arduino.cc is broken…

Posted at 9:43 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by RazorConcepts

really nice project … if your willing to toss allot of code in to making something this is a nice way to do it :3

Posted at 10:56 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by BiOzZ(c)

Shouldn’t it be the sexideciquadripede?

Posted at 11:58 am on Nov 8th, 2009 by Steve Shockley

why would her use Microhips mcp23017 (other that to get free chips as samples, cos its really HARD do buy them in small numbers) instead of more popular PCF8575C?

damn I feel old, I remember doing similar thing for my C64 with 8255

Posted at 1:29 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by rasz

@rasz: The mcp23027 is available at mouser for $1.14 single quantity with parts in stock.

Posted at 2:48 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by matt

http://www.findchips.com/avail?part=mcp23017

Looks widely available to me.

Advantages of the mcp over the pcf:
Voltage range is wider, max i2c clock speed faster, configurable interrupt source and pins, configurable pull-up, available in DIP, and price is lower.

Posted at 3:23 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by jproach

Ok my bad. They are available if you are willing to order one IC for $1 and pay $5 for postage.

I was thinking “in a brick and mortar shop” … or in Europe. Yes, we still have those.
I love Microchip when it comes to samples and occasional PIC 16, but trying to buy something else from them is a mayor PITA.

Crap, we have a big Electronics market in Warsaw, probably biggest in Europe.
http://www.wolumen.com.pl/index.php?page=infogielda&sh=0
http://maps.google.pl/maps/mm?client=opera&q=20.93889,52.285816&oe=utf-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&ll=52.285422,20.939051&spn=0.006386,0.013078&t=h&z=17

Thats 200 Electronics shops (tents :P) one next to the other big. Thats like a mini version of Shenzhen electronic market (size of one SEG floor). You wont find anything from Microchip other than PICs there.

Posted at 3:45 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by rasz

Yeah the heart of this project is just how cool the MCP23017 is. Cheap, gives you 16 I/O that are as capable as normal uC I/O. The Centipede Shield is just a handy way to get four of them on a small board. It seems so useful, but I couldn’t think of any project that needed 64 I/O, so I had the idea for the contest.

Posted at 5:43 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by macegr

Ok my bad. They are available if you are willing to order one IC for $1 and pay $5 for postage.

I was thinking “in a brick and mortar shop” … or in Europe. Yes, we still have those.
I love Microchip when it comes to samples and occasional PIC 16, but trying to buy something else from them is a mayor PITA.

Crap, we have a big Electronics market in Warsaw (open air + surrounding shops), probably biggest in Europe.
http://maps.google.pl/maps/mm?client=opera&q=20.93889,52.285816&oe=utf-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&ll=52.285609,20.938721&spn=0.001596,0.00327&z=19

Thats 200 Electronics shops one next to the other big. Thats like a mini version of Shenzhen electronic market (size of one SEG floor). You wont find anything from Microchip other than PICs there.

Posted at 6:30 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by rasz

i find this interesting, i’m too experienced with the code involved, so if i ever need that many i/o’s i’ll buy an arduino mega

call me primitive but its alot simpler

Posted at 11:37 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Borgar

Oops, im mean “NOT too experienced”

Posted at 11:39 pm on Nov 8th, 2009 by Borgar

im sure there is a lib for it to simplify usage. You wont have to bitbang i2c or anything like that :)

Posted at 12:46 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by rasz

It would be more interesting to use the I2C and a breakout to have massive amounts of analogue inputs for sensor arrays. They mention a muxxer that does this in the comments.

64 analogue inputs would be nice for temperature array monitoring.

Posted at 2:33 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by mj

@rasz
“Ok my bad. They are available if you are willing to order one IC for $1 and pay $5 for postage.”

like there is other option for any other component. If you have electronic parts supplier locally you extremely lucky. For most US there is only RatShack and they already add extra 5 for any part :(

Posted at 3:11 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by therian

I can be biased as I can always jump into subway and have 200 shops to chose from in 10 minutes, but Microchip being a pain when it comes to availability is not something I imagined in my head :). For example Dave from EEVblog said few times that its the same (or worse) in Australia where they cant even get bulk orders in reasonable time. If Microchip ignores bulk clients something is very wrong.

Posted at 3:29 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by rasz

@mj:

If you need to monitor a lot of temperatures you might want to look at the Maxim-Dallas 1-wire remote temp sensors like the DS1822-PAR. You can multi-drop them on just two wires. They’re kind of expensive compared to a handful of thermistors or insert-your-favorite-temp-sense-diode-junction-here, but they’re factory calibrated and easy to wire.

Posted at 8:40 am on Nov 9th, 2009 by chango

I know this is not the right place for this but I figured someone might know what i’m on about here. I am wondering about an easy way to get alpha channels on modern serial controlled pll cb’s such as the BU2630F E-2 without reprogramming the eprom. What would be needed to make a parallel breakout board that I could wire to the 3 pll lines da ce cl so I could pull high or low the 10khz pin like the old pll02a mods?

Posted at 12:48 pm on Nov 9th, 2009 by shitehawk

@shitehawk
No f’ing idea what you said. :)
-Taylor

Posted at 1:16 pm on Nov 9th, 2009 by taylor

“which allows the Arduino (or any other microcontroller with I2C) to add 64 digital I/O pins”

Not likely, this “shield” has the stupid Arduino gap that won’t fit anything that has standard 0.1″ spacing.

Posted at 11:08 pm on Nov 9th, 2009 by Drone