Too many bricks & bricklets, not enough screws

[Xenna]

For my project I need one IO16 bricklet and 6 Analog In bricklets. That means I also needed two master bricks to connect them. That seems a bit inefficient. (I hope I won't run in to problems with usb power)

 

I'd like a master brick that has more than 4 bricklet connectors. The Grove system for Arduino has a base board with many more connectors:

 

http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/Grove_-_Base_Shield

 

And a mega board with even more than that:

 

http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/Grove_-_Mega_Shield

 

Alternatively for my project a multi-Analog bricklet In would have been nice. Perhaps a 4 port or 8 port Analog In bricklet wouldn't need to be that expensive? The chips are tiny, so they would seem easy to fit.

 

I also wonder about the mounting kits. Am I the only one who thinks there should be 4 more screws per kit? (4 to screw the brick(lets) to the supports, 4 to screw the supports to something else)

 

With all that said, I'm really pleased with the Tinkerforge bricks. I'll post a description of my project when it's all done.

 

[borg]

A Brick with more than 4 Bricklet connectors is quite hard. Bricks are defined to have a size of 4x4cm, 2 board-to-board connectors at the sides and one usb connector and 2 buttons at the front. 4 Bricklet connectors are unfortunately the maximum that can be mounted on the back side.

 

A larger board without stack capability with just a USB connector and lots of Bricklet connectors would be possible.

 

A Multi Analog IN Bricklet would also be possible.

 

I doubt that we will make any of the two in the next months however. There is so much more stuff we want to release, we have to prioritize.

 

Regarding the mounting kits: Mhh, i suppose the idea is that you get everything you need to be able to place a Brick/Bricklet on a table without the board touching it. It is hard to provide anything that might be needed to mount our stuff in any possible casing or similar.

 

That said, you can probably buy 3mm screws for something like 1 cent/piece at your local hardware store. Also we intend to offer casings for all of our Bricks/Bricklets in the future, there you will of course get anything needed.

[Xenna]

A Brick with more than 4 Bricklet connectors is quite hard. Bricks are defined to have a size of 4x4cm, 2 board-to-board connectors at the sides and one usb connector and 2 buttons at the front. 4 Bricklet connectors are unfortunately the maximum that can be mounted on the back side.

 

Couldn't you fit two more on the usb connector side on the underside of the board? That would help a bit

 

I can't help thinking there would be quite a few potential customers who would just want to connect lots of bricklets to their PC (I currently have no need for motors/IMU or Chibi bricks). If that could all be done through one master that would be great. If you need an extra master per 4 bricklets, at 29 EUR a piece your solution suddenly becomes fairly expensive.

 

 

[borg]

Couldn't you fit two more on the usb connector side on the underside of the board? That would help a bit

 

They would fit there, but the connectors of the Bricklet cables would collide with the USB connector on a USB cable (about 1mm with the cables we are currently selling).

[ThomasKl]

would it be possible to stack the bricklet connectors? looking at the pictures it seems like there could be enough room above the upper connectors for an additional row of connectors. 

[batti]

This is a good idea Thomas, but I see two problems. First, our bricklet connectors need a PCB underneath, so there would be necessary a second PCB which have to be connected to the other in some way. I don't know a solution for this. And secondly, our microcontroller has not enough pins to handle two more bricklet connectors when all other stack functionalities should be preserved.

[Cathodion]

I can't help thinking there would be quite a few potential customers who would just want to connect lots of bricklets to their PC (I currently have no need for motors/IMU or Chibi bricks). If that could all be done through one master that would be great. If you need an extra master per 4 bricklets, at 29 EUR a piece your solution suddenly becomes fairly expensive.

 

I think in the current early phase of TinkerForge the main focus should be on developing new functionality (like rfid bricklets and PoE brick extentions), rather then optimizing already developed functionality. Much like the TinkerForge crew is currently doing.

 

30 or 40 euro's a piece for a brick is really no problem in the current phase. Once the development costs have been covered the price will likely go down, making more large scale deployments feasable from a costs perspective.