What About The Expansion Ports?


timofonic

GP Mafia
Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
399
Hello.

I see there are people wanting certain functionalities like accelerometers, CIR (requested by myself), DVB-H and others. Usually adding them would require knowledge of basic electronics and opening the box.

What about adding an expansion port? I mean something in the style of SD, able to add a tiny card with the desired component without the problem or something hanging around.

Or maybe an internal connector for this. Something in the style of the miniPCI connector (but maybe smaller) could be interesting. It could have pins for UART, I2C and/or USB (for example).

Maybe the expansion ports could give the possibility of create a tiny market of addons and the system being able to be more personalized.

Regards.
 
timofonic said:
I see there are people wanting certain functionalities like accelerometers, CIR (requested by myself), DVB-H and others. Usually adding them would require knowledge of basic electronics and opening the box.

What about adding an expansion port? I mean something in the style of SD, able to add a tiny card with the desired component without the problem or something hanging around.
SDIO is a tiny expansion port. That's the point. Between that and USB you've pretty much covered all the bases you're going to cover without having to manufacturer something yourself. If you're competent enough to make an addon card small enough to fit in the empty space inside Pandora (of which there is hardly any), then soldering to the provided solder pads in not going to be an issue. If soldering to the pads is too difficult for you, then you won't be creating any miniature daughter cards.

timofonic said:
Or maybe an internal connector for this. Something in the style of the miniPCI connector (but maybe smaller) could be interesting. It could have pins for UART, I2C and/or USB (for example).

Maybe the expansion ports could give the possibility of create a tiny market of addons and the system being able to be more personalized.
There isn't even enough room for a pin header, let alone some new non-existent connector. All available serial interfaces are accessible by soldering. If you're unsure why that's good enough, see above.

I'm not sure you realize how tiny the "tiny market" is for these addons. It's not remotely worth the effort and expense of creating and producing some new type of connector so you can design and manufacture maybe a few dozen addon cards. You would have to charge at least several thousand dollars each to make it worthwhile. Add to this the fact that DVB-H, IR, and accelerometers are already available as USB dongles.
 
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timofonic said:
What about adding an expansion port? I mean something in the style of SD, able to add a tiny card with the desired component without the problem or something hanging around.
Chip has pretty much said everything already. When you have SD, USB & UART, what else do you need? You have an easy to use interface, and 2 high speed interfaces.

Stuff like DVB-H and accelerometers could easily be done over USB, CIR would probably be more than happy over UART. You have 5V and 3.3V outputs from the Pandora already.

What else is there to do?

You mention miniPCI. Well, SD is a 4-wire interface anyway that can run at 50Mhz, so that should be acceptable for that.

QUOTE
It could have pins for UART, I2C and/or USB (for example).


Which are all already available...
 
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timofonic said:
Hello.

I see there are people wanting certain functionalities like accelerometers, CIR (requested by myself), DVB-H and others. Usually adding them would require knowledge of basic electronics and opening the box.

What about adding an expansion port? I mean something in the style of SD, able to add a tiny card with the desired component without the problem or something hanging around.

Or maybe an internal connector for this. Something in the style of the miniPCI connector (but maybe smaller) could be interesting. It could have pins for UART, I2C and/or USB (for example).

Maybe the expansion ports could give the possibility of create a tiny market of addons and the system being able to be more personalized.

Regards.
Is it not a little late now to expect changes being made to the hardware?

Plus, as all have said before, the Pandora is already very adaptable when it comes to expansion. Maybe what you need is a UMPC with a wireless pad?
 
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x68000 said:
Maybe what you need is a UMPC with a wireless pad?
Wifi-controlled Gauntling Gun is enogh :)
 
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Squidge said:
timofonic said:
What about adding an expansion port? I mean something in the style of SD, able to add a tiny card with the desired component without the problem or something hanging around.
Chip has pretty much said everything already. When you have SD, USB & UART, what else do you need? You have an easy to use interface, and 2 high speed interfaces.

Stuff like DVB-H and accelerometers could easily be done over USB, CIR would probably be more than happy over UART. You have 5V and 3.3V outputs from the Pandora already.

What else is there to do?

You mention miniPCI. Well, SD is a 4-wire interface anyway that can run at 50Mhz, so that should be acceptable for that.

QUOTE
It could have pins for UART, I2C and/or USB (for example).


Which are all already available...


What about a connector like this? It's in angle so will save space.
http://www.prolex.com/images/ProductPDF/56.pdf

connectorsma0.jpg
 
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