LeafLabs Garden

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1. 

   mabl
   Member

   There is a new Olimex Clone of the Maple now:
   http://www.olimex.com/dev/olimexino-stm32.html

   Posted 4 years ago #
2. 

   robodude666
   Member

   At least they linked to the LeafLabs website for the software instead of ripping it off too.

   The official Maple looks far sexier and less like a chinese clone though.

   Posted 4 years ago #
3. 

   mabl
   Member

   Guessing from the software examples I have seen from Olimex. They don't care for the software but just for hardware. So now wonder they just link to the maple... I wonder if this ships with the maple bootloader.

   Posted 4 years ago #
4. 

   snigelen
   Member

   Interesting that the Duemillanove-clone is more expensive than the Maple clone (and the PIC32).

   Posted 4 years ago #
5. 

   robodude666
   Member

   Makes me wonder what they didn't manage to cram onto that board. Wonder what they'd do with a Mega-sized or a Maple Native-sized board.

   Posted 4 years ago #
6. 

   crenn
   Moderator

   I'm actually pleasantly surprised with that board, I think they've been watching the forums for some time, the only feature missing on that board that I can see, is the option of having battery backup for the RTC and Backup Registers.

   Posted 4 years ago #
7. 

   nully
   Member

   Wow that thing isn't pretty.
   But hey, you know you are making a great product when there are clones of it.

   Kinda neat that they have a SD-MMC card slot on it though.

   Posted 4 years ago #
8. 

   poslathian
   LeafLabs

   Yea I also dig the SD slot.

   Crenn, we broke out vBat on maple mini!

   We are always pleased to see more players, especially cloners, it means we are on the right track. Plus it is great when people build on top of your stuff!

   Thankfully, we will have Maple, Maple RET6, Maple Mini, and Maple Native by the time a lot of this newer stuff starts to take traction.

   Posted 4 years ago #
9. 

   crenn
   Moderator

   I know! I recently acquired 100 button cell holders (hooray for minimum order quantities!) although I don't think I can fit it onto my Maple Mini board, but I'll see.

   Posted 4 years ago #
10. 

    ianmga
    Member

    I can't tell for sure, but is that one 2-layer?

    Posted 4 years ago #
11. 

    supermac
    Member

    I just got five boards..
    so far so good, Now I just need some CAN and sd card libraries for maple.

    Posted 4 years ago #
12. 

    ianmga
    Member

    Can you tell whether it is 2 or 4 layer? Oh heck, I should just shut up and get one.

    Posted 4 years ago #
13. 

    anton
    Member

    More clones!
    http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=50_53&products_id=472

    Posted 3 years ago #
14. 

    bubulindo
    Member

    I actually have the Olimex board and yes, it brings the Maple bootloader in it.

    I don't understand all the hate when they took the processor and bootloader/IDE from Maple, the form factor of Arduino and put some of their work in it.

    As far as I can see, they aren't quite cloning the Maple, they built on top of it, same as the people from leaflabs built on top of Arduino. There's the sd slot, the RTC crystal and the CAN interface chip. Sure, they could have made it better and integrated the battery charger with the Vbat on the STM32, but we all make mistakes and it's impossible to please everyone.

    The last post though, is a clone. Nothing has been added or changed to benefit the buyer.

    Posted 3 years ago #
15. 

    gbulmer
    Moderator

    bubulindo -

    The last post though, is a clone. Nothing has been added or changed to benefit the buyer.

    I believe you are mistaken.
    The ITead board appears not to have the LiPo charger, and claims to have automatic power selection (no jumpers).
    The buttons are in a different place too.

    Not a lot of changes, but comparable to Olimex.

    As far as I can see, they aren't quite cloning the Maple, they built on top of it, same as the people from leaflabs built on top of Arduino

    Maple is *so* different from Arduino, that I don't think it is fair to compare the work that LeafLabs put in to develop Maple with the work that Olimex put in.

    I would expect a competent engineer, experienced at using Eagle, to reroute the Maple Eagle files to the Olimex board in a week, rev it, and have it done in maybe one or two more revs in a few more weeks.
    They have a working board to compare with, measure and test because the massive bulk of the work is done.

    The Maple is a very different MCU from the Arduino's ATmega, on a completely new PCB that had to be designed tested and debugged. (I spent several days just trying to optimise which STM32F pins I would map to the Arduino header pins.)
    ALL of the libraries are new code. None of the peripherals are the same as Arduino.
    The bootloader is new.
    The tool chain uses some different parts to the Arduino, and has to be built and integrated.
    All that has to be integrated into the IDE, tested, and examples ported.
    IMHO, this is man years.

    (Full disclosure: I am not a member of LeafLabs staff.)

    Posted 3 years ago #

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