FreeCalypso update

[Mychaela Falconia]

Hello FC community,

Although our Caramel2 boards are not in the state of final assembly
yet, I do have a picture of a partially assembled C2 board which I can
share:

https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/Caramel2/c2-partially-assembled.jpeg

On this partially assembled board the Tango module and the RF plumbing
piece sit loosely (they aren't soldered like they will be in the final
assembly), and the microcoaxial end of the RF plumbing pigtail is not
connected to the Tango module like it will be in the finished product:
this particular board is intended to serve as a programming station
for "bare" Tango modules, thus it has no functional RF plumbing.

Finished Caramel2 boards will differ as follows: the SMA end of the RF
plumbing piece will be secured to the board with soldered legs, the
microcoaxial end of the same pigtail will be snapped onto the UMC
antenna connector on the bottom of the Tango module, and then that
Tango module will be mounted on the C2 board and also permanently
secured with soldered legs.  The Calypso chipset on the Tango module
lives in the 2 mm vertical space between the top surface of our C2 PCB
and the bottom surface of the Tango module PCB, and the mated
microcoaxial connection will also be contained in the same 2 mm
vertical space, permanently clamped in its proper place by the
soldered attachment of the Tango module to the carrier board.

I will be taking our current partially assembled C2 boards back to
Technotronix for final assembly next Tuesday (Nov 17), and I was told
to expect about one more week of turnaround time from that point -
thus hopefully we will get fully assembled C2 boards toward the end of
November.  Assuming that they pass all of the tests to which they will
be subjected (including RF tests on our CMU200 station in all 4 GSM
frequency bands), these boards will then be made available to the
public.  Assuming that we don't get bit by any yield issues, the prices
will be the same as announced earlier: $150 for a basic kit consisting
of a Caramel2 board, a power supply and an antenna (you have to provide
your own 2.8V or 3.3V UART adapter), or $220 for a full kit including
the above plus our DUART28 adapter and interconnecting ribbon cable.

And here are some pictures of our Luna LCD and keypad add-ons:

https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/Caramel2/lcd-board.jpeg
https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/Caramel2/keypad.jpeg

The ribbon cables that come out of the LCD board and the keypad board
connect to the 56-pin expansion interface on our Caramel2 board
(unchanged from iWOW's DSK board to which these Luna add-ons originally
connected); the LCD board also has a separate pair of wires connecting
backlight power - Caramel2 has a dedicated 2-pin header for this bl
power connection as well.  The LCD displays TI's original 176x220 pixel
color UI in its full glory when the board runs our FC Tourmaline
firmware.

In physical terms the keypad is a fully generic 5x5 matrix of rows and
columns, devoid of any logical function; the only feature of our keypad
board that assigns logical functions to buttons is my choice of PCB
silk screen labels - these "silk" labels assign logical functions to
keypad buttons, and they have been assigned to match the buttons on
TI's D-Sample handset.  The Pirelli DP-L10 also happens to have
exactly the same set of main keypad and side buttons as D-Sample, thus
our Luna keypad can also be thought of as equivalent to Pirelli's, for
anyone who prefers to view it this way.

Hasta la Victoria, Siempre,
Mychaela aka The Mother