tangint : tech : pcb : blades

ACTuation blades

	stepper (browse directory)	Controls 1 5V stepper motor.
	haptic (browse directory)	Controls 1 Immersion particle-brake haptic feedback rotor

COMMunication blades

	intracomm (browse directory)	Routes messages between child blades and a gateway blade
	gatewaycomm (browse directory)	Routes messages between a USB uplink (e.g., to a laptop, PC, or PDA) and one or multiple intracomm blades.

DISPlay blades

sled (browse directory)

Senses 5 or 10 switches; and/or drives 5 or 10 LEDs.

SENSing blades

	haptic (browse directory)	Controls 1 Immersion particle-brake haptic feedback rotor
	rfid (browse directory)	Senses 1..4 RFID antennas.
	sled (browse directory)	Senses 5 or 10 switches; and/or drives 5 or 10 LEDs.

Blades

The following information is regarding blades of version 1.0

Typical blades are 10 cm long, 2 cm wide, and 1 cm deep. However, the length and width are not restricted to 10 x 2 cm, and may be realized in sizes that are integral divisions of the two. In cases where a 2 cm width is insufficient, integer multiples (4 cm, 6 cm, etc.) is suggested. An example of a 4 cm wide blade is the stepper motor blade.

On the standard 2 cm blades are two 2x7 headers: the MainHeader and FunctionHeader. As the width of the blade increases, the number of pins also increases. For example, the 4 cm stepper blade is twice as wide as the 2 cm blades, so it has two 2 x 14 pin headers rather than two 2 x 7 pin headers.

Header Pin Numbering

MainHeader

The MainHeader is the header through which all blades receive power and communicate to other blades. The MainHeader pinouts are uniform across all v1.0 blades.

I²C

Communication between blades occurs via I²C, or "two-wire interface", ( more information). The two lines are

• SCL (Pin 1) : Clock line
• SDA (Pin 2) : Data line

DSN

The digital serial number (DSN) pin returns the unique ID for each blade. As of v1.0, the DSN line is connected to a Dallas DS2401.

RS232

• RX (Pin 4) : Receive Data
• TX (Pin 5) : Transmit Data

USB

• D+ (Pin 6)
• D- (Pin 7)

PROG

To allow for in-circuit programming, these pins are left long on the back of the blace. The programming pins are

• PROG1A (Pin 8)
• PROG1B (Pin 9)
• PROG1C (Pin 10)
• PROG2 (Pin 13)

The pins are left ambiguous to allow for their functions to be suited to needs of various microprocessors used in various blades

PWR

Power is supplied through the PWR pins. The pins used by all blades are

• VCC (Pin 11) : 5v power supply rail
• GND (Pin 12) : Ground

If the blade has power requirements greater than the standard pin can supply, it can use the additional power pin

• PWR2 (PIN 14) : Additional power

FunctionHeader

In contrast to the MainHeader, the FunctionHeader is individual to different blades to accommodate their specific functionalities. For example, an intracomm blade's FunctionHeader has connections to digital serial number lines and power switches, whereas a sled blade's FunctionHeader has connections to buttons and LEDs.