So we're calling it the BrickShield now. Don't want to get an angry phone call from the lawyers at Lego, or even worse, some kind of cease and desist.
But it's done! I actually got the PCB back from batchPCB a while back, but have been a little too busy to post about it. Here it is, Start slobbering.
Power select jumpers on the right
You can see it has the Mindsensors NXT port I posted about earlier. This is connected to the TWI pins for "easy" communication with standard NXT devices.
Yellow wire coming from the V+ line
One of the big things I wanted was MORE OUTPUTS, so now we've got simultaneously:
-4 Amplified Digital outs (total of 4 pins on left)
-4 Amplified Motor Outs (total of 8 amplified pins on right)
-4 Servo Ports (below the NXT port)
-Digital lines 0 and 1 available for communication with PC or Radio
-Header for BlueSmirf at top
-Passthrough headers for mounting another shield on top
-Integrated V+ port for higher voltage in drivers
-5V/V+ selection for each via jumper (Servos, Digitals, Motors)
-Optional ICSP pass through for powering additional boards with the 5V line
-Offset header slot on the digital side to allow use with standard perf-board
-Extra 5V an 0V lines by the analog inputs for easy sensor powering
Anybody recognize the LED board on the right?
Below you can see what it looks like with the Libelium Xbee Shield (which I use frequently for RC Projects). If you so choose, you can forget the communication shield on top and just control the Arduino and Brickshield straight from your PC using Arduino Animator.
So I'll be sending these off to a couple of distributors to see if they're interested in selling them. Probably will start with Sparkfun, Makershed or Mindsensors and see if they are interested.
If you'd like to see this as a product you can buy, leave a comment.
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