Hello everyone, Wondering what is the best way or shield to hook up tons of servos for robotics use on the Udoo. I saw this on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/171254426166?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT and was intrigued. Is this board compatible with Udoo? Is there a way to attach more than 16 servos? and for the pre-order people when are they expected to receive their boards if they buy today (end of Nov)? Thanks
Yes, that motor shield is compatible with the Arduino 101 on the UDOO X86. Motor shields use a voltage input and transistors to boost the current of the Arduino I/O pins. The shield you linked to goes a step further and uses I2C as the communication method, meaning you do not need to set aside an I/O pin from the Arduino for each motor, and instead just send a command over I2C (a two pin connection). Looking at the specification on that eBay page, you can set the shield's I2C slave address and use up to 62 shields for 992 outputs! Adafruit also offer a non-shield version that uses the I2C two-wire connection - https://www.adafruit.com/product/815
You don't happen to know, or know where to direct me, to find out shipping time tables on the UDOO x86? Like for example if I buy now, when I would expect to receive the board?
A new revision of the board is being tested this week, after which there will be an update sent to backers/pre-order customers. I will forward the update to you. Best wishes with your robotics project. Sounds like it will be very interesting and challenging!
Excellent Thanks! I was going to get the Latte Panda and their poor customer service made me search for better options. Now I'm thoroughly convinced that the UDOO product line is not only better but the customer service and support is better to. Glad to be with you all. Thanks for your help Max
There's no shipping time tables at the moment @Avadon77. Anyway, we are going to release an update shortly with more news on Kickstarter.
I guess I'm like everyone else, itching to get our hands on this new gem. So glad this is coming on the market. I think this board fills a niche that so many other boards have missed out on. I bet it will be hugely successful even after the pre-release. I stepped away from The beagleboard X-15 and Latte Panda and many others because they didn't have what this product line and company can deliver.
I'm very happy to read these comments! What to say: I agree on the point that UDOO X86 is something different Of course it's not the only one x86 board for makers on the market, but there are special features that other boards lack IMHO: other x86 boards (at least those that I've seen) don't offer full Linux and are not compatible with all Linux distros existing for PC; Arduino 101; but mainly, point number 1. Also, I'd like to inform you all that, speaking of the update, shortly doesn't mean today (and now I promise I'll stop going off topic)
It definitely is and that's why UDOO interests me. I'm no expert in SBC development but I can give an insight as a newb hunter for various SBC's. So this might perhaps give you an outsiders non-experts opinion on his search for trying to find good Single Board Computers for physical computing and robotics. So if I say anything naive or incorrect it is just the appearance seen from the lamen. Perhaps insight into how the beginner see's this universe, if you will. I have an Nvidia Tx1 so I've played with the high end SBC's but I always wanted a much smaller form factor SBC and although I know the Nvidia Tx1 chip can be removed from the carrier board and be put on other boards I actually wanted a second board altoghether. The Tx1 is also fairly complex just to get simple things done so it is, to me, at least more of research board then it is a plug things in and go right away, type of board. I've looked at many boards over the last 2 years, Adruino, Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, Intel Gallileo, Udroid, Hummingboard, Dragon and so, so many more. And there are a lot of decent boards in that lineup. However, I never terribly liked the fact that the Adruiono/Beagles were more like devices that you slave to your desktop and push code to rather than become more like stand alone computers. So I tended to like things that had HDMI, USB 3.0, micro usb, Gigabit Lan, LCD or capacitive touch screen connectivity, SSD, Linux/Window10 capability, etc. This drove me to desire the Beagleboard X15 which I waited on forever (see rant below on that board). The reason I include the rant is because I think it's relevant to something that could have been a success but failed where Udoo will greatly succeed. The Udoo brings (imo) the new paradigm where developers will bring beagle/adruino add-on's capacity to the high end SBC market that has all the bells and whistles we all want. Your cake and eat it too, so-to-speak. I think you're going to see that this creates a revolution where all other board manufacturers are going to have to either push for direct add on compatibility to stack either Adruino or Beaglebone (or both) on board. And those who don't are not going to own this niche.
My Beagleboard X-15 youtube rant response for anyone interested in reading.. I followed the development of this board... took em' forever for them to create it.. forever for them to deploy it and now that it's finally ready to buy there's only one place to get it and even worse there are other far better boards on the market imo.. i.e Udoo, latte panda, even to some degree raspberry pi3 beaglebone, etc due to the ability to add capes/shields. This was a total failure to launch scenario. This is probably still a decent board, but had it been delivered on time they could have sold tons of them in the US and UK marketplace. As of right now you can only get this board from one place out of the UK and it's $240+ Shipping from Europe. Well BEYOND what they mention the price point in this video. And this is the problem with a lot of the SBC market, poor deployment and failure to meet realistic deadlines. By the time they reach the market they can be outdated and end up falling below their competitors and that's what appears to have happened to the X-15. People like myself were waiting endlessly through the spring, then summer and finally fall of 2015 hoping for this board to arrive in a big way. It never did! The other MASSIVE thing that killed this board for all the beagle-fanboys out there was that it had all the cool bells and whistles but didn't think to include compatibility with all the Beagle capes on the market. So they basically killed the whole hacker/prototype/iot/robotics/etc market which made beaglebone so great and competitive. So instead of adding more features for powerusers who didn't mind opening their wallets further they decided to go a different direction altogether. The top nor underside of the board DOES NOT have the pinouts for capes, but instead has expansion slots for PCIe, LCD, and mSATA connections. Yawn There are tons of single board computers with most of these goodies on them. The lcd expansion module could have been on the board as well as a place for capes. Maybe instead of doing silly things like dual ethernet (cool but totally unnecessary) they should have thought about what made beaglebone great to begin with, all the expansion ability through capes. To me this is and has been demonstrated to be a failure as a board, which seems obvious when you search the market for this board. It's very difficult to find. It was easier to get my Nvidia Tx1 which was $600 and lightyears ahead of this board. Search Adruino and you can buy it everywhere and anywhere. The X-15 you have to go to one distributor and one distributor alone and hopefully they have it in stock and can ship it and pay a fortune in international shipping and hope it's not destroyed along the way. This should not be that much of a specialty product! Therefore I'd rate this board a solid "D" grade. If you're just looking for a solid SBC (single board computer) with limited expansion potential then I'd look elsewhere to more powerful SBC boards. But who is doing that. Everyone is looking for more complete, more bells and whistles, more versatile, and more powerful SBC's WITH the ability to run every shield/cape under the sun. Latte Panda and Udoo have figured this out putting adruino compatibility right on the board. Therefore imo Udoo figured out what Beagleboard failed to realize and produce.
Thanks for sharing your point of view, @Avadon77. If you want to elaborate on these points, please open a new topic (we are off topic also due to my fault)
@Avadon77 Please click the following link for today's update on the boards progress - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/udoo/udoo-x86-the-most-powerful-maker-board-ever/posts/1754159
Sorry about the Off Topic Rant, it was just to support some of my thinking lately. Thanks for the kickstarter update
