Big News!
Here's an update that everyone should be pleased with! I certainly am. Over the past few days I've been receiving packages in the mail like crazy, due to a helpful donation I got a little while back. Today came the big important ones.
Packages
As you can imagine, there's nothing like coming home and seeing a bunch of packages lying on your desk! It's like Christmas! The two small envelopes were just resistors or something, but the big ones were much more exciting. Starting with the brown box in the front, the first thing there was the Bluetooth module. This little bad boy will let you control the Qube from a computer pretty far away! Yep, wireless 
Notice how small it is too!
Bluetooth Module
The other thing in that box was pretty cool too. Remember those double relay boards I mentioned a little while back? Well, they're here!
Double Relay
Now the exciting big box in the back. The one covered with some sort of black plastic wrapping.
Mysterious
My New Camera
I'm sure nobody expected that! Well, as it turns out, neither did I. When I opened my new Canon EF 35mm, I found something a little bit different.
Black Enclosures
The one on the far right already has a Qube in it just to do a fit test. All I have to do now is come up with some good stickers to put on top and they are ready to sell! Well, once the firmware is done of course. But the bootloader is complete, meaning that tinkerers can get a head start playing already! Here's a few close-ups for fun.
Getting Close
Closer
Last but not least, I obviously had to play with my new toy! Since I've been getting so many components for these damn relay boards, I had to put one together!
Relay Hooked Up
It doesn't do much right now, but in theory it has great potential. With one click you can switch up to 7A at 250V. What does that mean? It means you can hook up your electric door strike, your extension cord, your lamp in the living room, your lights in your bedroom. You put the wires into the big blue terminals and then with a simple click (or Bluetooth command, or website command, etc) you can switch huge loads on or off. There are two blue status lights on the relay board to indicate when a relay is activated. In the picture, they are both turned off. Here's a picture with one of them turned on.
Relay On
Well, that's it for the pictures. I will probably be making 6 more Qubes this weekend and probably all of the 40 relay boards while I'm at it.
I also have some new plans for the firmware. Since I said that you can use the Qube without a USB connection (firmware rev 2), I decided to let users upload code to the Qube to tell it how to run. There will be an "Event Designer" which basically lets you drag and drop a list of functions to occur whenever the Qube has a new event (such as an interrupt or receiving a byte from the internet). Obviously this type of firmware is quite a way away, but I already have it planned out! Can't wait!
Wire Harnesses, More PIC Chips
Yesterday morning I got two small packages in the mail. One was from Hong Kong and the other from Microchip in Thailand. The package from Microchip contained, you guessed it, my sample microchips (to cut costs). That means I have 6 more PCBs that I can possibly make, which I will probably do this weekend. The package from Hong Kong was my recent order from eBay that consisted of 100 more connectors (out of the 300 I ordered) and a real crimp tool. The crimp tool I used before used to "hug" the tabs around the wire, which was very unreliable. I made 5 wires and 3 of them fell apart, so I realized that wasn't a good idea at all. I tested out this new tool and it works like a charm! Every crimp is absolutely perfect, and it was a very well spent $50.
Wires and Crimper
The sample program at Microchip lets you get 3 items of 2 products, and then you are allowed to place 2 orders. Thinking ahead, I decided that I would get the PIC microchips for this project (obviously) and that my second Microchip product would be some PIC ethernet chips for a later ethernet board. The chips on the bottom of the picture are going to be the guts of the ethernet expansion board that I should have done within the next month or so!
More PIC Microchips
There isn't much to look at today, but the packages are finally rolling in the mail so that means that I should be getting a TON of new parts. By the end of the week, I should have 100 wire connectors, 11 working Qubes, 40 working relay boards, and design files ready to produce for IR receivers, LEDs, Analog modules, LCD modules, etc. By the end of the month, I should have about 30 working Qubes and most of the supporting parts for them!
