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- Topic: Windows activationYou Reply: Please post a link to a Win10 SBC that includes a Win10 license for 100 euros. I have looked and have not found anything even close to that price. There is supposed to be a Raspberry Pi coming out with Win10 IoT for free but that is not the real/full Win10.
- You Reply: I have experienced this problem of the Arduino COM port disappearing after a while. Then yesterday it would disappear every time I tried to upload a sketch. I wondered if it was a power problem as writing FLASH memory requires more power than reading it.
I bought the power adapter from DR Robot that they suggest for the LattePanda (2A output) which comes with a flat USB cable. I suspect that the combination of tiny power wires in the USB cable and the use of the micro USB connector is causing too much voltage drop.
I followed this post from the LattePanda team: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=797 and borrowed a 5V adapter with a 2.5A output. I reused an old connector to be able to apply power at the CN2 connector. I have been able to upload a Sketch a few times now without any problems.
I think the 5V@2A adapter from DRrobot is OK but using the USB cable/connector was not the best choice for applying power to the LattePanda board. - You Reply: Writing to any sort of FLASH requires much more power than reading. On some microcontroller development boards I have used that were USB power having insufficient power to program the board is a common problem. My suspicion is that a lot of people have tried to use some cell phone charger they had in a drawer to power the Panda and the charger is not able to provide enough power and/or they are using a long USB cable with tiny power wires.
The LattePanda team posted a way to use one of the other connectors to supply 5V to the board which I think is a better solution than the micro USB connector. I bought an adapter from DR Robot when I ordered the board as I did not have an extra adapter around that would supply the needed current. I'm glad I did this as it works perfectly. I have had the LattePanda board running for 3 days now with no issues. Many USB phone charger adapters you get from EBay or Amazon are junk. If you have a voltmeter you can see what the 5V at the board drops to under load. If you have an oscilloscope you can also see how much noise your adapter is putting out under load. - Topic: Lattepanda turns offYou Reply: What is the size of the power wires in your USB cable? Most cheaper USB cables have 28AWG or smaller wires which are inadequate for more than a few hundred mill-amps. You can get better USB cables with 24AWG power wires which are better but you still need to use a very short USB cable (no more than .5 meter) for this amount of current.
Also, many of the USB charger adapters on the market today are just junk. I ordered the one for my Panda from DR Robot when I bought the Panda (I have 64GB version) and it runs for hours with no problem). I have bought other products which came with cheap USB charge adapters that were junk, they output a lot of electrical noise and outputting more than a few hundred mill-amps the output voltage dropped a lot. There was a story on the news today saying Apple suspects that 90% of the 'Apple' USB chargers sold on Amazon are fakes (and a number of these fakes have burst into flames.)
There is a post from a few days ago where the LattePanda team described an alternate way to power the board, not using the micro-USB connector. I think the micro USB connector was not a good choice for this amount of current as you run into the whole problem with people using USB adapters that are not adequate for the task. - You Reply: Never mind. I just realized that 'firmata' was a standard arduino/uc protocol. I found the project page on github.
- You Reply: Sure, feel free to share it. If you would like more information just let me know.
- You Reply: Read the instructions. After the board initializes (blue LED) you must press the power button for 1 second to turn it on. after you press the power button you will see a red LED and it will take 5-10 seconds before you see anything from HDMI port which can seem odd, i.e. you re not sure if it is powering on or not.
- You Reply: I think first you have to ask what problem does the Latte Panda server, or what market segment does it fit into. IMHO, it is an embedded PC which is destined to do things that embedded PCs do. It is NOT a desktop PC with I7 power, or a mail server, or something you are going to use with multiple Ethernet ports, gigbit Ethernet, etc. You are not going to fit umpteen Ethernet of USB3 connectors on this form factor. There are micro-itx boards that are more 'PC' like that do these things already.
Having the Ardunio co-processor onboard is very unique. In the embedded realm it allows for the easy implementation of things like operator front panel controls, process I/O, etc. This is a real strength IMHO and should be leveraged, provide lots of examples.
One big improvement, that has already been mentioned is to be able to use remotely mounted power/reset switches. I find myself accidently hitting the switches a lot when trying to plug cables in.
I have had my Panda running a CNC mill with Mach 4 already and will next experiment with using the Arduino I/O from within a Mach 4 plug-in. It is a great sized board for embedded applications like this, or a kiosk, etc.
I would also suggest that developer involvement on this form is essential. Don't let days go by with unanswered questions. This gives the impression that a new product, such as this, may not be long lived. Think of it like planting grass, initially it requires a lot of car and watering. After the grass matures (the LattePanda community) then less direct care is required.