[simpits-tech] I really should have seen this coming...

[Gene Buckle]

Ok, so I get all hyped up about my 16 channel output board and how I'm 
going to make life easier for a bunch of people, etc, etc, etc, 
ad-nauseum.

It's Arduino based (http://www.arduino.cc if you've been living under a 
rock) and easy to use.

I was researching how to talk to an MCP23S17 in order to design a 
diode-less massive input board.

Then I find this.

http://macetech.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4&products_id=23

64 channels of I/O that fits right on top of an Arduino Duemilanove board.

$18.

You hear that sound?  It's my forehead slamming into my desk top. 
Repeatedly.

You can get an Arduino Duemilanove from eBay for about $20.  More if you 
buy one from those crazed digital crack dealers over at SparkFun 
(http://www.sparkfun.com, $29.95 + shipping).

You can stack two of those Centipede boards on to a single Arduino board, 
resulting in 128 channels of I/O (mix and match in any form) for less than 
$75.  Assembled.

I'm going to shelve work on my 16 channel board - there's no real point to 
it any longer.  I'll likely consume the boards on various random projects. 
I'm going to order a couple of those Centipede boards and update the 
firmware I wrote for the Gazoutta16 to work with it.

Note that if you also go get a Mux Shield and another Arduino board (the 
Mux Shield and Centipede both use pins 4 and 5 so you can't share them on 
a single Arduino) you can get 48 10 bit analogs going too.  Using PPJoy 
(creates virtual joystick devices) and it's accompanying SDK, you can 
pretty much do whatever you like at prices that essentially take the bar 
to entry and run it through a wire extrusion die a few hundred times. :)

g.


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