STM CircleOS forum / New design for the Primer?

Francis · 2008-02-04 13:29:41

Raisonance is thinking about a new design for the STM32-primer.
At the moment we plan the following improvements:
1. better battery management (longer life, ...)
2. better LCD display,
3. add audio peripherals (replacement of the buzzer by a speaker, microphone),
4. better power supply for the MEMS (to improve the precsion),
5. IrDA emitter/receiver in standard

Any other idea/suggestion will be welcome.

raptorguy · 2008-02-04 17:01:03

I would like the current button replaced with a joypad-type button, as used on the STM3210B-EVAL board (left/right/up/down & centre push). A simple change but would give an alternative to the MEMS which I find awkward to use sometimes.

James

raptorguy · 2008-02-04 17:03:06

Maybe a bit much but how about an SD card interface...? The extra memory would be real handy for storing pictures, music files etc...

raptorguy · 2008-02-04 17:31:17

Oh yes and how about USB disconnect logic on the Primer so you don't have to unplug/plug into the USB for it to be recognised?

englere · 2008-02-04 22:11:01

I don't have one of these yet, but it's my understanding there are no expansion headers for unused ports - is this true? We'd surely need some headers coming out of the device to test I/O capabilities (GPIO, I2C, SPI, etc).

TroyC3 · 2008-02-05 05:10:13

How about a serial memory device for code/data storage, say to demonstrate a low power data logger.
ST makes some nice serial flash devices the MP25 family up to 128Mb densities. I agree with englere any unused IO would be nice if it had some pads so we could solder to, even if it was some smallish SMT pad that we could attach flying leads too.

Thanks,

Troy

raptorguy · 2008-02-05 13:04:22

Hi Troy, a microSD card uses a serial format for comms (as used on the STM3210B-EVAL). I think a removable microSD card is better as the cost is kept down by just having the memory slot on board, allowing the user to pick an SD card size of their choice. Also it's easier to transfer information without always having to go through the micro. James

Francis · 2008-02-05 13:23:17

The SD connector is planned too.

raptorguy · 2008-02-05 13:26:26

Please please Francis a joypad...

Francis · 2008-02-05 16:20:20

The problem with the Joypad is the inducted price because of complexity of the design for the box, and it also requires a larger space.
Now, we should improve the management of the MEMS info it is not so good. The MEMS makes a large part of the identity of the product... Removing it would make another product.

Atom · 2008-02-05 16:57:30

Something wireless, please.
Bluetooth will be useful, but ZigBee will be more interesting.
If it is possble, of course.

Kram · 2008-02-06 01:10:51

I dont think a new design is needed. If there is one then it should be mostly compatable for code.

I am quite impressed by the current product. It has a few issues that would make it far easyer to use if fixed - for example mems needs to be less sensitive in menus, especially at high clock speeds, where the force of pusing the (horrible) button will move the cursor to the next item. But why not use more of the screen for menus and include tilting left and right?
Also, I think the mems would be easyer to use/get used to, if the Y axis could be inverted. If you think about it, currently the cursor moves in the direction away from you. I will look at the code and see if this is easy to do. I am not good at coding though

Last edited by Kram (2008-02-06 01:12:41)

julspower · 2008-02-06 02:05:54

would probably be easy to do (invert y)

but at my opinion its good this way
im thinking of the cursor like a ball in the screen
if i tilt it down it goes down

Francis · 2008-02-06 08:54:46

Regarding the new design: a strict constraint will be to keep the compatibility with the existing CircleOS (the existing application should work with the new design).
Regarding the suggestion about CircleOS (pointer, ...): the best would be to try some improvements and to send the new source files to Raisonance (we will check and integrate them). It has been already done for the management of the ADC/temperature... and various bugs have been fixed by other users. However, there is currently one constraint: we would like to keep the overall size of the OS around 23KB. It means that any new feature must come with a code size optimization....

Bruno · 2008-02-06 09:02:39

An Ethernet port would open a nice investigation field.
Bruno

flyingfork · 2008-02-15 01:26:25

I vote to keep the MEMS control functionality. It's adds to the overall "coolness" factor. I agree with Kram in that navigating the menu is somewhat difficult but perhaps that can be taken care of in software as he suggests. Everything mentioned in Francis first post would be welcome too IMHO.

kevinccc · 2008-02-15 20:53:20

I would like to say , a 802.15.4 tranceiver, and a attena. zigbee will be possible. mesh, star network will be not hard. do you think that is most funny thing if we can have a party with handreds people, everyone have the great primer, play some same funny thing ? I also support microSD or SD slot interface. Thanks.

Last edited by kevinccc (2008-02-15 20:55:58)

jambon · 2008-02-20 22:54:59

keep mems, but joypad would be useful. better lcd. as a new user i was shocked by how small the screen is.
thanks ;-)

# 1 2008-02-04 13:29:41 New design for the Primer?

New design for the Primer?

# 2 2008-02-04 17:01:03 New design for the Primer?

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# 4 2008-02-04 17:31:17 New design for the Primer?

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# 5 2008-02-04 22:11:01 New design for the Primer?

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# 6 2008-02-05 05:10:13 New design for the Primer?

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# 7 2008-02-05 13:04:22 New design for the Primer?

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# 11 2008-02-05 16:57:30 New design for the Primer?

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# 12 2008-02-06 01:10:51 New design for the Primer?

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# 18 2008-02-20 22:54:59 New design for the Primer?

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