Best posts made by Matthias Nowak

Soooo, just to update stuff:

Didnt worked on it bcs its still not known if the pinout has changed now or not, messaged them on KS though

@Calavero-. thanks for pointing all that out, dont know what i thought about those extra resistors on the poweron-rail.
and also didnt noticed the wrong values on the 3v regulator. changed the values to fit the datasheed (150K and 680K) although C6 is alright.

got some time this weekend to recheck everything.

Corrected, thanks again

@Calavero-. Got to wait now. I heard that they changed something in the pinout and yeah. Gotta wait until they update it.

Aaaand routing is done

I will now do some work to make it look a bit nicer, but man this is packed.

I sadly had to drop the 4 GPIO headers on the right side, because it wasnt possible to route them out. But only two are wasted because the other two are connected to the charging circuitry and change their state when the battery is nearly empty (20%) or when the battery is fully charged.

But it still has the micro USB for connecting to the Omega2, the USB Host port, the LiPo connector, the Ethernet jack + Passive PoE and all of the GPIO on the left side, so yeah, still a beast

Gonna work the Bill Of material and the approxamite price out.

~Matthias Nowak

@fossette said in Suggestions and Ideas for custom Omega2 Docks:

Thanks for the Ethernet clarification. See? Not a HW guy, but this is very interesting. Learning everyday!

@Matthias-Nowak said in Suggestions and Ideas for custom Omega2 Docks:

there arent any real I2C, SPI or I2S "Connectors" like the DB-9.

The arduino has dual-in-line pins to let a connector plug onto it. They are properly labeled on the PCB. If there is no standard, it's a good way to provide the feature.

the official arduinos dont have any special conenctors except the normal 2.54mm jumper pins. are you maybe talking about something like the "seeedstudio groove" - connector?

Indeed, I meant those jumper pins. Didn't know how they were called... On my Arduino UNO, I see one labeled ICSP, and the other one is AREF, both for programming purposes. Perhaps not standard, but useful and usable with proper pinout description.

those jumper headers are what i mean with pinout so maybe if you want a bit more clarification on the arduino pins (yeah bit OT):
The digital and analog pins are directly connected to the chip. the RST pin is also connected to it, but also to the reset button to reset it. VIN is an alternative pin to the dc barrel jack next to the usb port. AREF stands for analog reference. normally the analog pins translate voltages form 0-5V into numbers, but you can set your own maximum with this pin. f.ex. use 3.3V for AREF, so it translates voltages from 0-3.3V to 0-1023. The SCL and SDA pins are directly connected to the analog pin 5 and 4, because these pins are also used for i2c.
The ICSP (short for: in-circuit serial programmer) is a special thing for AVR chips (the architecture the chip on the arduino is based on), so its not really a thing for ARM processors (like on the teensy or on the onion, or raspberry pi). its also directly connected to the arduino chip (i think also digital pin 13-10 and reset) and is used to either program it or for the spi interface (because the programming interface and spi interface are really similar, thus on the same pins). its main purpose for shields is just to be the port for spi, in case the pins d13-d11 arent spi

@fossette said in Suggestions and Ideas for custom Omega2 Docks:

@fossette said in Suggestions and Ideas for custom Omega2 Docks:

I'm not a hardware guy.

Just pitching ideas of features that I would use if I needed them.

@Matthias-Nowak said in Suggestions and Ideas for custom Omega2 Docks:

why would you use jumpers for the ethernet jack if those pins are only for ethernet (they arent gpios)? their only purpose is to be connected to an rj45 jack.

Let suppose for a moment that a new project that I create on a breadboard uses the Omega2 Ethernet pins. Would the Ethernet controller on this hypothetical expansion dock interfere with the one on my breadboard? If so, an option to cut it off would be welcome, jumpers. And, I would still be able to use a console on this hypothetical expansion dock.

as long as you dont connect an ethernet cable to both jacks that shouldnt be a problem.
The ethernet controller is on the omega2 itself. if you take a look at the official ethernet expansion you only see two parts: the jack itself and the magnet for ethernet. what comes out of the omega2 goes directly to the ethernet jack, no communication between the magnet and the omega2 itself. so as long as there isnt anything plugged in into the dock jack, there isnt any problem with wiring up your own port. if you do so, there might be some communication failures or simply: no internet connection at all.

there arent any real I2C, SPI or I2S "Connectors" like the DB-9.

The arduino has dual-in-line pins to let a connector plug onto it. They are properly labeled on the PCB. If there is no standard, it's a good way to provide the feature.

the official arduinos dont have any special conenctors except the normal 2.54mm jumper pins. are you maybe talking about something like the "seeedstudio groove" - connector?

but i doubt you will be able to run some desktop enviroment because of the low storage and speed of the omega2

Why not? Some phones and tablets use very slow CPUs. I think it's still possible. Xorg would be a huge challenge, though. However, we are not talking about HD. The display could very well represent the screen buffer that is pushed through HTTP.

but cheapo phones dont use a 400mhz single core cpu ^^. running those lcds on a raspberry pi zero barely reaches 30fps. but dont want to restrict on something. they can still be used to display data directly.
So yeah. colored lcds are added to the to-do list

Just for reference if someone needs it

@Laurence-HR said in Omega 2 KS Survey non-functional:

And what about the Free Shipping promised, and the onion awared? There is no option for this case? I have fear of putting my card numbers and charge me the cost hehe

dont know how sooo many people are pissed of just because they back something and cant read the campaigns page...
do you mean the sticker? one comes free (without you having to add it) and every sticker you add is an additional one.
what you see on step 3 is what gets booked from your card at the 20.th of november. the provider for the credit card payment is the same as the one kickstarter uses, so you dont have to be scared really

Hey

Im currently planning to do some custom docks for the Omega 2

(Probably some kind of mini dock with a few more things, a full-fledged board with on-board "expansions", a breadboard version with more than the original and a prototype one with on-board usb-serial and usb host)

So it would be great if you could create an issue over at my github repo with your suggestions (making it more of a community thing)

Things i have on my to-do list:

Mini Dock

• USB Host
• USB to Serial
• PWR switch and RST Button
• either a LiPo charger OR some pins prototyping (with I2C connection)

Full Dock

• USB Host
• USB to Serial
• LiPo Charger
• VIN Barrel Jack
• Ethernet
• PWM Outputs
• Maybe Bluetooth through the second Serial Port
• Maybe am OLED Screen
• Maybe Relays (though they are a thing i think are "dangerous")
• Power Switch and Reset Button
• General Pinout of the Omega 2 Pins

Breadboard Dock

• USB to Serial
• USB Host (maybe as an micro USB Port)
• Power Switch and Reset Button
• Maybe LiPo Charger (if there is space left)
• And (obviously) Breadboard Pinout (as thin as possible to not occupy half of the pins)

Protodock

• 2.54mm Pin Pitch prototyping space
• USB To Serial
• Power Switch and Reset Button
• Maybe USB Host
• VIN Barrel Jack

If you want to discuss some of these ideas or want to bring in your own ideas (please do it!) comment here or post them on github

Have a nice Day

Matthias Nowak