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Items relevant to "Micromite LCD BackPack Version 3":
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SILICON
SILIC
CHIP
www.siliconchip.com.au
Publisher/Editor
Nicholas Vinen
Technical Editor
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
Technical Staff
Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc
Bao Smith, B.Sc
Tim Blythman, B.E., B.Sc
Technical Contributor
Duraid Madina, B.Sc, M.Sc, PhD
Art Director & Production Manager
Ross Tester
Reader Services
Ann Morris
Founding Editor (retired)
Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD
Advertising Enquiries
Glyn Smith
Phone (02) 9939 3295
Mobile 0431 792 293
glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au
Regular Contributors
Dave Thompson
David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1),
PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov.
Geoff Graham
Associate Professor Graham Parslow
Ian Batty M.Ed.
Cartoonist
Brendan Akhurst
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Printing and Distribution:
Editorial Viewpoint
Jaycar Maker Hubs bring great
possibilities
We have featured Jaycar’s new Maker Hub on our
front cover this month because we’re excited about the
possibilities that it opens up for our readers.
For some time now, we’ve been aware of the popularity of 3D printers but have been reluctant to design
projects which require 3D printed parts because inevitably, some people who wanted to build those projects
would not have access to a 3D printer. We could supply 3D printed parts,
like we do laser-cut acrylic pieces, but that would require a significant investment of time and effort.
But now you can join Jaycar’s free Nerd Perks program, rock up to their
Maker Hub at Broadway and use one of their 3D printers to print just about
anything you want at quite low cost.
And if the Sydney Hub is successful, we expect that more will open up,
with at least one in every capital city – and ideally at least two or three in
Sydney and Melbourne.
That will mean that we can start using 3D printed parts in our designs,
confident that readers have a relatively easy and inexpensive way to produce them, even if they don’t have access to a 3D printer themselves. And
as they will soon have a laser cutter too, that means you can make custom
versions of our case pieces and so on (eg, in a different colour).
The Maker Hubs should also be a great way to meet with and help (or get
help from) other like-minded individuals, many of whom would also be
SILICON CHIP readers.
And as we’ve written in the introduction article (pages 27-29), we hope to
host the occasional Q&A/tutorial sessions at our local Maker Hub.
New Micromite V3 BackPack will be the standard
The various versions of the Micromite LCD BackPack have been very
popular since the first one was described by Geoff Graham in our February
2016 issue. The two main reasons for this great popularity – all around the
world – are the colour touchscreen and the ease of programming and interacting with the touchscreen that MMBasic provides.
Once we’d designed the V3 BackPack, utilising the much higher resolution 3.5-inch touchscreen module, I was quite surprised to find that we
could supply a kit for this new version for only a few dollars more than the
V2 BackPack, which is itself only slightly more expensive than the original
BackPack, despite having an onboard USB/serial converter and programming interface.
So given that you get a much nicer screen and more convenience for a
relatively modest increase in price, I’m sure the new V3 BackPack kit will
be the one to use from now on.
We will continue to supply the V1 and V2 BackPack kits with the smaller 2.8-inch screen, but I don’t see us designing many projects around them
any more.
The 3.5-inch screen is much clearer than the old one, and the BackPack
with it still fits into a UB3 Jiffy Box. The new laser-cut lid is a little bit of a
neater fit too, as it recesses inside the box itself, rather than sitting on top.
The V3 BackPack also has provision for several different onboard ‘helper’ modules and chips, most of which we can supply via our Online Shop,
which makes it an excellent platform for experimentation and building simple microcontroller-based projects.
Check out the article, starting on page 30, for more details.
Nicholas Vinen
Derby Street, Silverwater, NSW 2148.
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Silicon Chip
Australia’s electronics magazine
siliconchip.com.au
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