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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Can Anyone Please Explain these Pimoroni things PLEASE

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Rickard5

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Joined: 31/03/2022
Location: United States
Posts: 463
Posted: 01:05am 28 Jul 2024
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I Apologize in advance for the coming Word Salad, no one Ordered. But the thoughts and disbelief are coming 100 mph in Random order! I'm  such disbelief Pimoroni the Premier Raspberry Pi 3rd Party Supplier would sell such Unintelligent stuff! I'm so on the edge of spending Large $$$$ to call the UK to tell then What I think of The Quad Expander
and the Pico Omnibus
I bought 2 of each the other day and just had time today to play with them, and my issue is if you look at them, if you plug the Pico in to the slot for the pico, all the pins one the right are on the left side of the expansion slots and left side pins are on the right side of the expansion slots. so if you build or have a Hat to add, you have to add it upside down to get the pins correct and why the boards only have Male pins and not female socks confuses me more! this is Hurting my Brain so bad AM I STUPID OR SOMETHING ? I Swear from my lips to God's ears I Haven't been on Jack Danials in years, but I'm ready for a bottle or 2 tonight!




I may be Vulgar, but , while I'm poor, I'm Industrious, Honest,  and trustworthy! I Know my Place
 
Hans

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Joined: 18/10/2022
Location: Canada
Posts: 116
Posted: 02:26am 28 Jul 2024
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@Rickard;

I could not tell how they wired the other sockets by there labeling and I didn't see anything like a schematic on their web site so I would only be guessing.

I believe these boards are meant to work with their other Pimoroni boards which look to have female headers on the bottoms.

Can't say if they will work with MMBasic perhaps some other forum users have some experiences they will share.

We all have these oops moments, I have had my share too, don't beat yourself up.

Hans ...
 
Rickard5

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Joined: 31/03/2022
Location: United States
Posts: 463
Posted: 05:12am 28 Jul 2024
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@ Hans
the only Female sockets are the location for 1 Pico per board, I'm not Beating my self up but I am just God Smacked at such Bad design!
Probably the Greatest Designer Ever to live Dieter Rams Gave us Design Rules and the most important of them is "Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful." poor design is Pimoroni
I may be Vulgar, but , while I'm poor, I'm Industrious, Honest,  and trustworthy! I Know my Place
 
Quazee137

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Joined: 07/08/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 567
Posted: 06:10am 28 Jul 2024
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Most of the modules used with the pico plug into the pico.

Even the Wavehare exp boards do the same.

 Pico to Hat
 Pico dual
 Pico Quad

I use the Pico to Hat with the PHAT STACK. Earlier projects used the MM170
hat stand and PHAT STACK.

Here is two of the Pico to Hat setups






WIP is a Pico stamp to hat to replace my old MM170 when the need to be replaced.
Easier to make use of the stamp but better would be Pico Hat Stand.

Having FUN
Quazee137

side note: I could not upload jpg or png had to convert to gif
Edited 2024-07-28 16:28 by Quazee137
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6781
Posted: 06:20am 28 Jul 2024
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If you think of it, how do you fit an add-on module onto a Pico? The Pico has male pins so the modules must have female sockets.

And so...

Each board has one set of female sockets to plug a Pico with male pins into.

Each board has two or more sets of male pins to accept a normal Pico add-on module.

All the pins are in parallel with each other. It's just like stacking add-on modules onto the back of a Pico. It's exactly correct. :) There's no point in having male pins on an add-on module. A Pico couldn't plug into it.
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Quazee137

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Joined: 07/08/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 567
Posted: 07:07am 28 Jul 2024
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Mixtel90 your good at whipping out boards real quick.

How about an experimenter board using female long pin headers and an

array of pads give 2 connected pads for 1 header and 1 for hookup use.

