This is a reminder that there are just a bit over 3 weeks left in the
BeagleBone Cape Plug-in Board Design Contest:
http://beagleboard.org/CapeContest
Top 3 designs will win $1000, some development tools and will be put
into production and YOU'LL get a cut of the profits!
The weekly contest has been very active and you can check out this
week's trivia question at: http://beagleboard.org/CapeContest/weekly.
This week's price is a Beagle I2C/SPI Protocol Analyzer (valued at
$300) from Total Phase.
Also, I encourage you to use the comments section below the existing
entries that'll be used as feedback to the judges:
http://beagleboard.org/CapeContest/entries
Get your cape ideas/designs in now! The entries can be edited up to
the deadline if you need to improve them.
Entry is closed, and I’m looking at the entries. FPGA is a popular topic - there a 3 seperate designs based on adding an FPGA.
Me? I was hoping to see a keypad.
No, not a keyboard - a keyPAD. Like you see on a remote control, or a calculator.
With about 60 square keys, you could have a portrait or landscape layout, just by rotating the key caps.
Custom key caps, of course, being where the 3D printers could make a nice tidy profit. Color keys? Different color / font / language?
Heck - HP style labels on the leading edge of the keys?
I reckon I could design a better calculator than the TI Nspire. The Beaglebone is too chunky for a final product, but a keypad and LCD cape would make an excellent design platform.
I don’t know what kind of key switches are being used in the latest ultra-thin laptops, or I would have made up an entry myself.