So that about wraps it up for v1.3

So there are no more 2.2 inch panels left in the world!  I have a couple of 2.4s, and a little fix for the firmware to get it working with that resolution panel.  I have just found a new source of 2.2 inch panels! But no cases to fit the new panel PCBs.

Orders for full kits are suspended until I get the new boards through and can work up a case, and vitamin kits have that caveat attached.

I will be working up a new design for v1.4 of the Polarshield shortly, stay tuned.

Polarshield v1.4 ideas

The 2.2 inch screen that I use for the Polarshield is now unavailable, so I’m switching to the 2.4 inch screen instead.  Not much difference, but it does mean the PCB needs to be revisited so that it fits in the same footprint.  I only have a couple of the 2.2 inch panels left.

New sized screen for polargraph machines

The 2.4 inch screen has a higher resolution, so in principle it can fit more stuff on.  But in practice, I will keep the two designs aligned for as long as possible.

So I am planning to remove the XBee socket, and the hardware that goes with it.  I don’t think anybody uses it, and I’ll leave some pins open so that I can wire it up again in the future.

I would quite like to have space for a third stepper driver, for doing some like this lissograph drawing machine which I covet deeply.  If that happened it would be a mostly unpopulated blank, cos it’s a pretty niche idea.  It’s also true that a machine like that could easily fit into an arduino uno sized board, and there’s already plenty of multi-stepper shields out there to choose from.

Apart from that, I’m blank.  Does anybody have any feelings about the direction of the cables, locations of the sockets, or the types of connectors, things like that?  Drop me an email (sandy dot noble at gmail), or go on the forum.

Cheers!

Sandy