AID Command Language terms and syntax

First a very simple explanation of the command terms, followed by a very detailed description of the command syntax.

There are several ways to get set up with the AID Hardware:

I've stuffed the two new peripheral in/out cards about 90% full- I ran out of 10 k resistors, and didn't have one 40 pin connector- that should leave about 10 minutes work for someone. I've left them in a silver static bag on the AID tray. There is a MB pc too- I didn't get around to stuffing that. I am writing this at 5:30am sunday morning, I'm getting near to 24 hours without sleep, so I'm not sure if I can make it, but I'll try to at least drop by. Feel free to call me if you need help with anything.
-rob

there are new schematics uploaded to the images directory for aid_ipp and aid_opp. These correct som errors with the pinouts that we found last Sunday, and have some other, minor changes.

Got a PCB etched with the latest MB, input board and output board. I'm almost finished drilling it out, will leave themin the AID cupboard (I'll let you know when it's there.) If someone could populate them before Sunday, that would be cool. The little dots on the jumper pads worked well!

When I saw the buzzword PWM in the AID description, I thought about the servos that R/C hobbyists use for controls. I've been through a few web sites to learn about them.

They're buzzword-compatible, but it seems that they're used with about 20 milliseconds between updates.. each update is a pulse between 1 msec and 2 msec wide. It doesn't look like the on-chip PWM will go that slowly. Using them will be more like one of the worked solutions.

My part of yesterdays meeting was to stuff one of the new
printed-circuit AID controller boards, and, with about two
exceptions, it went pretty well.

Holes in the board were undersized for the 2x5 pins that
select Rx source, and for the 7805. Drilling them one size
bigger with the Dremel fixed that.

I drilled the two holes that stake down the DB-9 socket
to 1/8". This worked, but slightly smaller holes might work
better.

My innovation was to drill 1/16" holes next to the pads
for the 9v battery connector, being careful not to break
copper traces. This let me snake the connector wires up

Lot s of progress on this one. At first we got held up trying to create a single sided board with a reasonable number of jumpers from the pin assignments we had originally conceived for the AID 8 Bit Bus. Eventually we realised we would have to bend our human logic to a logic which is better suited to the electrical requirements. Stefan and Mike finally took the leap and redesigned the 8 Bit Bus for the easiest routing and the results were so sublime that we decided to post the redesign for comments. Everbody agreed it was the best way to go even though it rendered our existing main boards and peripherals plus all documentation for the point-to-point design of the main board unusable. To remedy the compatability problem we came up with a conversion mapping and Erin built a converter that adapts the old 8 Bit Bus header to the new one.

Today I did a thorough testing of the DLP USB Module on Mac OS 9 but could not get it to work on my Apple PowerBook G3 Pismo running Mac OS 9.2.2

I tried various control panel combinations and cross tested them with the Keyspan adapter and it's drivers. Keyspan works DLP does not. Will try on other hardware but not hopeful.

The DLP works great on Mac OSX, Linux, and Windows.