     LOOKING AT TOP

VBUS   o-o o o o o o-o   GP0
VSYS   o-o o o o o o-o   GP1
GND    o-o o o o o o-o   GND
3EN     o-o o o o o o-o   GP3
VREF   o-o o o o o o-o   GP4
GP28   o-o o o o o o-o   GP5
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GND    o-o o o o o o-o   GND
GP17   o-o o o o o o-o   GP14
GP16   o-o o o o o o-o   GP15

could also be used on the pico for DIY use making things smaller.

Just random thoughts tonight LOL
Quazee137
Edited 2024-07-28 17:08 by Quazee137
 
Rickard5

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Joined: 31/03/2022
Location: United States
Posts: 463
Posted: 07:49am 28 Jul 2024
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@ Mick
I get what you're saying, I think the thing that got me kind of Spun up is thinking too much like Arduino Shields with Pass though Stacking Headers that are Female on top and Male Pins on Bottom! I'm now thinking of taking and just building out the design 2  Picomite VGA board what will give me 2 expansion slots, my Real Vision is a Passive  Backplane. My real goal is to have a passive backplane that I can plug a pico in a ZIF Socket and Hats  for the VGA that I can reconfigure on the fly for Picomite or BBC Micro-Sinclair-C64, and Apple 2! Another Hat that is the Keyboard/ audio / and SD Card / with room for other hats for Robotics projects Motor Controllers etc...


I may be Vulgar, but , while I'm poor, I'm Industrious, Honest,  and trustworthy! I Know my Place
 
Mixtel90

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Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6781
Posted: 08:04am 28 Jul 2024
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Or is it this? If so, I rather like it. :)



I based it on the YD-RP2040, which is slightly larger, to fit the text on.


EDIT:
I've just looked at the JLCPCB pricing.
Putting four of these to a board, with them panelised, they've estimated a price of £5.28 + shipping for five boards. That seems pretty good for 20 modules.
Edited 2024-07-28 18:33 by Mixtel90
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Mixtel90

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Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6781
Posted: 08:50am 28 Jul 2024
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@Rick
Keep an eye on the RPZ Compute Module thread. That's a bus system intended for control stuff and might be of interest for robotics, motor control etc.
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Quazee137

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Joined: 07/08/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 567
Posted: 08:51am 28 Jul 2024
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Mixtel90    I knew you would have this out faster than I could.  

 Looks GREAT now one can easily add spi, I2C and other connectors to
  the base pico back side. no need to do up a pcb for limited projects.

  Also should be stack able using the female long pin headers.


Thanks making the idea real.

Quazee137
Edited 2024-07-28 18:55 by Quazee137
 
Mixtel90

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Posted: 09:51am 28 Jul 2024
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Hokay. :)
Here's the gerbers that I got priced. They are for four units to a board.
You need to select "panel by customer", 4 columns, 1 row. I also went for a slightly thinner board.

pbgerber.zip
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Rickard5

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Joined: 31/03/2022
Location: United States
Posts: 463
Posted: 12:57pm 28 Jul 2024
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@ Mick
Wow Mick you sir are the Best I'm gonna order some after coffee :)

Albumb of the Day

Thanks for the support Mick

Rick
I may be Vulgar, but , while I'm poor, I'm Industrious, Honest,  and trustworthy! I Know my Place
 
Mixtel90

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Posts: 6781
Posted: 01:14pm 28 Jul 2024
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Excellent video. :)
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Rickard5

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Joined: 31/03/2022
Location: United States
Posts: 463
Posted: 04:07pm 28 Jul 2024
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@ Mick
One of the Greatest Birthday Gifts I ever got was the Grateful Dead played at the old Reunion Arena in Dallas, and I saw them with this Really Cute Little American Indian girl I was IN LOVE with her! 2 weeks before my 20th Birthday 1988. and when you're as ugly as me and a cute little girl like that Wants to hang around You Fall in L-O-V-E Fast
"Mountains of the Moon" and "St. Stephen" from Today's Album
I may be Vulgar, but , while I'm poor, I'm Industrious, Honest,  and trustworthy! I Know my Place
 
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