Reply to post: Physically fit for purpose ?

Physically fit for purpose ?

I have a few concerns about the physical design of the device.

As I think someone else mentioned, the large exposed 3V and GND pads at the bottom will be prone to being shorted, especially as they give the kids croc clips.

If the device happens to be plugged into the PC at the time, you can say goodbye to the 3.3V reg or the reverse protection diode (if there is one).

I'm not sure what the tiny pads between the large pads do, they seem to imply that they are signal lines e.g. other GPIO.

But the croc clips will invariably short those lines next to the 3V and GND pads to either 3V or GND and I suspect its all too easy to short 3V and GND together either by accident or on purpose.

Also, they are using a micro USB connector, which appears to only be attached via solder pads

These types of connectors are quite flimsy, as they can't take a much stress via the USB cable and its very easy to snap them off the board. Which is probably why if you look at an Arduino, its got a massive USB connector which is soldered through the board.

I think they'd have been better off building an Arduino shield with other hardware e.g. LED's buttons, BLE and accelerometer etc

I wonder how much the cost of production is. The cheapest micro controller boards I can get at the moment are the Arduino mini's at about $2 and they only have the processor + crystal etc.

So these things are going to be costing several pounds to manufacture, and they are giving a million of them away ?? (we can all do the maths)