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Short update on new hardware

A project log for SDA - The best new PDA

Do you miss those old small devices in your palm? Don't be sad, you can always build your own!

brtnstbrtnst 09/04/2018 at 22:163 Comments

I am still working on my PDA. I have some software updates, but I will make a separate video about that in the future.

The main thing is that I am finally designing new version of the hardware.

Main features of the new PDA:

It looks very similar to the previous PDA, but I mostly redesigned the hardware from scratch. Software will be mostly the same. Now I am in the phase of verifying the design and I will open-source it after I will have a working prototype.

The PCB is still work in progress,  All the SMD components are on one side, so they eventually can be placed by machine and soldered with reflow, the board will still need a bit of hand soldering and some fitting of a few THT components.


On the photo is actually only the new case with a LCD, I do not have the PCBs to go inside, yet.

Discussions

Vasilis Vorrias wrote 09/19/2018 at 07:17 point

Thanks brtnst. I am looking forward to see that. 

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Vasilis Vorrias wrote 09/17/2018 at 12:23 point

Your PDA looks grate to me. As a quay that used to use these gadgets first time when they hit the market a long time ago. Now for the last 10 years after having many smart phones I throw away everything. So yes I like the idea of building one old fashion PDA (For my personal accommodation. I do not like to buy a smartphone that someone else has the control of it, specially in servicing it). You did excellent work. Since I am a kicad user, is any possibility to have the open source schematics in Kicad (or in Eagle I can import them). When do you thing new hardware will be available?

Thanks a lot

regards

Vasilis

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brtnst wrote 09/17/2018 at 13:45 point

Hi, thanks for liking the project.

I used KiCad for board design and FreeCAD for the case. I will release all the project files after I verify that it works. Now I am waiting for PCBs. If all goes well I could have the design verified in a month or so.

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