Dr. David Cofer over at NeuroRoboticTech has posted an update on the Jetduino Interface Board project for the NVIDIA Jetson TK1 Development Kit.
Jetduino Project Update
You may remember for a previous JetsonHacks article, Jetduino Jetson TK1 Interface Board, that the first prototype boards had been ordered for the Jetduino. Well, the boards have come in! The article, Jetduino V0.1 Test Results, discusses populating the first board using a home grown reflow soldering technique to attach the SMD parts. The Jetduino is a large board, so this posed special challenges which are interesting to read about.
After the SMD parts were soldered on the board, the thru-hole parts were mounted, and the initial board was ready to test. For the most part, testing went as planned. Several different Grove and RobotGeek modules were tested with the board, as well as the GPIO, serial and SPI lines.
Not surprisingly, there were a couple of issues. One of the issues is the I2C interface when using 5V. I2C can be a little persnickety in the best of times, so it’s not surprising that there’s an issue like this the first time through. Another issue was the DynamixShield area of the board, which the article discusses.
Power testing led to some brainstorming on how to make the board more useful in a wider variety of applications, one solution being mentioned is to add a separate power distribution circuit.
There are several other niceties discussed as future improvements for the board. Go check it out!