Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #09342
To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: "David Perry" davidperry@geocities.com
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 12:24:41 +1100
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Pertaining to the Hextile things. You should really make them hextiles and not DIP
>Who has a bread board on their final robot anyway? I designed the pinout
>of that DIP chip so you have the positive power runnnig above the chip
>and ground below the chip. The ouputs can lead straight to the inputs of
>the next neuron.
The original intent was experimentation, these aren't designed to make it
easier to build a NV net on your robot (although the DIP design would be
very good at that).
>As you can see, you can create a 4 Nv Microcore with NO JUMPERS. I'm not
>about to draw it in ASCII, but it'd be a simple task to physicaly have
>the chips oriented at angles to each other, literaly forming a physical
>loop!
But you couldn't do that with my breadboard...
>On each board, a .22uF capacitor could come soldered on (SMT or through
>hole, whatever works). The resistor (and optionaly, BOTH the resistor
>and capacitor) can have small machined sockets so you can switch out
>various values of resistors. It'd be nice to have a variable resistor,
>but the way I see it, it can always be added later.
You could use the sockets and instead of having the two inputs you could
just swap the resistor and cap around.
>For breadboarding, the chips can easily be placed in rows and groups
>that indicate loops, branches, etc. It can't be that bad! If you have a
>decent bread board with more than one row for chips, then it's even less
>of a complaint!
One of the major hassles for the DIP chips will be wiring up the power which
i really don't want to do, personally i would like some kind of mechanism to
transfer power and signal from neuron to neuron. Maybe you could have the
boards and use some kind of 3 core cable that clicks onto some headers, it
would add to the cost but would be very helpful.
>Plus, the fact that if you need a socketable DIP circuit (which is
>smaller as well), you merely cut off the portions of the hextile that
>aren't necessary for the DIP package! So simple!
I wouldn't want to cut it out in case i had to put it back in, i'd much
rather have it in a DIP socket.
>An "x" is a configuration point. There are configuration points to
>configure the Hextile for Nv and Nu opperation, and to disable the LED.
>You cut the point with an x-acto knife or something and this configures it.
I don't like the idea of cutting this and cutting that, i'd rather use
jumpers or even solder pad that can be linked and then desoldered
Don't get me wrong, i love the design, and if i wasn't developing it i'd buy
it.
Perhaps another compromise using headers and optional cables is in order.
David
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