Well, not mimishchechka?



I must say: we have opened an online store where we start selling Virturilka and a set for it. The store is based on our old Micro Microphone store, so do not be alarmed when you are not transferred to virt2real.ru but to another site. We sell by the principle “money in the morning, chairs in a month”, why - I will explain it a little later .
')

But first, some background information.

We reworked the controller layout a bit. The Wi-Fi module, which used to be on the main board, moved to a small shield (we call them mezzanines). This is done for greater versatility. And, again, not everyone needs a wifi by default. And because of the placement on the mezzanine, it immediately became possible to change the modules without touching the main controller board.

MicroSD, which in the first version was on a special adapter (it was for debugging), has finally moved to its main place on the main board.

USB has now become a full OTG (in the first version there was only a USB-host).

The main display LED (bright, three-color) was replaced with three LEDs with a slight glow, and earlier in the dark the LED actually blinded the eyes :-)

Ethernet has become "external." If earlier the main percent was responsible for the grid, now a separate small chip is responsible for it. This was done because of the acute shortage of interruptions - the network subsystem used to occupy almost all the interrupts of the probe, so they decided to make a feint with their ears. As a result, interruptions became higher than the roof, and the grid is there. On the main board they decided not to install the RJ-45 connector (they didn’t do it on the first version either), since I did not want to pay a fee. In addition, as practice has shown, the network connector on the controller board is inconvenient, since it is difficult to get close to it when the controller is inside a device - it is not always possible to plug a piece of iron, for example, into a tank so that the connector fits to the back of the case so that you could take him outside. In general, for me personally, it was sooo uncomfortable. Therefore, I proposed to make the RJ-45 remote, on a loop. There are special pins in the comb of the pins, so that the connector is placed anywhere (on the back wall of the box, on the bottom of the tank, on the back wall of the robotic arm, etc.) and connected to the pins on the comb. From the nuances - the regular LEDs of the RJ-45 connector, we do not carry out network indication in the usual sense. Those. If you plug in the cord into the connector and into the switch - the LEDs on our connector will not blink! But (when connecting the appropriate wires from the connector cable), it became possible to make a software “high-level indication of the network status” directly on these LEDs. The user's software, which is responsible for direct control of the virtual work logic (for example, control of a robotic arm), blinks an LED at its discretion. For example, the user connected to the manipulator - you can light the green LED on the connector, there is a connection to the server - light the yellow one. Etc. If someone doesn’t like our idea of ​​this, scold me, I insisted on this connection, I really lacked such a thing :-)

Changed the power connector. Instead of screw terminals (they were inconvenient in practice) they made an ordinary small connector. It became more convenient to connect.

Some rarely used pins were removed from the pin comb, and GPIO was added along with them. Also comb now with "protection from the humanities." Previously, the comb was symmetrical, the second floor could be put on incorrectly. Now it will not work out the wrong way (although if from the heart it is possible to push it with all your heart).

Modification process

Passed pretty quickly, after which began the main difficulties - the search for the plant. There were a lot of meetings, negotiations, business pianos, but in the end it turned out (though not surprisingly) that an adequate price could be obtained only when manufactured in China. On this option, and stopped. Sent to the factory all that was required of us, began to wait. Because of the small difference in the production of 10 and 100 copies of the gland, they decided to take a chance and to rivet a hundred of them at once.

Waiting a little podzatyanlos until the components are all purchased, while at the plant all came to us ... But in the end, one fine evening, we held five ready pieces of iron in our hands. Which, though, looked very beautiful, in our opinion, but did not want to start. Our main electronics engineer took a soldering iron in the mouth and climbed up. By the next morning, the first piece of hardware started up, and the others behind it. The problems turned out to be stupid - snot on rubber, up-and-down diode, etc. Total three errors.

Shoals that are the fault of the plant, of course, we remake the plant. And those shoals that are our fault perfectly corrected minor intervention crowbar soldering iron.

The remaining 95 boards from the first hundred are already fixed at the plant, they are still in China, we are expecting in a week or two.

This is all about the main controller board. Now about komplektuhi.

Camera modules and Wi-Fi modules are now also in line for production. In general, the production process itself is quite fast. But the lion's share of time is precisely waiting for the queue and waiting for the delivery of components. We expect a week after receiving the boards themselves, i.e. around the end of July.

