This is part of my blogs in the Upcycleit challenge Upcycle It
I purchased an Intel Edison when they first appeared (actually before they were in stock), and they were in the early days.
I quickly found that in order to even power it, you needed another board.
While it has WiFi and Bluetooth on board, the GPIO is 1.8v, which means you need level converters to interact with external devices.
Hence it sat waiting for a better time.
This challenge was the catalyst for firing it up, and thankfully the infrastructure to support it has grown.
The Kit
Challengers will get a great array of parts which should enable them to Electronically Upcycle their device.
Upcycle it Design Challenge: The Kit
Plus a power supply and cable.
The Arduino board does have level conversion, but the Breakout board doesn't.
Smaller Boards
I had a check on what options our sponsors have in their store, and sadly there were only the same offering as the kit.
Since my purchase some time ago, Sparkfun have come to the party and produced a range of stackable boards.
In some cases they are close to the same outside dimensions, and others have features that will be useful.
You can see their range here.
https://www.sparkfun.com/categories/272
I had these on order about the time I found the external DC input was dead, and they turned up yesterday.
(You have to love how efficient USPS is)
The Arduino Block is an obvious choice to provide interfacing, while the Base Block allows console access, and the GPIO Block gives level conversion.
What these photos don't show is that they stack under the Intel Edison and are extremely thin.
I had plans to make a pcb with power and level conversion but after seeing the 70 pin Hirose connector pin spacing, I'm having other thoughts.
Why show these
The idea was to make challengers or potential challengers aware that there are some other products out there that could help them in their design.
I'm not sure I would have stuck all the GPIO out the side, but it's still only 70mm long.
So get your thinking caps on and come up with some great ideas.
Mark
This started as a simple blog, but has now grown over a few posts, so an index is appropriate.
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