SparkFun Electronics Commentsurn:uuid:214d0e4e-f1b1-d287-ce26-ac5b4c9f82492024-03-19T04:55:58-06:00SparkFun Electronicsjma89 on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the Edgejma89urn:uuid:f1993181-f4f4-b2be-3fe1-79608b47e0b92018-06-04T12:03:59-06:00<p>From what I've read it was actually due to a mistake/gerber file error in their first large batch of boards.<p><a href="http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=23971.0" rel="nofollow">See post 4 on this Arduino Forum thread</a></p><p><a href="https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/940/arduino-pin-spacing/941#941" rel="nofollow">Also reference from the Electronics StackExchange</a></p></p>
dksmall on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the Edgedksmallurn:uuid:6df6497a-26d6-af53-373e-73859da400d12018-06-04T11:19:58-06:00<p>Seems they could have used an offset that was still on a .1" grid, instead of .05".</p>
Customer #134773 on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the EdgeCustomer #134773urn:uuid:652f2722-6ae4-f95d-2a81-f46a3bed53172018-06-03T11:35:00-06:00<p>The reason for that offset is to (help) prevent non-techy types from plugging "shields" in backwards. The Arduino was originally aimed at folks, especially artists, who had zero knowledge about electronics, but wanted to use "programability" in their creations. The "user community" for Arduinos has evolved dramatically from the original "target audience".</p>
Nick Poole on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the EdgeNick Pooleurn:uuid:48dcec50-1c0e-570e-613f-2d5d43dd3abc2018-06-01T13:58:27-06:00<p>I'm happy to report that the GPIO are all on 100mil centers!
Arduino made a lot of design choices that I'll never wrap my head around.<p>Also, the standoff holes are spaced at 3.75" between centers the long way and 1.25" the short way in a good old fashioned rectangle.</p></p>
Nick Poole on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the EdgeNick Pooleurn:uuid:47213756-d0df-5bf6-93ff-d4fcf855bf172018-06-01T13:52:27-06:00<p>SparkX used KiCad for a while, and this design is from that period. We really liked it, but the rest of SparkFun still has a lot of production/ordering/inspection/QA processes that are currently built around EAGLE, so we found that the hand-off from SparkX to SparkFun took longer than we would have liked and incurred a lot of errors (from converting library components and transferring layouts) so we're using EAGLE 9 currently.<p>I really like some of the new features in EAGLE 9 but restricting the use of negative coordinates for cheap licenses is frustrating in a lot of cases. KiCad is great, too. If we could get the whole company on it, we'd probably do it, but right now that would be a lot of retraining and adaptation. That's time better spent making boards.</p><p>Meanwhile, if you're a KiCad addict and you haven't been keeping up with Shawn's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCVh2SAZY4&list=PLEBQazB0HUyR24ckSZ5u05TZHV9khgA1O" rel="nofollow">Intro to KiCad</a> video series with DigiKey, you should check it out!</p></p>
sgrace on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the Edgesgraceurn:uuid:e525f3a2-51f3-7085-474f-29ddfa5bf8042018-06-01T11:27:27-06:00<p>I doubt it's a trend, but more of a new norm. When EagleCAD was purchased, the limited a lot of the features of the free version.</p>
rsp on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the Edgerspurn:uuid:84b2973b-3a6d-8ba4-0dd2-bfee05755d7c2018-06-01T11:05:50-06:00<p>Nice to see Redboard Edge was designed using KiCad; hopefully this is a new trend at Sparkfun. Thanks N.Poole!</p>
dksmall on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the Edgedksmallurn:uuid:e08fd1d5-011f-b3b0-0fa1-afcd345497bf2018-06-01T10:42:42-06:00<p>Hopefully all the GPIO pins are on a 0.1" grid. Never did understand why the original Arduino layout has 1 header row that's .05" off from the others, making it difficult to use with breadboard or to plug into a perfboard style motherboard.</p>
Customer #134773 on Friday Product Post: Livin' on the EdgeCustomer #134773urn:uuid:690b3624-2d8d-44a9-c68d-c2d5111fcbd32018-06-01T08:51:32-06:00<p>Reminder that you do need to have an Amateur Radio license to use the APRS transmitter. The <a href="http://www.arrl.org/" rel="nofollow">ARRL</a> (the national Amateur Radio club in the U.S.) has lots of resources to help you earn your license, including things like study manuals, lists of opportunities to take the exam, and links to local ARRL-affilliated radio clubs (some have license classes from time to time).<p>Most SparkFun customers should not have much trouble learning the "technical" stuff, but some of the "rules & regulations" stuff can be a bit daunting. From my experience, remember one simple principal for the "rules & regulations" questions: in an emergency, you are allowed to do what is necessary.</p></p>