Alternative to custom PCB
conradkirschner opened this issue · comments
Is there a possibility to remove the custom PCB and use "standard components" e.g. pi cluster ?
This would enable more people in development.
You have to integrate with the remaining parts like left drive, right drive, cut engine. I´m not aware of a pi that can direct connect :-) Therefore at some point you always need an integration component, you name it "custom PCB". I applaud the effort building the PCB because I´m sure the project owner has already invested a lot of real! money in developeing and producing the PCB. Elektronic development is never free of charge (as opposed to software development).
Would be cool to have the research material why a custom PCB was required and where it could be possibily replaced.
I defenitly see the reason to use a custom PCB, it's just for enabling more devs if this step would be optional for production use ;)
I mean these days where you can get a custom PCB made for like 5$ (a bit more for bigger ones, but still not that much) it's a no-brainer that a custom PCB will be used. I don't see why one would even want to go towards a different route. You have the gerbers and everything. Go to JLCPB or elecrow, pcbway, ... or any other cheap manufacturer, upload the gerbers and your PCBs are yours in a couple of days.
I agree, it's an obvious choice here. We need to connect hardware of some kind to interface with the robot and we need it to fit a predefined space. A custom PCB provides all that for very cheap.
I know that not everyone is willing to solder the SMD components, but that's a completely different issue. At the moment this is very much R&D so there's no way around it.