Cameras will be more decently than before - now there will be OmniVision OV2643 sensors. Cameras based on these sensors will be "default". Those. practically any modern sensor can be connected to the virtual; we are not going to limit anyone in this regard. Pinout connector will be in the public domain, you can connect to anyone that you want :-) But in the base firmware, we do not promise firewood for everything in the world, this is someone who wants to add himself. But it is interesting for us to try out several different cameras (both unpacked, and with an objectivator and so on and so forth), so that the range of 100% supported cameras will expand (and will appear in our store).

Mezzanine with Wi-Fi is now on another chip, Marvell 88W8686. However, I already wrote about this in the past topic, but nothing has changed, so I will not describe widely. However, I will talk about the fact that this module to start. Since the Wi-Fi modules are now replaceable, we will produce mezzanines on other chips, with Enka support, with Bluetooth, etc. Of course, the owner of a Virtuerilka can also plug in a regular Wi-Fi USB whistle, but not all whistles have an antenna connector, and it’s better to take the antenna outside the case (the same tank, for example), for which we have a special extension tail in the store (but you can take the usual SMA-SMA). And the dimensions of the native module are more compact. In general, here it is more convenient for someone, I do not persuade anyone.

By the way, after all the modifications, the board is lightened and now weighs 25 grams.

On the main iron nuances everything seems to be, now the main thing

We opened sales of Virtuurka in our online store shop.virt2real.ru . Full sales, with the collection of money. But with the proviso that the delivery will be in a month and a half.



“So after all, it was already pre-order!”% Habrayuser will say%

Yes, there was already a topic about pre-orders, but then it was “virtual” pre-orders, without actually collecting money. We really needed to estimate at least approximately the demand for our piece of iron. And now we are collecting real (albeit non-cash) finance for which the hardware will be made. Of course, the collected money is hardly enough for a large circulation (here I am a pessimist), the money collected will go to the appendage to the existing ones. The result is something like a local Kickstarter. By the way, Kickstarter us back with the note "your controller is designed to connect the camcorder, ah-ah, nizhya."

We have already checked the main production processes, so we can already speak exactly about the dates. The readiness of the main circulation of the controller, camera and Wi-Fi module is the end of July. The main circulation is two thousand, but we can increase the amount if necessary.

For geek enthusiasts, we can offer devices from the first hundred - but this is just Virturilka itself, without wifi and cameras. Specify this when placing the order - and get the virtual line before anyone else.

All paid before the end of the week will receive a bonus in the form of one of the cards that are “in development”.

Tonight we begin to send the promised invites to those who pre-order earlier (in turn). A person without an invite simply cannot add a product to the cart and place an order. But we reserve the right to give the glands to whom we want out of turn (we have just a hundred backup cards).

At the end of this week we post datasheets, sizes and other information. Links, as usual, will be on Twitter and on our website. Well, in the blog at Gola, by itself (approx. Gol)

The development of our SDK is almost complete with us, and it will be ready for the circulation. Intermediate results are available on the githab . It remains to debug a bit and make a convenient integration “all in one bottle”, which we are doing now.

Chasing after

One of the main things that tastes better is the Motorshild (in Arduenian terminology) at the moment in a diluted form exists only in the brain of our apparatchik Sasha, who physically does not have it yet. But there should be no problems with this module, circuitry is simple and it is not necessary to produce it in China. So most likely this module will arrive in the store in time for the release of the main circulation.

The second main yummy is a module for connecting analog video cameras. With him, the situation is similar to Motorshild. Personally, I’m waiting for this module most of all.

The main message of the entire topic

Friends, your support at the current stage is really important to us, since the future of our entire project will be decided right now!

If you like our piece of hardware and you are ready to buy it - order now. If we do not collect the necessary part of the full amount, it will not be possible to produce anything at all, and then we will not give up the first hundred to anyone, save it for our projects.

“Give me one hundred percent!” (Approx. Gol) :-)

There should have been Jimmy's eyes, but consulted with colleagues and decided that this is already too much.

For those who are not in the subject

If you first heard about Virturilka and were inflamed by the desire to buy it - go to the online store and buy will not work. Otherwise, it would be discrimination against previously ordered. But all is not lost - you can follow this link and make a pre-order. Soon you will receive an invite to the specified email address, by which you can already make a full-fledged order.

Well, some pictures of new Virtuurki