RBBB's are more expensive now, NOOOOOOOOOOO

Thanks for the links everyone, good information.

Slight mistake. You need this from modern device as well but it's only $0.50 if you buy 10

http://shop.moderndevice.com/products/16-mhz-resonators

Remove the crystal from dipmicro. The total cost is about $8.5

The Ardweeny looks nice for breadboarding, but the RBBB has that power supply (option) that's very handy for a lot of projects.

Yeah, it sucks that the price went up, but it's probably the government's fault: Paul's profit margins are so thin that the Labor Department probably nailed him for paying himself less than minimum wage ]:smiley:

One idea I had recently was to make a bare bones Pro Mini style board. Since 328's are in short supply at the moment and SM 168's are about £1.80, I was thinking MCU, crystal, reset button and a few caps, same footprint as Mini Pro but with ADC6 and ADC7 brought out as well. No regulator for minimum cost. Probably could be made for £5 ($8) or so I guess (more for a 328). Plausible??

So something like this but with the quad flatpack or the leadless part instead?
I got all the traces & Vcc on the top layer here, the bottom is all ground plane.

I see thousands of DIP 168 parts available at Digikey.com. Where are you that you can't get them?

No DIP 328s tho. Will have a shot at laying one of those out ... give the leadless part shot, see if can't fit in the DIP 3/10 wide footprint ...


Wow, the schematic barely changes! 1 more VCC, 1 more ground, ADC6 & ADC7... on to the layout!

OK we've heard the masses at Modern Device.

We have put prices back to almost where they were. We needed to get a little price rise to accommodate chip price rises and other cost increases for our business. (We have a new space in an art space near downtown Providence - google the Steelyard, Providence).

We were sort of shocked (and very heartened) at how much people care about the RBBB. Let me say that we're very glad to see all the Arduino clones and that they all have the copulative effect of enforcing commodity pricing. I believe this is a good thing in general for the Freeduino / Arduino community.

The recent ATmega supply-chain nonsense also has us looking at a surface mount version to keep costs down.

Happy building all,

Paul Badger
Shawn Wallace

Modern Device

Providence, RI? Can I stop in & say Hi sometime? I'm off I-495 in MA, not far away.

CrossRoads,

I thought I495 is the Long Island Express?!

Not called that in Massachussetts :slight_smile:
The highway number is used in multiple places.
If you look at the east coast, I-95 goes from Woodstock, CA thru Maine all way Florida, with I-195, 295, 395, 495, (didn't see 595 while browsing) 695, 795 repeated in different places as it goes around cities & stuff.
Looks like a quirk, am sure there is an explanation behind it.

All I know about the interstate numbering system is ones ending in odd numbers run nominally north and south and even ones run east and west. Also many state highways can have several names if they connect to other highways that then share a segment. Classic case the Golden Gate bridge is both correctly named highway 101 and highway 1.

Providence, RI? Can I stop in & say Hi sometime? I'm off I-495 in MA, not far away.

Sure we love to talk to customers and don't mind doing retail (so far anyway) - but you should call first to make sure someone will be here. We both teach and are out and about a bit.

The shop number is 401 709-2424

Paul

retrolefty:
All I know about the interstate numbering system is ones ending in odd numbers run nominally north and south and even ones run east and west. Also many state highways can have several names if they connect to other highways that then share a segment. Classic case the Golden Gate bridge is both correctly named highway 101 and highway 1.

I watched a history program about US highways. I think tens are east-west, while fives are north-south. Now I remember there's probably an I-295 in NYC. I spent some time on the Long Island. The I-495 has 55 speed limit but everybody was going at 75-85. Back where I live they do 60-65 on 55 highways.

BTW, digikey in not far from my place, only about 4 hours drive!

The 3-digit Interstates are "loop" and "branch" routes that encircle big cities (like I-465 around Indianapolis), or bypass them to interconnect inter-city freeways (like the x80 series in the SF Bay Area).

The numbers are formed by prefixing a digit to the number of the main Interstate route they connect to.

The GG bridge carries both state route 1 and US route 101.

And "route" is an important word: in many cases (especially non-freeway ones), a state/federal "route" can be just a designation for a "logical" path over a series of local highways, and even city streets. I remember being in a small town in Maine where there were no freeways, and driving down a street with a signpost the size of a medium tree showing it was designated state routes 117 North, 92 South, 84 and 77 East, and US route 52 East (I'm sure those numbers are all wrong, but you get the idea).

The 3-digit Interstates are "loop" and "branch" routes that encircle big cities (like I-465 around Indianapolis), or bypass them to interconnect inter-city freeways (like the x80 series in the SF Bay Area).

The numbers are formed by prefixing a digit to the number of the main Interstate route they connect to.

Yep, and that leading digit indicates a loop if it's an even number, or a spur if it's an odd number. The N/S/E/W designation is supposed to follow that of the "parent" interstate.

There was a bit of discussion when I565 in north Alabama opened. I65 is a N-S route, so by definition 565 is a N-S route as well. The problem is, 565 is about 20 miles long but only covers about 2 miles north to south. Very confusing, even for locals, especially for visitors. The highway department finally relented and relabeled it E-W.

-j

I really like the RBBB. I use mine all the time and I've used the schematic a bunch as the basis for my own work.

I'm not sure it makes economic sense to buy kits like the RBBB these days, unless you have special needs, as the integrated devices are now in the same range.

Lets see, the Sparkfun Pro Mini (328p based) is $10 (currently out of stock, but presumably they will restock shortly). There are a lot of clones of the Pro Mini running around, depending on how you feel about using a cloned product.

Pololu just announced a $13 32U4 based microprocessor, A-Star: Pololu - A-Star 32U4 Micro

Adafruit recently mentioned that they will be coming out with a Pro Trinket, that I think they said would be 328p based.

The Digispark Pro is currently in kickstarter, and when it hits retail, it will be in that range.

MichaelMeissner:
I'm not sure it makes economic sense to buy kits like the RBBB these days, unless you have special needs, as the integrated devices are now in the same range.

Lets see, the Sparkfun Pro Mini (328p based) is $10 (currently out of stock, but presumably they will restock shortly). There are a lot of clones of the Pro Mini running around, depending on how you feel about using a cloned product.

Pololu just announced a $13 32U4 based microprocessor, A-Star: Pololu - A-Star 32U4 Micro

Adafruit recently mentioned that they will be coming out with a Pro Trinket, that I think they said would be 328p based.

The Digispark Pro is currently in kickstarter, and when it hits retail, it will be in that range.

I get my Arduino Pro Mini clones on eBay, $20 for 5. They ship out of New York. I just made a socket for them in my designs, so if a user burns up something in it, I can just mail them a new one.

Of course, by my training, "RBBB" always refers to Right Bundle Branch Block - as it does for the first five entries in Google. :smiley: