The screen has been bumped up to a 12.5″ 1080p panel and steps have been taken to make sure it can be driven without blobs in the graphics pipeline. This particular SOM is notable because the manufacturer freely provides the module schematics, making it easy to upgrade or replace in the future. The i.MX6 series CPU is looking a little peaky now that it’s approaching end of life, and the device has switched to a considerably more capable – but no less free – i.MX8M paired with 4 GB of DDR4 on a SODIMM-shaped System-On-Module. Since we started eagerly watching the Reform a couple years ago the hardware world has kept turning, and the Reform has improved accordingly. Lucky for us, there may be another device in the mix soon, because has just about finalized the MNT Reform. But if you want a laptop, your options are few indeed. ![]() If you’re using a desktop computer, Libre software is easily achievable, though keeping your entire software stack free of closed source binary blobs might require a little extra work. How better to work on Open Source projects than to use a Libre computing device? But that’s a hard goal to accomplish. Posted in Crowd Funding, Tool Hacks Tagged 7 segment, Crowd Funding, Crowd Supply, inventory, kit production, smt reel, SMT tape, tools Want the nitty-gritty details? Visit the GitHub repository for the project and see it all for yourself at the CAD level. After all, has a lot of experience in getting clever with board fabrication, and eagle-eyed readers may even suspect that the reset and setup buttons on the edge of the tool are created by using flex PCB segments as switches. If you looked at the photos and suspected that the big, 7-segment numeric display is done with clever PCB fabrication options (making segments by shining LEDs through PCB layers, a trick we always like to see) you’re not alone. In fact, the hassle of cutting tape segments accurately and repeatedly is a common pain point, so making the job easier has value. Sure, one can measure SMT tape with a ruler or a reference mark to yield a segment containing a fixed number of parts, but that involves a lot of handling and doesn’t scale up very well. In fact, the usefulness of this tool for creating tape segments of fixed length is perhaps not obvious to anyone who hasn’t done it by hand. The first is handy for obvious reasons, and the second is useful for things like creating kits. Why would one want to make such a task easier? Two compelling reasons for such a tool include: taking inventory of parts on partial reels or cut tape, and creating segments that contain a known number of parts. The device is powered by a CR2032 cell and and works with 8 mm wide tapes up to 2 mm in height, which says covers most 0805 or smaller sized parts, as well as things like SOT-23 transistors. That device is the BeanCounter, an upcoming small handheld unit of his own design that counts parts as quickly as one can pull tape through a slot. has an interesting idea for a new tool, one that has the simple goal of making accurate part counts of SMT reels as easy as pulling tape through a device. The integrated touchscreen is a nice bonus.Ĭontinue reading “New Part Day: Flush-mount Touchscreen For Retro PC Build” → Posted in Featured, hardware, Parts, Raspberry Pi, Slider Tagged Crowd Supply, CrowVision, Elecrow, hdmi, raspberry pi, retro, SBC, touchscreen Since I was looking for the largest display that could be flush-mounted in an enclosure without a lot of extra space around the display’s sides, it was just what I needed. But aside from that, what helps make it useful for embedding into a custom enclosure is the physical layout and design. Personally I consider a display like this to be the minimum comfortable size for using desktop type applications in a windowed environment. It’s made to interface easily with a Raspberry Pi or other SBC (single-board computer). The CrowVision 11.6″ 1366 x 768 touchscreen has an HDMI input, USB output for touch data, and accepts 12 V DC. If you’ve got a project waiting for something similar, maybe this part will provide what you need or at least turn on some new ideas. I’ll talk about the display and what’s good about it, then showcase the build for which it was the missing piece. ![]() I had an idea for a retro-inspired PC build that was just waiting for a screen like this. ![]() Preorders are being accepted on Crowd Supply. That display is the Elecrow 11.6″ CrowVision touchscreen slated for release in 2024. I recently had the opportunity to purchase an early version of a new display, and it happened to be just the thing I needed to make a project work.
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