New kid on the block the pcDuino ...

I've the Wandboard Quad on the bench, worked out of the box !

Added the WiFi antenna, few minutes configuration via the ubuntu system settings, and joined my WiFi network without a glitch.

Very, very impressed with the quality of video, even playing videos through vnc. Nicely done. Blog article coming soon ...

Cheers

Jorge

Thanks for very sharing - very cool!  You seem to have all the cool single board computer toys

selsinork wrote:

 

Ultimately, it's not just BGA though. Any sufficiently high density connector will cause problems for enthusiasts, the higher the density the harder it is to handle and the number of people capable of doing it reduces as the cost and complexity of the equipment needed rises.

To some extent, high density is a commercial affectation, driven by the need to look modern and high tech and also because real estate costs money.  Most enthusiasts don't need high density though, and as you say, it's just a liability to them.  As long as signal paths are properly balanced and well within all the electrical specs, spread them out to low-density edges of adapters.  Modules and connectors being a bit bigger is an advantage for OSHW.

And that in turn would obviate the need for the commercial carrier that you mentioned, because the carrier can then also be low-density OSHW.

selsinork wrote:

 

jamodio wrote:

The Wandboard is on the other side of the spectrum, almost all signals are on the connector to the motherboard but it is not as cheap or standard to be integrated.

As I understand it, the wandboard follows the EDM 'standard'.  I'd been kind of hoping it might help drive some more adoption.

There is no such thing as an "EDM standard".

The wandboard and the "EDM standard" are creations of the same company.

It may look confusing and misleading but behind all of them is TechNexion LTD of Taiwan. The only company to use EDM is them so there is no "standard" as you can see from this detailed list of products that support it http://www.edm-standard.org/index.php/product-list or the exensive list of companies that adhere to the standard http://www.edm-standard.org/index.php/members

Those guys may succeed tyring to fool some newbie but not an old dog

-J

One more bit of information to share, the Wandboard afaik has not a single certification, I didn't do a detailed analysis but I'd venture to bet that if they try, it won't pass FCC Class B, not even close.

On the other hand, the BBB is both CE and FCC certified (class B). You can even download the certificate of compliance https://github.com/CircuitCo/-BeagleBone-Black/blob/master/10238105EUS1.pdf?raw=true

-J

I think we can have an interesting discussion somewhere else in the forum about BGA vs ???, there are pros and cons, and as I always say it depends on the application and the target "customer."

If you are in this just for a hobby, a DYI project or some basic integration, don't mess with what you don't know how to do or have the tools to do it, you will waste more time and money, just buy a ready made BBB and have fun with it.

My .02

-J

jamodio wrote:

 

There is no such thing as an "EDM standard".

there was a reason I put 'standard' in quotes    anything called a standard is only of use if you can convince others to follow it, and short of being a government and being able to pass a law forcing people to use your 'standard' none are any better than others, they're mostly cooked up by some company anyway.  but does that matter ?  as long as it's free to use and you can build a consensus that it's a good idea.  I'd venture to think that any 'standards' that come with patent claims, licensing fees etc. are a bad thing, but the world has no shortage of those.

The only company to use EDM is them

Doing some research a few months ago I did come across both TechNexion and a couple of places in Germany using the same non-standard while the wandboard appears to be a barely disguised version of the EDM2-CF-iMX6, the german company was using older SoC's like the imx233 clearly aimed at industrial use with price tags to match.  Simple searches for 'EDM' aren't bringing me back to their page, so I fully understand you're not likely to believe me

I did however turn up a couple of competing 'standards', SMARC from Kontron http://uk.kontron.com/about-kontron/news-events/ulpcom+is+now+smarc.6720.html and Qseven, both sponsored by "Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies" http://www.sget.org/ who do seem to have some members and Qseven has a bunch of products form several manufacturers.

Interestingly SMARC uses the same connector as the EDM one.

