Sid A.; January 8th, 2021
I am pleased to announce not one, but two major updates for FutureScape. The first involves a new service we are offering and the second involves FutureScape’s very first products.
Announcement 1: Sparkfun A’ La Carte
SparkFun, a company that specializes in creating small development boards for hobbyists, as well as other things, has recently launched a service called A’ La Carte or ALC for short (this is the site for the service). This service allows users to pick various “blocks” in order to form a fully completed custom board. The major advantage to this approach is that it makes custom board development accessible for a large number of users. However, there are also a few significant disadvantages. Firstly, by trying to make the service accessible for a large audience, Sparkfun has inadvertently removed many of the major benefits to making your own PCB in the first place! A’ La Carte does not allow for a custom board shape, customized connector placements and is also relatively inflexible when it comes to component choices (the user is limited to a select few options that Sparkfun provides). The second primary disadvantage is the cost of the A’ La Carte service. The base engineering fee is nearly $1000 USD. Therefore, in order to compete with this service, I am announcing FutureScape’s new A’ La Carte “Matching” service. If you have a design picked out on A’ La Carte, send a screenshot to FutureScape at [email protected]. We will make the same design for 25% of the quoted cost, with whatever extra custom components and mechanical requirements you have.
Announcement 2: New Products!
In addition to our new service, I am also pleased to announce that FutureScape is launching two new products! The first is a Bluetooth development board in the form factor of the Adafruit Feather. This dev. board has a Laird module (P/N: 453-00005, Datasheet ) on it that contains a Nordic chipset. It can be powered by USB, 5V, or by 3V3, and has 28 pins broken out, in addition to a programming header. The cost for this board is only $15, and FutureScape can even customize the onboard components and layout for you if you want any specific functionality, free of charge (for orders of 10 or more)! The second product is even more exciting. I recently completed the design for an “artificial neuron”. This small board contains four op-amps that solve a series of differential equations called the “Hindmarsh-Rose” equations. These equations model the membrane potential of a firing neuron, and allow the user to encode an analog voltage input as a series of neuronal spikes. The practical applications are somewhat limited due to the size and voltage requirements, but for small experimental setups, this board could be very useful. This device is also part of a new product series that FutureScape is working on, called the “Biomimetic Kit”. Look forward to more products in this series, including an artificial muscle driver, digital-signal-processor based artificial-neuron, and a power-module and controller to help enhance the current artificial neuron design. If you have any idea for the kit, want to contribute, or want FutureScape to add something, reach out to me at [email protected].