Working with Parts List v.1.0 and AID Main Board Construction Notes with no version number, I noticed several vagueries and inconsistencies within the latter and between the two. The parts aren't all referred to by the same name used in the parts list and some parts aren't even on the parts list.

In step:
2 - 40-pin header vs. 40-pin male ribbon cable socket
3 - 40-pin DIP socket vs. 40-pin Zero-Insertion Force IC socket.

The orientation of "up" needs to be made in relation to the perf board. For chip sockets and the ribbon cable connector it would be clearer to say "Pin 1 goes in D1:1" IMO.

With the intention of finishing the converter I volunteered to make (to adapt existing AID boards to the new PIC pin assignments), I bought wire and some more solder today, at Supremetronic, for a grand total of CDN$2.88.

When I sat down to work on it I couldn't find my adjustable wire stripper. I didn't want to go back out into the rain to buy a replacement (I haven't been feeling well today, left work early), so I decided to begin assembling and soldering the AID main board. I took some photos of various parts first, which will need some cropping, etc. before being web-friendly, then beg

I went out and bought the missing parts and the PCB Mainboard is populated but it doesn't communicate over the serial port. No Hello. Power section is functioning correctly.

It needs to be debugged. Can anyone have a go at it before Sunday?

Mike

I just lost all the menus and got them back. Here is what happens. I wanted to get the old task list out of the "Project Development " section and move it to the task list area in the Forums.

First I made a note of the node page and then created a Forum topic into which I entered an href tag to link to the existing page.

Then I wanted to remove the reference to that page in the "Project Development " menu so I went to the Administer> Menus section and deleted the AID Task List menu item. After a refresh all of the menus had disappeared. Yikes!

Luckily I had recovered the disappeared menus previously when they mysteriously disappeared. I used the same technique and was able to recover all the menus and the one I was intending to delete did not return. This is crazy but it works.

With parts list in hand, I went to Supremetronic electronics shop (333 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, Canada), where I was able to find all parts for a reasonable cost of (CDN)$11.55. I already have a soldering iron and solder, but I still have to by wire. So for someone starting out with none of the tools, it would cost more.

It took me awhile to find everything and I had to ask for help with a few items. I think that if the parts list included
- product codes
- Wattage of resistors
- Voltage of capacitors
it would make it easier to locate things on the shelves, in the numerous rows and columns of little boxes of tiny parts.

This blog is a record of my experiences building and using the AID main and peripheral boards.

I have been interested in the AID project since I first learned about it nearly 3 years ago. I have been lurking on the AID mailing list ever since, but I don't have the electronics and low-level programming skills to have contributed much during early development. However, I am an Integrated Media student at OCAD as well as a UNIX sys admin, so I consider myself a well-balanced test subject, in terms of both technical and artistic interests.

The plan is to document every step, including photos, from buying the parts to building the boards to trying each of the worked solutions.

Organization for the dev kit. (directory structure etc..)

Different releases for the different supported OSs?

How to keep everything logical, but also simple enough that beginers don't get put off (.c and .hex files right in the root! bad!)

Source and Binaries for aid-related code.
Including firmware, aid library, aid test and monitor/control software
Link or Binary for the free high-tech compiler.

These are examples of things you can do with AID in an Art context.
Does this need to be in the dev-kit or just on the site?
A good start would be to document the AID launch demo projects.

List of tools and parts required for AID (in general)
Links to suppliers of these.