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Fri, 28 Sep 2007
Preliminary Pricing and Schedule for Blackfin Controller and SRV-1 Robot
The production batch of BF537 processor cards is now scheduled to arrive on October 22, though we are trying to accelerate the delivery. In that timeframe, there don't seem to be any lead time issues for other components, so barring any unforeseen problems, we hope to start shipping new SRV-1's within a few days of arrival of the BF537 processor cards.
These numbers are subject to change, but here is preliminary pricing:
- Complete SRV-1 robot with 500MHz Blackfin BF537, 1.3 megapixel OV9655 camera, Matchport 802.11b/g radio w/3db dipole, laser pointer ranging, motor drivers w/back-emf, SRV-1 track base w/2000mAh Li-ion battery, battery charger - $435
- SRV-1 BF537 processor + OV9655 camera + 802.11b/g radio w/antenna - $310
- SRV-1 BF537 processor + OV9655 camera + radio board w/o radio - $210
- SRV-1 BF537 processor + OV9655 camera only - $175
At this point, we don't plan to sell a Zigbee version of the SRV-1, though the radio board will support either Lantronix Matchport or Maxstream XBee radio modules, so users can supply their own radio modules. Also, we will offer an upgrade price of $195 to existing SRV-1 customers for a set of circuit boards which include the new processor, camera, radio board (without radio modules) and motor control board, but customers will need to provide proof of original SRV-1 purchase.
One final note - we only ordered 250 processor and camera boards in this initial production batch. At the time we placed the order, 250 seemed like a large number, but we now realize that we significantly under-estimated the required quantities. Once this first batch has been successfully tested, we will start a 1000 unit run, but we won't likely see those deliveries until end of December or beginning of January. So if you are planning to order, please contact support@surveyor.com with your projected requirements. We will confirm your requests within the limits of available units and provide instructions for ordering.
Posted Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:13 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...
Wed, 19 Sep 2007Prototype radio board for Blackfin
Prototypes of the expansion board for WiFi and Zigbee (posted on the Blackfin info page) arrived last night. There are a couple of small problems with component placement which will be easily fixed, but the boards are functioning 100%, streaming JPEG video frames from the Blackfin through the Lantronix Matchport WLAN module to remote systems on our 802.11g network. We have also done limited testing with the Zigbee radio, and that seems to be working properly as well.
Here are photos of the expansion card, shown without a radio, with a Zigbee, with a Matchport (plastic cover removed for stacking clearance), and with the processor. As discussed previously, note that the connectors on the processor card will change for proper stacking. Also, we will be using Zigbee radios with u.fl connectors in the future, though the photo shows a radio with a wire antenna.
We finished the layout of the motor control board earlier today, and hope to have prototypes back by the end of next week for testing. The production batch of processor cards should be finishing soon, and we already have cameras, so we still seem to be on track for everything to come together by mid-October.
Posted Wed, 19 Sep 2007 20:06 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...
Wed, 12 Sep 2007Expansion cards and connectors
One of the challenges with the new Blackfin camera board has been to figure how to best fit it with the existing SRV-1 robot, accommodating the existing 1" x 2" mounting hole pattern for standoffs, fitting a radio module that supports both Zigbee and WiFi 802.11, and supporting the motor drivers, back-emf feedback, and laser pointers.
To make this work, we decided on an approach similar to PC/104 bus which uses stacking connectors for the 32-bit expansion pins, effectively creating a simple 32-pin expansion bus which we may refer to as the "S-32 Bus". The 32-pins are comprised of +3.3V power and ground, 2 UARTs, 2 PWM timers (2nd UART can alternately provide 2 more PWM timers), I2C, SPI with 2 slave selects, and 16 GPIO.
Each expansion board is the same size as the Blackfin camera board - 50mm x 60mm (2.0" x 2.4") and the boards can be stacked in any order. Because of density of components, the Blackfin board doesn't have any mounting holes, but the other boards do have grounded mounting holes in a 1" x 2" pattern to match the SRV-1 base.
Here's a photo which shows how a stack might look -
In this case, we have a board representing the motor controller on the bottom of the sandwich, the processor/camera board in the middle, and the radio board on top. We didn't use the actual Blackfin prototype board in this photo because it has a different connector orientation than we decided upon for the production boards, but hopefully you get the idea. An alternative orientation might put the processor board on top and use a 90-degree extender to orient the camera parallel to the processor - this might be typical for a configuration that just uses the processor/camera and a radio on a UAV.
One other important point - we're publishing schematics for everything, and EAGLE PCB design files for the expansion cards. We have already posted files for the radio board prototype on http://www.surveyor.com/blackfin. We will encourage users to design their own expansion cards, and plan to provide a resource for sharing other designs.
Here is a snapshot of one of the layout files for the radio board which can be downloaded from the Blackfin resource page.
Posted Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:35 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...
Sat, 01 Sep 2007SRV-1 Blackfin Camera Board - documentation and software downloads
We have started to assemble a download page for the new SRV-1 Blackfin processor and camera. It includes all critical processor and camera documentation along with board schematics and software download links.
SRV-1 Blackfin Camera Board - Documentation and Software
Posted Sat, 01 Sep 2007 15:35 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...