I am a bit disappointed by the fact that the enclosure doesn't snap together, at least weakly. But if you've got it hanging from a lanyard, that should go through the slots in both the enclosure and the board, preventing the board from falling out and more or less holding everything together by gravity.
It's true that there is no screw to maintain the two sides of the enclosure, but the cord is supposed to avoid any fall... On the principle, the Primer is an intermediate object between a fully opened evaluation board, and and a 'end-user', fully enclosed device.
Actually I think it's a quite good design - easy to access internals when needed; mine has no tendency to come apart when I don't want it to. It's also a good bit less money than other primer / development systems.
Look at other products like the PIC and Arduino stuff.
Your examples are somewhat lacking. Arduino is a board. No enclosure. Not yet; and, considering the port layout, perhaps not ever. PIC is just a chip family.
It is what it is. If you don't like it, don't buy the primers. The original version didn't even have an enclosure. It was a plain board, worn from lanyards by conference attendees who were lucky enough to get them. You could always use yours like that. Personally, I find that that makes it a lot harder to operate the button.
This thread started as a complaint on how the device was designed or manufactured. I received my unit today and I totally agree. The unit I have has an enclosure that will not stay closed and the board does fall out when the devise is moved using the mems for option selection. Either this is a very poorly design unit, or the manufacturer in China is doing a poor job. I also totally agree on the push button, it is very difficult to depress. After the unit is programmed in debug mode the display mirrors and will not correct until after a hard reset. So far this has left a very bad impression.
The mecanical problems you seem to encounter is a bit surprising. We always ask our suppliers to do quality checks. We also do random check (quality, fonctionnal...) when we receive each batch(~2000pcs)
The enclosure design was made to be opened easily, but it should be able to stay closed and sustain small chocks I will investigate our chinese suppliers/designers for that matter.
Those who think their product is malfunctioning can send it back to us for remplacement. (mjscottinnc...your Primer may have a real electronic problem)
Best regards
Last edited by Patrick (2008-07-24 14:57:15)
Patrick SIONG, Manufacturing Manager RAISONANCE SAS 17 avenue Jean Kunztmann 38330 MONBONNOT, FRANCE
Do you really think that my system might have a real electronic problem?
Here are is what I have been able to do and not do. The software that was preloaded had Circle OS 1.0. The demo application worked, but not to well. The mems position is difficult to accurately and smoothly control. When I load a new application using the debugger the screen mirrors, every time and will not correct with a soft reset. I loaded Circle OS 1.7 and tried to reload the demo games. Nether would load correctly and causes the system to do nothing, backlit but blank screen. I must use the reload procedure using cortex_pgm. At this point the development and testing of test application is impossible.
I suppose that the mems might be bad, but since I’m able to reload the OS and the screen works correctly, it seems more like software rather then hardware.
Will all the applications in the web site work with any version of CircleOS? Or are they version specific?
If you think that my system needs replaced, how do I go about the exchange?
The screen mirror problem you have, had been identified very early, it took me a while to understand your problem If you still encounter that problem it means that your LCD module is not soldered correctly (short circuit between I/Os, etc...)
I can send you a new one if you'd like. We'll look at your software problem after you received the new Primer. (and if you still have graphic problems afterwards)
Regards,
Last edited by Patrick (2008-07-24 14:57:01)
Patrick SIONG, Manufacturing Manager RAISONANCE SAS 17 avenue Jean Kunztmann 38330 MONBONNOT, FRANCE
I agree that the design of this box is not a big success. A box should be open or closed, but not in between. A small snapping effect should have fixed this. The tamgotchi are a thing of the past. For a developper, the round shape, the cord , this toy look are asolutely useless.
But for the inside, the electronic hardware, the toolkit : brilliant. best dev tool EVER compared to the price (Arduino lovers can sit and pray), what an exciting teaser to move to ST ARM CORTEX familly.
I buy my stm32primer today.But now it´s broken , the LCD is mirrored and the color is inverted. I check it with the installed Firmware (Circle OS1.7 and with version 2.0) ,but it is the same. Sometimes it works but if i restart the primer it is mirrored again. Now my question : can in resolder the connection of the LCD or what can i do?
The STM32 primer unit I received from my supplier had two of the six holes (that take the pins of the top cover) already broken. Since there were no traces of the broken out orange plastic in the box, I wonder where this happened (befor packing?).
Anyways, I found a way to make things sit more tightly: glue and small pieces of a match-stick.
The match-stick is only for those with broken holes: just glue a bit of wood at where plastic is lacking, then use a drill. And cut away everything that's extra.
For all those lucky enough to have a unit that is shipped in an optically proper state and nevertheless has the top cover float around, it might be a good idea to put a bit of glue on the pins of the top cover, just some small balls of glue that will, when dried, make things fit more tightly by simply using up some extra space in the holes.
So, please let the glue get dry $1 fitting the top cover again. Else you will have the opposite problem of what this topic is about
