Pockit Modular computing demo [video]
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Thanks @Aissen. Didn't know whether the project's unfinished state was worthy of it, but happy to see this appear on my favorite minimalistic website : - )
Here is the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1Ui-y8ajJ0&list=UU49EYw900L..., which also provides a bit of the background. And the project website has more of the story + demos.
I'll answer the existing comments, and welcome any new questions, whether deeply technical or completely casual. (After all, the project's goal lies at the intersection of these two!)
The limited space for blocks seems like a potential drawback though. Is there a hard limit on the number of modules that you can fit on a single PI? I can't imagine you could just slap on 5 HDMI output blocks on a single board.
About "limits":
As u/moistbar also pointed out, the number of pins of the Broadcom CPU, and of the STM32 microcontroller, would provide a constraint. If more positions was important, I could easily have put a bunch of IO-expanders or multiplexers.
However, the board was designed with compactness as a priority -- "pocket"-sized and all that -- so as to be portable and flexibly deployable.
The solution for "space" is quite fun: You can chain multiple Pockit boards side by side, through the same style of Bridge-connector that allows expansion to the Display Block in the linked video here.
With this, a huge (but not unlimited) workspace is possible. Frankly, aside from the most spatially demanding application I've tested (a synth/looper setup), I've never needed more than 3 chained together.
> 5 HDMI output blocks I didn't see the need for something like this. There are obviously compromises in every design, and I suppose this is one of them, if you think it's actually valuable. Though an HDMI splitter block would technically solve this issue too.
It's beautifully executed and, as a finished consumer product, completely useless. Hell of a thing to have in your portfolio when you're looking for jobs, though!
How do you even get your hands on/produce such a weirdly sized trackpad?!
The trackpad is one of my favorite recent Blocks. It's a great instance of circuit scalability. I use standard projected-capacitive-touch with a sensing IC that reads a rectangular grid of electrodes -- but they are all printed on the PCB, thus adding no significant cost whether small or big, sparse or dense.
The difficult part was two things:
- optimizing SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) at the sensing stage of the code
- and converting the input data to actual action-coordinates (relative) that are submitted as emulated-input to the OS.
Software filtering helped with the former. For the latter, I started with and customized an algorithm documented in an a manufacturer's application-note document (I think it was Microchip or Azoteq).
I hope you keep at it and we'll be able to get our hands on one some day. It's so ridiculously cool!
Currently I'm waiting on a ClockworkPi devterm as my new laptop replacement.
I'd love to replace my phone with a pockit, with a small physical keyboard module, and replace my laptop with a megapockit with a huge backplane and a big modular keyboard.
The possbilities! Thanks again for making something so cool and inspirational!
Look at that... the human mind is phenomenal.
We're not all ultra-skilled, detail-oriented electrical engineers. So why does every person have to go through (a tiring rite of passage of) wiring, soldering, debugging, coding from scratch -- instead of using the same creative mind and effort to come up with ideas, and actually play with their implementation?
I'm not primarily a developer, but it's easy to see how much the software world mushroomed through DRY, modularity, etc. In some ways, Pockit is an effort to do the same for electronics prototyping.
I have a lingering suspicion though that the cross connector pads, despite looking identical, serve their own specialized functions and cannot be freely mixed. I.e. it would be highly challenging to have all the pads accept USB or HDMI.
The current PCB routing is done such that about 90% of blocks can be interfaced at almost/all positions. (I'll make a more formal statement later after verifying this number.)
This was in fact a foundational aspect of the design -- "How can the classic breadboard be made (a lot) more powerful at the cost of as little flexibility as possible?"
But I like the concept. I understand that the pads are indexed with magnet locks? What happens if a user crams a component in incorrect orientation anyway?
Good point. I stand corrected.
> orientation
Two features ensure (and encourage) the block placement at the correct orientation.
- layout of the 4 magnets' polarities at each position (and complementary layout on each Block).
- plastic protrusions within the casing (with mating features on each Block).
Just an interesting note: The latter also serve to provide a bi-axial constraint on a Block after attachment, to prevent easy detachment. Together with the (neodymium) magnets, they create a very strong hold, important for Blocks like the Soil moisture sensor demo'ed in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwnpbNNyzdQ&list=UU49EYw900L...
Note: Obviously, this too won't solve the issue of hardware universal-standards; nothing ever will. People just have the tendency to never get along. We are all great at being OK-enough with each other though.
"Mass produced" -- no mass-production plans yet, however... will be ordering and assembling at least a small-batch of boards for early-testers/adopters. Stay tuned through the website if you want to get on the list, depending on your use-case and experimental willingness.
Two, I can see kits of these (piles of mobos and peripherals) being super handy for hackathons, robotics clubs, field work, etc. Especially if you had something like the Automation Hat - an interface to some high power transistors and relays.
But keeping Pockit's cost down is important in order for the concept to gain a wide community of passionate builders, so just know that I've been and am keeping affordability in mind, starting with even the design choices.