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ClemensElflein / OpenMower

Let's upgrade cheap off-the-shelf robotic mowers to modern, smart RTK GPS based lawn mowing robots!
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Alternative to custom PCB #6

Closed conradkirschner closed 2 years ago

conradkirschner commented 2 years ago

Is there a possibility to remove the custom PCB and use "standard components" e.g. pi cluster ?

This would enable more people in development.

fsommer1968 commented 2 years ago

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).

conradkirschner commented 2 years ago

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 ;)

r00li commented 2 years ago

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.

ClemensElflein commented 2 years ago

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.