Philip1/10/2016 14:28
I am finally getting the replacement web site ready so that I can start selling OSHChip and its programmer/debugger. This will replace the crappy single page site that I have been using up to now at www.oshchip.com . Since November 2015 I have had an email link at the bottom of that page with the following:
OSHChip and the supporting programmer/debugger interface will be going on sale around the end of November or December 2015. If you would like to receive a notification email when this occurs, please send an email to philip@OSHChip.comI've been getting emails at about 2 or 3 a week since then, until 3 days ago, when lots more started arriving, and I didn't know why. I found out that this project got listed on the home page of www.hackaday.com as a featured project, and it happened to coincide with me changing the first picture (the one that shows up with the project name) for the project to my favorite pic that has the production black version (prototypes had a green PCB) of the chip.
So this was just an excellent set of things coming together: Favorite pic, about to announce that OSHChip would be available for sale, and front page of Hackaday. As you may be aware, after I talked to several friends about the challenges of running a crowdfunding campaign, I decided to self fund this project, accepting that I wouldn't have the high visibility of a crowdfunding, but also I wouldn't have the stress. So last year (see previous logs) I designed and built OSHChip and the programmer/debugger on my own dime (a lot of dimes!), and have had 200 OSHChips and 100 programmer/debuggers sitting on my desk, waiting for a supporting web site. After a very frustrating time trying to create a site with Wordpress, I enlisted the help of https://hackaday.io/electronut who has a web site with the look and feel I wanted, and he got me setup with the less complex Jekyll approach to web sites. That's what I am working on now, and in a few days, it won't be complete, but it will be good enough (I hope) to support starting to sell my project.
Discussions
Become a Hackaday.io Member
Create an account to leave a comment. Already have an account? Log In.
Philip,
Thanks for the information. Sounds very interesting, and promising. The next iteration in my project is a few months off, but it's nice to think there's a very real possibility of having my device be bluetooth capable. :)
Are you sure? yes | no
Interesting project. What do you consider "low power?" I'm currently working on a project that sleeps @ about 2uA, and on average when awake, draws 60 uA. I've been exploring adding a bluetooth component to the mix. My design goal was a year of battery life between charges for a 2500 mAh Li-Poly cell.
Bob
Are you sure? yes | no
Hi Bob, the nRF51822 is quite impressive. From the product specification V3.1, in "system off" mode it draws 0.6 uA with wake on pin change. Add 0.6 uA for each 8KB of RAM that retains contents. Add 0.1 uA if you want the 32KHz oscillator running for timed wakeup. With CPU running at full speed of 16 MHz it draws 4 mA, average obviously depends on duty cycle. With a 32 bit ARM doing the compute, typical sensor + radio apps have very low duty cycles. I've done designs with other Nordic chips that achieve over a year of operation with just 1 CR2032, and that's 240 mAh. When the radio is transmitting at full power (+4dBm) add another 16 mA, and again, very low duty cycle for BLE, for example: on air for 3 ms 3 times a second is 1% ish, which averages that 16 mA to 160 uA. Also, the nRF51822 is fully functional from 1.8V to 3.6V, so it can ride the battery discharge curve till the battery is pretty much drained (of course the rest of the design must also be capable of this, for this spec to be useful). You might find OSHChip a good way to prototype your design and make your own measurements. :-)
Are you sure? yes | no