@alberth That looks like something more beagle-boardish. Looks good, but It'll be a little too fancy for the z80 one.

Beagleboard isn't a great choice for making products. It's not the right shape (i'm assuming rectangular, or are we going 92-esque?) and it's kind of pricey. If we actually plan to sell these then we'll want to make our own board.

Maybe we could design a PCB that works for both models, then populate them differently for ARM and z80. That would save some money, but we'd need to find z80 and arm processors that are the same size :p

@alberth That looks like something more beagle-boardish. Looks good, but It'll be a little too fancy for the z80 one.

Beagleboard isn't a great choice for making products. It's not the right shape (i'm assuming rectangular, or are we going 92-esque?) and it's kind of pricey. If we actually plan to sell these then we'll want to make our own board.

Maybe we could design a PCB that works for both models, then populate them differently for ARM and z80. That would save some money, but we'd need to find z80 and arm processors that are the same size :p

This is only for the OTARM, not Z80.

BeagleBoard is a dev board. You basically do some coding/soldering/building there, and when you're done with that, you get a schematic, take any unnecessary parts off, and create a production board that will actually be used in the calc. Basically, BeagleBoard != OTARM.

Quote from: graphmastur on August 06, 2010, 07:19:22 pm

I thunk different board designs are a must.  What about like the sp with the hinged screen?

I think hinged screens might be bad, since tests may not like that. (They might want to see the screen at all times)

hinged not good.  Might be to easy to break

Wow, I haven't read the article yet, but look at this:
http://hackaday.com/2010/08/06/open-graphing-calculator-beagleboard-r/

Big thanks to DJ for setting up all the forums and sub-forums.  There are subforums for the hardware, software and progress for both the ARM and Z80 processors, along with a generic sub-forum for things like this thread.

Thank you, DJ.

As for the wikidot site, it is now open.  Access it at otcalc.wikidot.com.  Note: Development on the site is still in progress.  The discussion forums for otcalc on omnimaga are for main discussion, while this wiki is here to collectively store files, diagrams, suggestions and information pertaining to the calculator.  All wikidot pages should be editable by members, and can be discussed by clicking the "discuss" button at the bottom.  Oh, and please, don't mess with editing the pages right now, as they are not complete.  Also, the them is just a basic them I chose to work with.  It is subject to change.

Again, Thanks DJ.

Woah.
As for KOS on the z80 version, I have the final say about the license and the copyright.  I'm still deciding how to approach this.  Building the firmware for a commercial product could be legally tricky, especially seeing as I'm underage.  Never fear, OTz80 will run KnightOS.  Whether it will be open source, copyrighted, ect, is up for discussion.  I would absolutely not allow KOS to be run on it, however, if users did not have the option of installing their own firmware.  I may also make a specific version of KnightOS just for OTz80.

Additionally, there are requirements for the ACT and SAT that you guys should consider.  This calculator should not have a QWERTY keyboard, or it cannot be used in the ACT/SAT.  There are also limits on screen size.  All wireless capabilities need to be able to be completely turned off.

In my opinion, it should have a 1/8 I/O port (headphone size) because there are a lot more cables for it, and sound would be easier to implement.  It should also have a mini-usb port, and should come bundled with a male mini-usb A <-> male mini-usb A cable, a male mini-A usb <-> female usb cable, and a 1/8 <-> 1/8 male I/O cable.  We want to support our users here.

Math is the highest priority.  There will not be discussion about this if you guys are serious about this.  A calculator must do math.

I would like to pull together a team of programmers to work on KOS specifically geared towards this.

If we are designing the whole hardware, we should work with Zilog to get a custom processor for it that would be better suited towards a KOS style OS.

That's one worry I have, actually, especially that most of us are still not 18, aren't rich or need their money for studies and the like. Plus the whole risk there is. It would be cool if it worked out, though.