charge of chivvying for the next few months so expect
regulat updates on progress.
People on balloon-dev so far are me, Nick Bane, Chris Jones, Steve Wiseman,
Peter Long, Paul Fiddler, Tim Froggatt. John Drake and or David Mason (and
hoppy?) from TCL probably want to be on but I don't have John's mail and I'm
not sure who wants to be here so I'm leaving that to TCL people to sort out.
Wookey
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