Objective Development Forums

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-20T21:50:47+02:00

christian wrote:Yes, that's the core I meant. Except that you forgot to connect the Vcc line (power supply) from the USB connector to the rest of the circuit.

I don't know the company who sells Metaboard. Did not even know that it's available commercially.

Regarding Arduino: What makes it an interesting candidate as Arduino replacement is the connector layout and the boot loader. The boot loader allows Arduino (with a slight modification) to upload code to the board.

I decided to order the board from the chinese company for 12.50 shipped to the US. the only downside is that it will take 2 weeks to get here, but i'll definitely let you know how things go once i receive it.

thanks for helping me get started!

Statistics: Posted by jay.elle — Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:50 pm

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-20T11:01:20+02:00

Yes, that's the core I meant. Except that you forgot to connect the Vcc line (power supply) from the USB connector to the rest of the circuit.

I don't know the company who sells Metaboard. Did not even know that it's available commercially.

Regarding Arduino: What makes it an interesting candidate as Arduino replacement is the connector layout and the boot loader. The boot loader allows Arduino (with a slight modification) to upload code to the board.

Statistics: Posted by christian — Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:01 am

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-20T05:24:57+02:00

christian wrote:Regarding Metaboard: The advantage are the I/O pins and the breadboard area. It is intended to be used with a boot loader. A boot loader is a kind of built-in programmer, so you flash it via USB instead of connecting an external programmer to some pins.

On the other hand, it contains an unnecessary voltage regulator. You can omit this part, if you like. I'd recommend that you base your design on an ATMega8, ATMega88 or ATMega168, not on the ATTiny2313. The extra memory is good for adding debugging routines. 2k is rather tight. You can build the core part of Metaboard (USB connectivity) on breadboard.

Regarding 10 or 20 MHz: In most cases the 10 MHz chips work up to 16 MHz, but some people reported problems. If you have both available, I'd choose the 16 or 20 MHz type. If you have 10 MHz versions at home, just try them.

Hey Christian,

When you say core part of the metaboard, do you think this is suitable?

Here is the original circuit :

--
I might just buy this prebuilt board, but i don't know if this is a reputable company. it ships from china. http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php? ... cts_id=122

what is so special about this metaboard that allows it to be used with arduino?

Statistics: Posted by jay.elle — Fri Aug 20, 2010 5:24 am

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-19T12:38:20+02:00

Regarding Metaboard: The advantage are the I/O pins and the breadboard area. It is intended to be used with a boot loader. A boot loader is a kind of built-in programmer, so you flash it via USB instead of connecting an external programmer to some pins.

On the other hand, it contains an unnecessary voltage regulator. You can omit this part, if you like. I'd recommend that you base your design on an ATMega8, ATMega88 or ATMega168, not on the ATTiny2313. The extra memory is good for adding debugging routines. 2k is rather tight. You can build the core part of Metaboard (USB connectivity) on breadboard.

Regarding 10 or 20 MHz: In most cases the 10 MHz chips work up to 16 MHz, but some people reported problems. If you have both available, I'd choose the 16 or 20 MHz type. If you have 10 MHz versions at home, just try them.

Statistics: Posted by christian — Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:38 pm

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-19T01:22:48+02:00

does the chip have to be 20mhz? is 10mhz ok?

Statistics: Posted by jay.elle — Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:22 am

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-18T23:24:59+02:00

christian wrote:If you want something simple and educational to start with, I'd recommend

http://yveslebrac.blogspot.com/2008/10/ ... alaxy.html

instead. The circuit is very easy to build AND you can use it to learn more about electronics.

PowerSwitch is not really intended for the electronics newbie because it works with mains voltage. That can be rather dangerous. It was intended to demonstrate the driver, but there are better demonstration examples available now. See for instance the examples which ship with the driver itself.

Hey Christian,

Thanks for your reply as well as your recommendations. I've decided to go with the custom class example that ships with the driver. The only thing i have to figure out is if i want to use a metaboard or this simple circuit:

http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/index.html (the circuit is at the bottom of the page)

I think i understand mostly what i can do and get from the simple one whereas i don't know what the metaboard is used for. my guess is that it has alot of i/o pins for breadboarding as well as being able to program the device through one of the headers?

Even though i think this is worth learning on its own, how do you think this experience will translate or be relevant to "general / more common" usages of usb that i may encounter - specifically in the work field.

Appreciate your feedback and thanks for saving me a lot of time.

Statistics: Posted by jay.elle — Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:24 pm

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-18T11:19:47+02:00

If you want something simple and educational to start with, I'd recommend

http://yveslebrac.blogspot.com/2008/10/ ... alaxy.html

instead. The circuit is very easy to build AND you can use it to learn more about electronics.

PowerSwitch is not really intended for the electronics newbie because it works with mains voltage. That can be rather dangerous. It was intended to demonstrate the driver, but there are better demonstration examples available now. See for instance the examples which ship with the driver itself.

Statistics: Posted by christian — Wed Aug 18, 2010 11:19 am

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-08-17T23:03:09+02:00

christian wrote:Regarding Vista: I have not tried it, but I see no reason why it should fail.

LSPx are connections to the outside world. LSP1 and 2 are the mains connection, LSP3...10 are switched outputs.

Relays are K1...K8.

I thought the K1-8 on the top of the circuit diagrams were what was used to switch the power lines? Why are K1-8 referenced again on the bottom of the circuit? Are they 8 different relays or the same shown for a an alternate usage?

Can you explain in more detail what the LSPs are used for? I thought this circuit provided 8 switchable lines, why would you need connections to the outside world? "LSP1 & 2 being main connections? LSP3 - 10 switched outputs?"

C3 is marked as 2u2, is that supposed to be 2uF?

I would really appreciate your help, i'm new to electronics / programming if it isn't that obvious. I really want to learn USB and interfacing to my mac. Do you think this example is a little too narrow for the usage and application of general USB being that it is AVR specific or a good start?

Thanks in advance, I really look forward to building and learning all about this project if you think it will be good general tutorial on USB.

Statistics: Posted by jay.elle — Tue Aug 17, 2010 11:03 pm

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-01-07T12:09:52+02:00

Regarding Vista: I have not tried it, but I see no reason why it should fail.

LSPx are connections to the outside world. LSP1 and 2 are the mains connection, LSP3...10 are switched outputs.

Relays are K1...K8.

Statistics: Posted by christian — Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:09 pm

Re: Need help powerswitch

2010-01-01T19:09:29+02:00

Somebody please reply.

Statistics: Posted by sidz — Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:09 pm