To add to the amusement, there's the AMD version of the Minnow http://www.gizmosphere.org/

And it seems likely we should get used to angstrom like setups or be prepared to roll our own:

http://linuxgizmos.com/gumstix-adopts-yocto-for-overo-modules/

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

An OSHW kickstarter campaign to put one (or all) of TI, Allwinner, Samsung and ST applications processors on the same EDM form factor as was used by Wandboard for Freescale's i.MX6 aren't beyond the bounds of possibility.

As jamodio points out, TechNexion the company behind EDM has some of those covered already http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/06/10/technexion-edm-modules-open-software-and-somewhat-open-hardware-arm-x86-cpu-modules/

jamodio wrote:

On the other hand, the BBB is both CE and FCC certified (class B). You can even download the certificate of compliance https://github.com/CircuitCo/-BeagleBone-Black/blob/master/10238105EUS1.pdf?raw=true

There's an interesting chunk of documentation available in that github repo, quite unusual for that to be made quite so open.  My memory is hazy, but did the RPF ever publish quite so much detail for the Pi ?

selsinork wrote:

 

As jamodio points out, TechNexion the company behind EDM has some of those covered already http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/06/10/technexion-edm-modules-open-software-and-somewhat-open-hardware-arm-x86-cpu-modules/

That's an interesting article, referring to various nice goodies coming our way from TI:

Arrow Europe also leaked TI Sitara Roadmap until 2014, which shows AM437x being available in 2013, and AM2x single and dual Cortex A7 as AM5x Cortex 15 planned for 2014.

And about TechNexion specifically, cnxsoft writes:

they appear to have some interesting solutions, and because I’ve heard him say “all the software code can be found on our home page, we don’t believe in NDAs, everything needs to be open source” and later “the baseboard schematics are available”. This is extremely unusual for companies that make CPU modules or SoMs to open most of their design.

It seems like a company worth supporting, although it's hard to offer our support when their market presence is so low here.  Their position on openness does however made their EDM format a  candidate for adoption by the OSHW community.

jamodio wrote:

 

I think we can have an interesting discussion somewhere else in the forum about BGA vs ???, there are pros and cons, and as I always say it depends on the application and the target "customer."

 

If you are in this just for a hobby, a DYI project or some basic integration, don't mess with what you don't know how to do or have the tools to do it, you will waste more time and money, just buy a ready made BBB and have fun with it.

Although I agree that BBB is well in the lead for embedded OSHW capability up to Cortex-A8 level, I was looking beyond that.  It's not like there is a Beagle roadmap catering for all our needs into the distant future, and even if there was, we still wouldn't want to be dependent on a single manufacturer.

The community of OSHW enthusiasts would be stronger if it took control of its own destiny than by being mere consumers of OSHW designs that commercial companies feel like providing.  It's just like what happened when 3D printing enthusiasts discovered that they could build their own printers and that this independence from commercial 3D printing gave them immense power and control over their own destinies.

Exactly the same would happen if we took computer design and construction into our own hands.

selsinork wrote:

 

jamodio wrote:

On the other hand, the BBB is both CE and FCC certified (class B). You can even download the certificate of compliance https://github.com/CircuitCo/-BeagleBone-Black/blob/master/10238105EUS1.pdf?raw=true

There's an interesting chunk of documentation available in that github repo, quite unusual for that to be made quite so open.  My memory is hazy, but did the RPF ever publish quite so much detail for the Pi ?

Yes, they posted the recipe in Food Network ...

BTW I'd love to see the same document from the FCC certification for both the Raspberry Pi Model A and B.

-J

selsinork wrote:

 

jamodio wrote:

On the other hand, the BBB is both CE and FCC certified (class B). You can even download the certificate of compliance https://github.com/CircuitCo/-BeagleBone-Black/blob/master/10238105EUS1.pdf?raw=true

There's an interesting chunk of documentation available in that github repo, quite unusual for that to be made quite so open.  My memory is hazy, but did the RPF ever publish quite so much detail for the Pi ?

Yes, they posted the recipe in Food Network ...

BTW I'd love to see the same document from the FCC certification for both the Raspberry Pi Model A and B.

-J