I hope DLA continues to be a part, but that's mostly for my own selfish reasons (it's just across town from me).
Offtopic - does anyone have notes / link to RJ's presentations on Sunday (Lynx - Past, present, and future, and Future of DLA)?
I was asked for a summary in PM... I'll recycle it. I might be off on a detail or two... if so, my apologies:
He didn't talk about the dumb controllers. or any unannounced products.
He did demo the conductor/slave -- it is getting VERY close to a coop. the biggest problem is with the beta testers. personal issues have prevented them from completing the testing and calling this complete. but we saw it working and all was good!!
smart string passive hubs were already announced, and there was discussion around the v2 SSCs. They have some changes that will improve the test mode, and also put more power into the strings so that they don't have as many problems in the field. the fixes must have been significant enough to justify RJ's scrapping of his v1 inventory.
the BIG news was that RJ is close to deciding to sell the Express units and USB dongle. Each are mature and solid, and they compare very well to the other options out there. RJ gathered us together to get our thoughts -- pros and cons -- to enter into his decision. he felt our opinion was very important. he showed us a sample unit. It uses surface mount technology, is it weather-proofed, it only has one 120v input (not 2), but still has 16 channels. i think he said no wireless option... except throught the DIY TX/RX, not the EX/RX.
The unit would sell for $89.99 !!!!
It would be supported by a business that is apart from the DLA community. it would have a direct support line and not use the forum. it would allow RJ to do other things, like build inventory for other DIY kits, and RJ could also put money into other investigations and riskier projects.
After discussing this for an hour the DLA members were VERY supportive and encouraged RJ to move forward.
In yet another session with DLA members we talked about how we could make the community more effective. topics like the wiki, the forum, the staff, the coop managers, and the store were all discussed. the discussions were very productive and we have things that we can do to spread the load and free RJ for more of the things we all want him to do.
so lots of "business" talk, but not no new kits beyond what you've heard about.
i left feeling very positive about the direction!!
Is RJ selling the unit with an enclosure and the power cables or is some assembly required? Is the PCB smaller than the Express? With the migration from C9s and minis to LEDs, the power requirements are reduced so it is a reasonable thing to use one 120 VAC input.
Doesn't the conductor require the EtDongle board to act as a mother board?
I think the enclosure is included, but not the cables. It will share the same heat sink, so it will have a benefit in lowering the cost of some of the parts used between the DIY and productized express (to be called Express-C)
The PCB looked roughly the same in size. it looked MUCH cleaner because there were more surface-mounted parts and fewer parts sticking up. It also had a protective glossy coating to protect it from outdoor weather.
Without the cables, the price will be lower, and it will also allow the customer to use long (or short) cords that is appropriate to their application.
The EtD is not part of the productized list (the USB dongle will be). Over time, and when products mature, it is reasonable to think other kits might become products, but the smart string and EtD kits are far from that point in time.
Yes, the conductor and slaves are daughter boards for the EtD. The case will be different, however. RJ didn't go into details for that -- but i assume that a future coop will look something like this:
Etherdongle
Etherdongle case (not used for slave or conductor)
Conductor daughter board
Conductor case
Slave daughter board
Slave case
The conductor case will need a slot to allow easy exchange of the Compact Flash memory card. (yes compact flash. it is used because of the larger bus and the higher performance that RJ requires to be doing the 16,386 channels and mp3 playback.) It will also need a hole for an audio jack.
The slave case is the same except for the audio jack. Maybe a single case will be used for slave and conductor with the requirement that we drill our own hole for the audio.
I think there are different boards for slave and conductor. Slave does not need audio parts, but both require compact flash assemblies. But maybe RJ will think that the cost of a separate board does not justify depopulating the mp3 part.
