Positron Board manual cover

[top204]

What do you think of the Positron board's manual cover?

Is it too simplistic?

[top204]

And here is the board layout for the 8-bit Positron. As with the Amicus18 manual I created, the Positron manual is detailed and has relevant information in it, and diagrams of circuits and code snippets etc, to get the best out of the 8-bit microcontroller. By default it operates at 3.3 Volts, but that can be changed to 5 Volt operation. It has, on-board, 3V3 and 5V, 750mA, regulators, is fed voltage from the USB, and has a Schottky diode to stop an external voltage supplied to the board getting back into the USB socket. It also has a programming header area that a PICkit2, 3 or 4 will directly fit onto as well.

The device has 8K of RAM, 128K of flash and 1K of "real" EEPROM, and uses its internal oscillator set to 64MHz, so the OSC1 and OSC2 pins are brought out as general purpose I/O lines, but can have a crystal attached to them externally if required. It also has a bootloader to make programming a lot simpler, and will work with Windows XP to Windows 10, 32-bit or 64-bit.

It fits nicely onto a breadboard and does not swamp the breadboard's sockets. It was a hard task getting the PCB routed in EdWinXP because there is so much on such a small board, more components on the underside of the PCB. And many thanks to Tim for getting the prototype PCBs made for me. I cannot thank you enough Tim. :-)

[RGV250]

Hi Les,
The cover looks nice and uncluttered in my opinion.
So when are the boards and book going to be available now you have dangled the carrot.

Bob

[Gary Scott]

Where do I send my money !!!

[okaman]

Is that job done?

[top204]

I have 40 boards ready and tested, and I am currently working on the board's manual. Because the components are so small, they take a while to build under the microscope. LOL. I have the general layout of the manual completed and am putting in the personal touches that make texts and articles I create identifiable to me. i.e. Bringing in the user as if they are sitting beside me and explaining what things are and what things do. :-)

It's what I should have continued to do for so many years after I wrote my two books back in the early 2000s, but I was always too busy making money and good reputations, for others. :-(

[GaryC]

Hello
   Nice work, any price yet, will these be on Ebay.
 Gary

[okaman]

come on, Les,
I'm waiting for the board and the PDF like hell ..
Believe me,when I start making money for myself and not others, I will be someone who will give you full support
(If it will be suitable for you too, I will do whatever I can do).)


The heads of only money-oriented guys don't work the same way as we are tech-minded guys. !!

they have the mentality to them "I am the conductor, I have the best balls and I get the best piece".

As technical guys, we have the mentality that
"if I do, I want to do the best with the highest technology, I will learn what I need to learn.

In short, they are "buy-sell or use builder and seller" men.
we are ,"do it yourself and show what I have done !!!" men.

so I learn to "make money using tech guys" (I've been working on this for a while)
Is this called capitalism?   

[John Drew]

Les, I think simple and uncluttered always wins out in catching the eye.
The front cover looks fine and meets my criteria. I'd want to buy it, well, after a peek inside too.
John

[rick.curl]

I like the board, and I like the cover, but the 3D render looks a bit "flat". I don't know which CAD system you're using, but Diptrace produces a much more realistic 3D view.

I'm ready to order one though!

-Rick

[top204]

It's a photograph of the board with a few Photoshop filters applied to it, then scaled and scewed, with a touch of lens flare on the device.

I wanted the board to look slightly different than a standard PCB on a front cover, and the 3D renderings of PCBs never quite look right to me. They are far too artificial. :-) I did that with Amicus18 in SketchUp, and I was never happy with the coloured renderings, that's why I used wireframe renderings for most of the illustrations of it.

[okaman]

when they will be completely ready to sell?

I want to buy it immediately and start working with the examples in the pdf book.

[top204]

Many thanks people.

It will take a few more weeks to get everything in place, and make sure the libraries are corect and the demos and diagrams and texts etc...

Writing a user manual, or article, or book is not something that can be rushed, unlike most of them now! It has a personality to it and must cover what needs to be covered with a bit of personal touch to it. Much like the project articles I used to write each Christmas for the Proton compiler.

I was just trying to find what the interest was in the boards and manual etc... And make sure I had not seen things in statements that were not actually there. Reading someone's opinions or statements are never the same as talking to the "real" person and seeing their face and hearing inflections in their voice that tell you that they are joking, or eager, or not really interested etc... :-) 

[John Drew]

Reading someone's opinions or statements are never the same as talking to the "real" person and seeing their face and hearing inflections in their voice that tell you that they are joking, or eager, or not really interested etc... :-) 

Les,
As an aside I've been involved in many Teams meetings since Covid and even seeing the faces is not enough when making decisions.
All the little subtleties of body language are lost. It's not the same as face to face. People who work from home during Covid and rely on interaction with others must become really disconnected over time. A bit off topic, sorry about that.
John

[GaryC]

Hello
  Will the board come with Proton for that chip only as a download.

Many thanks
Gary

[Gamboa]

Les,
It looks good. Will the bootloader be able to adjust to different frequencies or will it come closed?
Have you already set the sale price? 

Thank you

Regards,
Gamboa

[okaman]

Have you already set the sale price?

i am going to buy 3 or 4 pcs when it available for sale.
I'm looking forward to the new board and compiler

[top204]

Just to keep you appraised as to what is happening with Positron...

I'm busy writing the Positron board's manual so I created a Positron component for the Fritzing program. It is "truly" a dreadful program and you can tell it was originally created for Linux, and is used by Arduino :-) There is simply no quality to it, or common sense!

However, it has graphics that come in handy, but making the component was horrendous, and simple things were made complex by the program's inflexability and very amateurish operation. I just wish I could afford the graphic packages that electronics magazines use for their diagrams and illustrations. :-(

I'll add the Fritzing Positron component to the Positron web site for others to use for any articles they write for the board.

Here's one of the images I will be using in the manual for the demo programs:

[RGV250]

Hi Les,
I just wondered if the image is correct, you have the common of the encoder to ground an well as the caps?

Bob

[top204]

Tha capacitors are a form of switch bounce eliminator for the rotary encoders that have physical switches in them. Its centre pin is grounded because the microcontroller has its internal pull-up resistors enabled for PORTC.2 and PORTC.3.