Efried said:Since there is a large unused area on the WC (which ais also not used for wireless) I propose adding a prototype area...
rossw said:You mean something like this?
(Current WebAmp board, this one is kitted out for operation as 3 x 4-20mA current loop input, and has a 8-28V DC input that will also operate the WebControl8 board with barely any temperature rise at all)
Efried said:Great yes, but I would see space on the WC8 itself for a prototyping area.
rossw said:I doubt it's going to happen. That would require CAI completely re-tooling for a new revision board.
I know there's a new board in the works, I very much doubt a prototyping area on-board is on the radar.
(Just out of interest - what would you plan to put there? All the inputs are on a 16-pin header, so you couldn't readily do any input conditioning, you'd have to cut tracks to connect to them anyway, and it strikes me as a fairly non-useful addition)
Efried said:I would sport photo MOS SSR, but there is space for the whole mini-monster.ru as watchdog. Is it possible drilling holes into the existing board, then I could do the wiring in the ugly way?
+1 That would be handy, always a lot of 12v supply arround, seldom a 9v one. Often I solve the "problem" adding this one:Tschmidt said:Personality if CAI was going to layout a new PCB for the WC8 the change I'd really like to see is
replace the linear 5V regulator with a switcher (like the WC32) that is able to accept up to at least
12V without creating much heat.
/tom
Tschmidt said:Personality if CAI was going to layout a new PCB for the WC8 the change I'd really like to see is
replace the linear 5V regulator with a switcher (like the WC32) that is able to accept up to at least
12V without creating much heat.
sorry no 230 V, only 12 V. I aggree that exchanging the board is less easy if you populate the prototype area. Seems to me that the purpose of the boards has to be discussed. For prototyping and forgetting about the whole thing, may be the WC is to expensive... For productive work, PLC is a nightmare because it is not self documenting and a couple of functions for easy remote board management is lacking.rossw said:But again... what are you going to control the SSR from?
To the TTL outputs? OK, fine... but I'm not sure I'd want high voltage and/or decent current on the WC8 board itself.
It's a somewhat moot point however, I'd be interested to hear CAI's views on it, but I really don't see it as being something more than one or two people would ever want, which makes it pretty hard to justify on a board that's (largely) universal.
Efried said:Seems to me that the purpose of the boards has to be discussed.
Efried said:For productive work, PLC is a nightmare because it is not self documenting
Efried said:I think CAI shoul use a better AD and offer a cheap RESTful board at 25 USD
rossw said:Yes, because (largely) the only one who seems to think that the purpose and the design don't fit, is you...
Pretty much everyone else seems to use the boards as they are with few requests for change. Sure, a few enhancements, but not a complete rebuild.
Not much is. Did you LOOK at the code-manager I linked before? It directly addresses SEVERAL of your "critical complaints"
Perhaps there's a market for you to design, prototype, debug, and release something in that category then? I'm sure we'd all love to see something with a gigabyte of onboard flash, 8 cores, switchmode supply, 10A fet outputs, 22-bit ADC, full php support and embedded apache, perhaps even C++ compiler on board, with at least a 4" square prototyping area for $25 USD or less.... I'll give you your first order for 100 pcs!
Efried said:I did not check out the code manager, since I had not seen the reference to it.
rossw said:It was http://webcontrol.rossw.net/program/?sample-code
My intention, assuming it's considered useful by others, is to allow people to save their code (optionally with a password to access and/or to change it), and let it run as a service. Perhaps to add things like #includes for libraries of code or re-usable blocks, I don't really know where it might go.
The point is that something that does at least PART of what you're requesting is easily achieved, even if the boards themselves don't have the resources to do it natively.