BlueTooth Accessory, Firmware, Bootloader
Today, I had a bunch of spare time, so I decided to work on this project a bit. The first thing I did was finalize the bootloader program that I have been writing. It is a very simple interface with only two buttons and no room to mess up. The bootloader is as simple as finding the new firmware file and clicking upload.
Bootloader
The box with the number in it is the unique serial number of the Qube being programmed. Every time I load firmware onto a device, the number increments so that each person will have a unique number. This is also helpful when the computer needs to distinguish between which Qube to send information to, or which one sent a message.
As soon as that was done, I started working on the next accessory board. So far I have a completed "double relay" board, and a lot of clever ideas, but I really wanted to get started on the Bluetooth accessory. A couple datasheets later and poof, it's done.
Bluetooth Accessory
Finally, I did a bit of firmware work. I changed the default Serial speed to 38.4kB/s and finished up the module. I started working on the external interrupts and if all goes well, that module should be very easily finished by tomorrow night. Then I guess I'll start working on an LCD module or something.
Donations and Accessories
Since posting the donation link, I have received a few very generous donations. Thanks to everybody who has helped out with this project! Due to the extra income, I have had enough money to order the enclosures finally! I also ordered a ton more parts to make more Qubes in the future. I also ordered more connectors and the proper crimp tool so that I can finally make connectors.
Today, between classes, I designed the first accessory board for the Qube -- a double relay board. It's a very simple design, you take one plug from the Qube and connect it to the accessory board. Set the corresponding nodes as outputs (default) and then you just turn them on and off with the click of a button!
Double Relay
I placed the order today for enough parts to make 40 relay boards. I haven't had time to put together an accurate cost summary, but I would say the boards cost about $6.00 each, so they'll probably sell for something like $10.99 with the cord ($1.25 to make) and the overhead of soldering them together and shipping. Who knows, they may go on sale, or maybe I'll make packages
Serial Communication
One of the key features of the Qube is that it can communicate with a PC (via USB or Serial) or it can communicate with other peripherals (ethernet, bluetooth, other Qubes). The important part of the communication is done, the device is able to communicate via the TX/RX nodes!
Serial Echo
Multiple Channel PWM at 50kHz
This is just a quick post of some new information. Throughout the day I have been working slowly at getting multiple channel PWM working. I have been trying out new values for the maximum speed that it can be run at, and so far I've gone up to 150kHz with stability! The problem is, at such high speeds, the main program doesn't get as much processor time (which isn't a big deal since the main program wastes most of it's time anyway). I know this because the USB light doesn't blink as fast as it should, which will be fixed very soon. Once serial is implemented, I will see how fast I can push this system before it all falls apart! Should be fun. The picture of the day is my logic analyzer output.
50kHz Logic Analyzer
Test Software, 5 Qubes Working
Two days ago I mentioned how I had 2 working Qubes. Yesterday, I found more chips and decided to make 3 more while my roommates still aren't home so I could steal the toaster oven! Long story short, I now have 5 working Qubes!
Since then, I also did a bunch of work on the software side of things. I was sick of typing in byte streams (like 00 01 00 ... to get to bootloader mode) so I decided that a controller application was in order. In a few hours, I pumped out a decent looking app that has quick buttons for each of the functions (so far). Obviously once I add more code modules to the Qube there will be a few more boxes of options in the controller app. Until then, though, here are pictures.
Qubes Stick Together
Test Application
Also, for anybody who is willing to help out, I'm very short on money right now. Any donations will help this project escalate very quickly, otherwise, I'll have to wait about another 2 months (at least) before I can afford to ship the enclosures and buy more connectors. Right now, I have $0.43 left for this project, and I need just over $250.00 for the cases. If you would like to donate to help out, it would be very appreciated. Also, if you would like to PRE-ORDER a Qube, then you are also welcome with a donation of $70.00 USD or more. You will be the first to own a Nilok Qube before they even come out!