Ideas, helping M5Stack document stuff...

Rop

Dear people at M5Stack,

First of all: thank you for making cool things....

But ehm... why don't we start using (for instance) the wiki at your Github repository to document them a little more? I realise you have a bunch of really busy engineers making products and not all speaking english, but if you really have no time to document, please just dump code, schematics, PCB designs, 3D CAD or whatever else and we'll help making it look pretty and tell people how it works in ways that they can understand. This helps us build stuff and having stuff documented well makes more people buy more product. Win/win, right?

The alternative is that we start reverse-engineering your made-for-prototyping hardware. Which is doable, but a silly waste of time. Where are you located, and what are your documents written in? And are there volunteers here on the forum that speak Mandarin/Cantonese?

My personal off-the-top-of-my-head wishlist...

The schematics and any other documentation regarding the FACES keyboards and the plate underneath, so we can figure out if we can detect its presence and if/how we can trigger from software the reset-button double-click power off state that also turns off the keyboard. (If that is not triggerable from software, it probably should be in the next version.)
Any internal data you have on battery charging (capacities, time needed, USB power modes supported, etc etc) for all three batteries (the small bottom plate that comes with the unit, the battery stackable unit and the FACES bottom.
The thing with button A and wifi: which units does it affect, is the fix with the analogRead the best way, can one use speaker, button A and wifi at the same time without the squealing sound? Does it affect the newer units?

But I am sure there is much more people can think about.

This is, in my mind, the coolest tinkering hardware currently out there. I'd like to see it get critical mass and have a rapidly expanding ecosystem of stackable boards, software libraries etc, etc. This cannot all be done by a small group inside one company. You will have your own ideas of where you are taking this, and you have the benefit of seeing what actually sells in the market, but I think you would do even better if you also to talk to the rest of the world more.

Somewhat unrelated, but now that I'm talking to you anyway: here's some random ideas from myself or others in this community:

The proto board and the other boards should have the pins on the other side of the connector accessible. ( maybe like http://forum.m5stack.com/topic/95/custom-prototype-board )
In future versions of the stackable boards, more pins need to be solder-jumper options: too many pin conflicts already.
Maybe sell a cheap OEM laserdiode barcode reader in a stackable module, looking out at the top of the screen, so with the FACES bottom it can be a handheld inventory device etc etc. (Or even a small camera, to be used as a camera or for QR and other 2D barcodes?)

gadjet

@rop I agree, I was disappointed to NOT find a good set of reference documentation for this, very nice, piece of harsware, it makes working with it so much more difficult especially for people like me who aren't experts in programming.

ajb2k3

You do know that the core schematics are available?
http://www.m5stack.com/download/M5-Core-Schematic(20171206).pdf

Rop

@ajb2k3 Yes, but I am (among other things) specifically looking for schematics and documentation to the FACES keyboards and bottom plate.

mkellner

@ajb2k3 We need schematics for the modules too, please. I'd like to see it for the PLC module.

ajb2k3

@mkellner 在 Ideas, helping M5Stack document stuff... 中说：

@ajb2k3 We need schematics for the modules too, please. I'd like to see it for the PLC module.

I would like to see if for the PSramCam but I have only seen the proto schamtic

Kabron

Almost total documentation absence is of course a most deepest shame for M5 team.
Now, receiving M5BALA, I try to compensate somehow this frustration.
Here are schematic and inner pictures of the subject.
https://yadi.sk/i/zVWDBtc4cuNTYQ
https://yadi.sk/i/fBWXI_yBZRKNNA
https://yadi.sk/i/VaLjgC-To-Nzkw
https://yadi.sk/d/u1rtEiRjL0w6MQ

Hope, other members join to initiative

PlayTheGame

I abandoned this platform for commercial prototypes because of lack of documentation. But at least there are now hints for more info in a new repository.
https://github.com/m5stack/M5-Schematic

Kabron

@playthegame 在 Ideas, helping M5Stack document stuff... 中说：

I abandoned this platform for commercial prototypes because of lack of documentation. But at least there are now hints for more info in a new repository.
https://github.com/m5stack/M5-Schematic

I took a glance. Monstrous Poverty

LastCaress

I have to agree. I love m5stack, but it seems they should work a little harder at supporting the excellent hardware things they have.

PlayTheGame

There is also this very weird behavior, that http://forum.m5stack.com is giving a timeout error from my IP address in the last week after I posted something here for 3 times. Well certainly coincidence, most certainly.
After renewing my dynamic IP this forum loads immediately.

ajb2k3

@playthegame
It happens every so often so I'm guessing that the forum is on an IPv4 server.

PlayTheGame

@ajb2k3
The forum is hosted by Alisoft (Alibaba group) in Hangzhou behind the great firewall. So something might trigger the behavior (keywords) intentional or not. The main site is hosted in Singapore and not affected.

m5-docs

@kabron Sorry, i am adding schematics for m5stack products.

m5-docs

To everyone:

Please pay more attention to github and docs.

https://github.com/m5stack

https://m5stack.github.io/m5-docs/#/en/product_documents

ajb2k3

@playthegame 在 Ideas, helping M5Stack document stuff... 中说：

@ajb2k3
The forum is hosted by Alisoft (Alibaba group) in Hangzhou behind the great firewall. So something might trigger the behavior (keywords) intentional or not. The main site is hosted in Singapore and not affected.

Ahh, The Great Firewall of China, I had forgotten about that.