Maximino was my first attempt at making an Arduino style computer based on the Maximite Basic Computer on a PIC32 chip by Geoff Graham. The design was successful the first time I soldered it together which was a miracle because it kind of a complicated board layout. Then I added the SD card and VGA/Keyboard plug-in shields and that's where I screwed up. THe SD card had some backward connections and the keyboard connector was laid out backward.
I jumpered the SD card to get it to work and then found the SD card would reset the Maximino when plugged in. Turned out it just needed a large power filter cap but that was another change I needed to make. I also had start up issues intermittently on the board which was caused by the Vcap capacitor for the PIC32. It apparently needs a low ESR cap which is only available in surface mount. I designed it as a leaded design so it could be a kit so that SMD cap added another hurdle.
Geoff then released the Color Maximite and he added (with heavy suggestion from me on the Back Shed forum) Arduino connections to the Maximite design. At that point I decided to set the Maximino aside and learn more about the new Color Maximite design.
I may in the future redo this board based on the Color Maximite but for now I'm just putting this up here for anyone to view.
I jumpered the SD card to get it to work and then found the SD card would reset the Maximino when plugged in. Turned out it just needed a large power filter cap but that was another change I needed to make. I also had start up issues intermittently on the board which was caused by the Vcap capacitor for the PIC32. It apparently needs a low ESR cap which is only available in surface mount. I designed it as a leaded design so it could be a kit so that SMD cap added another hurdle.
Geoff then released the Color Maximite and he added (with heavy suggestion from me on the Back Shed forum) Arduino connections to the Maximite design. At that point I decided to set the Maximino aside and learn more about the new Color Maximite design.
I may in the future redo this board based on the Color Maximite but for now I'm just putting this up here for anyone to view.
Maximino, Demo-Shield on an expansion shield.
