Is any level of extensibility feasable?


Binky

Death's Steed
Staff member
Joined
May 28, 2003
Messages
6,997
Location
16A (TO)
I think everyone here is aware that making the P2/Myriad modular or expandable would present a plethora of design difficulties.

What I'm wondering is could a very limited amount of modularity  be included in the design?

How much effort would it be?

What additional problems would it cause?

Here's an example:

Imagine a a P2 just like the P1, except for a a set of 4 pins at the end of the battery compartment furthest from the battery contacts.

These extra pins could be electrically compatible with USB or I2C or something.

From launch, the units would be available with a big battery using the three contacts at one end of the compartment.

Given time, the hardware devs could produce a peripheral board that took up some of the space in the compartment (held in with clips, screws or whatever) and connected to the other four pins. You would also order some lower capacity batteries from the battery-making peoples.

The result would be that you could (optionally) exchange battery life for hardware functionality. There would be little or no additional case design needed (some screw holes perhaps) and the extra board could be done after the main device.

Software wise, the communication would be standard (also allows for hacking - Huzzar!)

  1. Am I wrong in saying that above is relatively simple? How so?
  2. (aimed at ED & team) is there any chance of this happening? If not, why not?
  3. Can any of you think of a simpler/more flexible way of doing this? (detachable chunks of case are not allowed)
 
Back
Top