Hi.

Well, I have managed to squeeze out a few more tuner kits from stock, taking it up to order 177. To fulfill current orders I need to source 140 more modules, which I will be taking yet ANOTHER stab at on monday.

However, it seems to me that it is now time to start producing the long-discussed expansion board for the tuner kit. I have several ideas on the design of the thing, but I thought it might be a good idea to throw the proposed design into the arena for debate.

Firstly, there is the issue of physical form. The original idea was to allow space inside the tuner box to place another PCB on the stack, saving some space over having another box. This is still (I think) possible, but it limits the product in two ways: there is very limited space, and it's only of use to people with tuners!

My current favoured approach is in fact to use another case (probably identical to the tuner box) and a splitter cable to allow either or both tuner and expansion box to be fitted. This would allow people to use the expansion without the tuner, and also to fit more in.

As to the innards of the thing, what would you guys like? Here are some options that could in theory be supplied:

Multiple-axis accelerometers
Multiple-axis gyro
One or more thermocouple amplifiers for temperature measurement
One or more digital inputs at automotive levels
One or more power drive 12V outputs
Possibly a couple of extra (slowish) serial ports
TTL digital I/O
Analog inputs, either 0-5V or 0-15V
Speech synthesis output
Limited voice recognition, using an external processor (One of the main limitations is background noise, of course)

There are undoubtedly many other things that could go in, but one has to be sensible and recognise there is a limited amount of space and control bandwidth available, and the really advanced stuff tends to be only available in very small surface mount parts.

Any thoughts?

pca