[sdiy] Tiny boards anyone ?

[Eric Brombaugh]

jbv wrote:

> Has anyone checked / used the DSP boards sold by
> http://www.tinyboards.com ?

Interesting - hadn't seen them before.

> I haven't had a closed look at it (yet) but at first glance it seems
> that these boards
> are somewhat cheaper than products such as AD EZ-Kits Lite, even their
> development
> boards... Furthermore they seem to be compatible with Visual-DSP+...

Yes - you can pick up the basic hardware for a bit less than ADI wants. 
The modular way they approach it is nice too.

> Only their extension boards look pricey, but I guess nothing prevents
> from breadboarding
> your own thing and hook it to one of their "core modules"... At least
> you can choose the
> circuitry you want to work with, and are not stuck with the codec that
> AD offers on their
> EZ-Kits...

Noted - 220 euro for an audio I/O board is a bit steep.

The main downside to doing any DIY with Blackfin processors is that the 
other development tools are pretty pricey: Download cables, compilers, etc.

Unless you're doing a project that absolutely requires the features 
found in the Blackfin products, you can get in on the ground floor of 
DSP for a lot less using other manufacturers processors. Microchip's 
dsPIC has pretty low barriers to entry (free development software, cheap 
programming cables, DIP packages, etc).

> Of course, the main question remains : does it make any sense for a
> hobbyist to start a
> DSP development project, with all the cheap DSP gear already available
> on the market...

Why not? Learning how to do it yourself, developing your own ideas your 
way, etc. There's infinite justification for DIY if you *want* to do it.

OTOH, if you just want a particular function and don't care how you get 
it, it's always cheaper to just buy something off-the-shelf.

Eric