Firewing Game Shield 8x8 matrix

[bitfogav]

Well here is a sneak peek of a shield ive been working on for Firewing main board

Top

FGSfront.jpg (33.18 KiB) Viewed 23538 times

Bottom

FGSback.jpg (32.56 KiB) Viewed 23538 times

3D

FGS3d.jpg (26.33 KiB) Viewed 23538 times

[brad]

Very nice Bitfogav

Will we be seeing this for sale on the firewing store sometime soon?

Any games planned for it yet?

[bitfogav]

I haven't yet got any games planned for it yet but I have a bread board of it, so I might have a go over the next few weeks of putting a simple game together also this is the first prototype run of the board ive just sent to Itead so hopefully ive checked the design enough and theres no issues but thats the fun of it all!..

I haven't been in contact with David but im sure this would make a nice board to add to the other shields and ill be more than welcome if David wanted to sell them, we will have to watch this space!

[brad]

Be sure to post photos of the final product.

As for a first game. How about connect 4? That's always fun!

[bitfogav]

I will certainly post some photos and/maybe a video of the board in action.. Connect four sounds like a good starting point, thanks Brad thats some great input

[brad]

I'm going to add that to the 32x32RGB matrix idea page!

[bitfogav]

Just checked my Tracking shipment from Itead, my boards are now in Germany (sun 9th june). in the mean time this is the bread board of the system ive been testing with.. it looks abit messy!!

firewingGameBreadBoard.jpg (76.27 KiB) Viewed 23507 times

[brad]

That's quite a full breadboard And may I say - it's nice and neat too! (as far as breadboards go...)

[bitfogav]

That's quite a full breadboard And may I say - it's nice and neat too! (as far as breadboards go...)

Thanks Brad, I find it easier to debug a circuit if the circuit is neat


Right well I have some good and bad news The boards came today (Monday 10 june) everything looks fine but the bottom layer which contains the 74595/uln2803 IC's seem tobe the wrong way around, maybe its something to watch when you place surface mount IC's on the botton of the PCB? I designed the bottom layer by looking down at the board when really I should have been looking at the board from a top view (if that makes sense?).. See the bottom picture below, your see the IC's upside down?

But ive managed to get the shield working by turning the IC's upside down (had to bend the pins abit)
well here's a video to show it working, just have to redesign the bottom layer Sorry you might find the video abit boring!?..

Front of shield

frontboard.jpg (41.42 KiB) Viewed 23501 times

Bottom of shield

bottomboard.jpg (37.79 KiB) Viewed 23501 times

[brad]

Looking good bitfogav!

Ive actually made the same mistake with double sided smd boards. All the connections were mirror image of what they shoukd have been. Ive learned a valuable lesson

Now i make sure that i select the mirror option when working in diptrace on the bottom layer.

[bitfogav]

Looking good bitfogav!

Ive actually made the same mistake with double sided smd boards. All the connections were mirror image of what they shoukd have been. Ive learned a valuable lesson

Now i make sure that i select the mirror option when working in diptrace on the bottom layer.

Yes ive just learnt my lesson too

[brad]

Any progress on your shield - all working okay?

[bitfogav]

I've completely solderd the rest of the board, buttons etc and it's all working perfectly.. So I've just spent the last few nights redesigning the bottom layer and changed some of the board and sent the Gerber files to itead for another batch.. So all being well this time next week I should have them

[bitfogav]

This might bring back some memories for Brad bouncing balls on Game Shield.. sorry for the quality, think I need a new camera..

[brad]

Certainly does bring back memories!

There's something just so cool about three coloured pixels bouncing around the place