Brain Cortex Board Design Part 49

BRAIN CORTEX BOARD DESIGN PART 49
BRAIN BOARD BEGINS GROWTH
One cortex board version is seen to the left of the 3-liter jar, with one Parallax Propeller chip. This design is assembled on one solderless breadboard from E.I.C. ® Taiwan which is ISO 9001-2008 Approved. Eight of these boards were purchased for the Brain Cortex in a Jar project, which could hold 8 chips and 64 RISC processors. Each board holds 1 chip and 8 RISC processors.

The jar holds two connected solerless breadboards, each 2 1/8" wide x 3 5/16" long x 3/8" high (including two power rails, one on each side consisting negative and positive terminal rows). It's determined that two of these boards joined together fit into the jar and can be rotated into position with a mounting on top of the power units.

Principle features of the single Cortex board include the following:

* Parallax Propeller Chip
* 32K HUB RAM
* 32K ROM
* 8 Parallel RISC Processors
* Prop Tool
* Red LED Input/Output
* Speaker
* Decoupling Capacitors
* Chip Crisscross Wiring VSS/VDD
* Solar Panel Circuit with Schottkey Diode
* BOE Brown Out Enable - Disable Circuit with Resistor
* 32K EEPROM
* Crystal for 80mHz operations
* Power Supply Quadruple Filter
* CdS Light Sensor with Resistor Capacitor

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Wire Sump Part 48

Remove the clothes pin and push the wires down into the square space known as the power sump. These strand wires have enough flexibility for installing and removing batteries.

BRAIN CORTEX WIRE SUMP PART 48
DEEP DOWN IN THE SUMP INTESTINAL SPACE OF THE BRAIN CORTEX, AT THE LOWEST DUNGEON PORTION OF THE JAR, IS SOMETHING IMPORTANT!

In this important brain assembly step, all wiring thus far is moved to within the power unit sump. The power unit sump is the empty space directly in front of each battery. It's a large square hole with three purposes, 1 ) to offer enough space to insert and remove batteries, 2) serve as a space to hold wiring, and 3) to clear the space on top of the battery holders for mounting the circuit boards. Wiring placed in this position is flexible enough when removing and installing batteries, and is moved out of the way for mounting the brain boards. Try to matte down the wiring to the jar floor.

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html

Brain Cortex Power Wiring Part 45

BRAIN CORTEX POWER WIRING PART 45
ELECTRIC JUICE  It's time to attack the brain cortex wiring and complete this phase of the project. Let's get some electric juice going! The jar is home to the brain cortex. Every home needs electrical wiring and the brain's jar is no different. The electric juice will power the brain, lighting, speaker, and sensors.

Wire each twin power unit like this

The next step is wiring the power unit. In this procedure, the battery holders are removed and the ends (+ and -) black and red wires are connected together with yellow twists. Be consistent by connecting the wires on the right sides of the twin holders.

Snap in a size D battery into each battery holder.

Insert batteries outside of the jar

Initially we're using Zinc Carbon batteries (Philips LongLife R20).

Now cut four black wires and four green wires, each 5-inches long, and strip the ends. Connect these with yellow twists to the left side wires on the battery holders. Attach a small piece of Scotch tape to insulate

Taped ends prevents shorts

one end of each wire to prevent a short during the installation.

Measure the voltage of each twin power unit. Remember, a twin power unit equals two batteries and two battery holders connected together in series to obtain 3 volts. (The voltage of new batteries not under load

Finished wiring - test shows 3.13 volts

will be slightly higher than 3 volts.)

Reinstall all battery holders, remembering their correct positions to fit into the jar holes.

Gather up all the green wires, insert one 5" length of green solid wire, and twist the ends together with the  yellow twist. Repeat for the red wires. The two lengths of solid wire will connect to the solderless breadboard. Use a plastic clothes pin to hold all the ends together. Test again for voltage. In the test, the meter shows 3.13 volts for new Zinc-Carbon D cell batteries connected together. Note: during this procedure, the Solar Panel red and black wires are left floating. These may connect later to the solderless breadboard.

The Chinese yellow wire twists are sold in Taiwan, in a package of 20 for NT$20 obtained from the dollar store. The brand is manufactured under authority of Sellery Inc. California USA, and the DIY item number is TE-18. http://www.sellerytools.com  886-2-26103915

Note: The battery holders each have a red and black connection wire. Supply a 5-inch length of wire and connect it to the lowest wire nearest to the jar floor. This enables it to reach the top where similar colored wires connect together. 

Index to the Brain Cortex
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/11/brain-cortex-index-part-16.html 

Propeller Simple Spin Board Update

PROPELLER SIMPLE SPIN BOARD UPDATE
This update includes the new v1.2 version schematic for the Propeller Simple Spin Board.

Those of you building the BOE disable circuit can now follow the added schematic detail to activate the disabling.

This schematic replaces v1.1 in the following post:
Brain Cortex Update Part 6
and here
http://humanoidolabs.blogspot.tw/2013/07/propeller-simple-spin-board-part-2.html

The additional crisscross wiring improves chip reliability. The BOE disable circuit also requires the 220 ohm resistor from VDD to RESn.

Propeller Simple Spin Board Part 1
Propeller Simple Spin Board Part 2
Propeller Simple Spin Board Part 3
Propeller Simple Spin Board Part 4 & 5
Bare Bones Propeller
Propeller Spin Brain Part 1
Propeller Spin Brain Part 2
Supertronic Spin Brain
Cherry Pie Tiny Super Computer Wannabe
How Slow Can You Go? Processing Speed

Propeller Simple Spin Board Part 4 & 5

Experiment 4: crisscross wiring

PART 4 & 5 - IMPROVING RELIABILITY
PROPELLER SIMPLE SPIN BOARD
The Propeller Simple Spin Board will be expanded more in the future. Let's make some preliminary preparations for this and improve its reliability. While in it's RC speed state with RCFAST and RCSLOW, the circuit is already reliable and durable.

Experiment 5: decoupling

 









However, at higher clock speed, overclocking, with unusual loads or demands, electrical pressures and imbalances occur internally inside the chip, which is also effected with various operational configs. These conditions are not always for the better. However, it's possible to improve the operation of these circuits with external wiring and components.

Although it's a lot of technical mumble jumble jargon to describe it, basically the Propeller needs decoupling capacitors on each side of the dip chip, as close as possible to Propeller pins VSS and VDD, and a special added "criss-cross" wiring. Propeller experts say both the connective wiring and the capacitors (use a .1 uf value) belong to the chip and help to prevent blowing out the PLL circuits inside the chip.

The wiring connects one side of the chip to the other side. Ground VSS on one side (use a green or black wire) is connected to ground VSS on the other side, and power VDD (use a red wire) on one side is connected to power VDD on the other side. Use shortest wires that run directly over the top of the chip. This circuit will balance the chip's internal circuitry and help prevent a condition that could damage the chip. With these improvements installed, the Propeller chip is ready to run extremely fast and do much more than we ever expected. Stay tuned for more.

Another possible requirement involves using the addition of 10uf and 100uf capacitors for when the Propeller is expanded with additional demands. Due to limitations of breadboard pins nearest the chip, these capacitors may or may not connect at the power rails position.