I just received an Onion Omega!

Back in May of last year, I became aware of a KickStarter campaign for a new uController board called the  Onion Omega.
The Campaign met it's target goal of $15k USD, and then doubled it within a couple days!

Within a month, they had Successfully raised $267,851 USD with 4,459 backer.

What makes this little board incredible besides it's diminutive size, are it's enormous specs! 

• Dimensions: 28mm x 42mm 
• OS: OpenWRT Linux 
• Processor: 400MHz 32bit Broadcom Atheros AR9331
  
• RAM: 64MB DDR2 
• Flash: 16MB 
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n 
• Ports: 18 GPIO 
• Language: Python, Node.JS, PHP, Ruby, Lua and more...

These  specs put this cool little board smack dab between the 8bit loveable Arduino and it's big 32bit brother, the RaspberryPi.

The 18 GPIO are  all digital, however there are I2C, I2S, and SPI buses for expansion should you require analog support.

The biggest "feature" of this awesome little board is the Web Interface!   The Onion Console is intended to represent a virtual desktop in your browser to control applications running on the Onion Omega!

How cool is THAT???

Anyway, cutting to the chase... A couple weeks ago, on Twitter,  @OnionIoT held a giveaway contest, and I entered... I mean, who wouldn't?  I've been working with embedded controllers and System on Chip boards for a while now, and this one definitely intrigues me. 

The following day, I received THIS tweet:

 YES!!!!   

And today finally, my board, plus a dock showed up!  

Now go away... I have some playing to do!   

Thank you Onion.io 

 

References:

https://community.imgtec.com/hardware/single-hardware/onion-omega/

http://postscapes.com/wifi-iot-prototyping-board-onion-omega

http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/03/31/onion-omega-is-an-atheros-ar9331-wi-fi-module-supporting-various-docks-and-add-on-boards-crowdfunding/ 

https://wikidevi.com/wiki/Atheros_AR9331

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr703n/ar9331_pinout

http://makezine.com/2015/04/14/get-know-onion-omega-tiny-new-dev-board/ 

 

My Reprap Prusa i3 Kit [ second of a multipart blog] - The Build!

This past weekend, I finally had the time to start building my Reprap Prusa i3 3D Printer,  which I ordered a few weeks ago from  Shenzhen Sunhokey Electronics Co., Ltd. on Aliexpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

The kit came with a DVD which included about a dozen videos of the step-by-step assembly process.  There is no speech in the videos, just some background music, and periodic overlay of the hardware required to assemble each step.

 

The videos run at a fairly leisurely pace, but yes... I did have to pause them many times to keep up. 

 

Here's a sample video to show you what 

the process looks like.

 The build started fairly smoothly, with the X-axis motor block and opposite belt tensioner slider assemblies. (Yeah, I'm too lazy to look up the official names of these two components)

 

 

 

My Assistant and fellow builder - Camden, found himself getting rather tired, early into the build! But, like a trooper, he put in a good couple hours.  Thank you Camden.

Next up, was the actual hotend carriage assembly.  I'll have to admit, it was very exciting to see these pieces built first.  Good job Shenzhen Sunhokey Electronics Co., Ltd.!  

At first, I wasnt sure how I would feel about the transparent acrylic frame and parts, but as the build progressed, I grew rather fond of it.

 

 

 

 

Next came Z-Axis Motor brackets, end stops, and then the frame and rails for the Y-Axis heated bed

I wrapped up for the weekend at this point.  Two days of "duration", and about 6 hours of "effort".   

 

 

The next three articles over the upcoming week will be: 

1) wiring all of the motors, switches, heaters, etc to the control board and firing it up.   

2) calibrating and troubleshooting (probably not in that order!)  

3) finally running a first print. 

 

Cheers.

 

 

How we learned about electronics pre-Arduino days...

Very short post here: 

I was cleaning the basement, and came across this. It is "brand new", as in everything was still wrapped in it's original bubble wrap and had the cardboard corner protectors... huh... go figure..

Anyway boys and girls... this is what an Arduino looked like 20+ years ago.  LOL

130 rainy day electronics projects in one box...  

I tend to be a very forgetful person, but I *vividly* remember MY first computer.  

In 1976, Popular Electronics Magazine ran an article about building your very own personal computer.

The "Cosmac ELF"  was basically a PCB that you purchased, sourcing all of the electronic parts through the mail.  I think at the age of 10, it took me several months to get the components.  Sending off for one of two as my allowance came in, and soldering them to the circuit board. 

Picture from : http://www.homebrewcpu.com/projects.htm

Using an 8bit RCA 1802 processor meant for the newly invented digital gas pumps, the Cosmac Elf boasted 256 bytes (BYTES!) of memory, two 7 segment LEDs, 8 toggle switches for address and data input, a RUN switch, and a PROGRAM switch.  

No BIOS or bootloader... nada... and yet some simple games could be loaded (in binary!) and played for hours of fun.



Two years later, I was up to 4k of memory, a cassette tape drive, and a monochrome video display of 128x64 bits...  and a home rolled character generator!

Those were the days...

I'd LOVE to hear your stories in the comments below...