[CLOSED] DAVEga first batch (beta testing)

I’ll be ready to start shipping the first batch of DAVEga kits in a few days. I only have about 25 pieces so there probably won’t be enough for everyone, but it’s not even meant for everyone. The purpose of the first batch is to test and tweak the gadget. I’m looking for volunteers.

This is an open source project that I’m doing in my spare time. I’ll be shipping the kits for as cheap as I can without loosing money.

I would like to ship the kits to people who

  • have some background in electronics and at least basic experience with Arduino;
  • will know what they are doing when assembling the kit;
  • are ready to encounter and address issues;
  • would like to contribute to making DAVE better in any way;
  • are willing to help support other people in using the next generation of DAVE;
  • ideally have access to a 3D printer.

Dave has been reasonably well tested. The risk that you will end up with something completely unusable is low. However, there are some areas where I can see potential issues and/or need for figuring things out on your own. In particular:

  • compatibility with various VESC derivatives and various VESC FW versions;
  • spacers between the display PCB and the DAVE PCB;
  • fitting DAVE into an enclosure;
  • accessing buttons;
  • routing cable out of the enclosure;
  • making the harness for connecting to VESC and for updating the FW.

Enclosures are currently being designed by @mmaner and @lrdesigns, but are not finished yet and thus obviously haven’t been tested by anyone. The PCB design may not be ideal wrt the enclosure and we may need to work around issues in the first generation. These issues will then hopefully be fixed for the next generation.

If there are any FW problems, I’ll do my best to address them ASAP.

The kit will include the following:

  • PCB
  • ATMEGA 328P-PU with bootloader and pre-programmed DAVE FW
  • USB-UART adapter
  • crystal, capacitors, resistor, diode
  • 3x button
  • 5 pin right angle female header for connecting the UART adapter
  • 2x 5 pin female header for connecting the display (not in the picture)
  • JST connectors for the PCB and the VESC

DSC01656

You will also need:

  • ILI9225 2.0" TFT LCD Display, SPI, 176x220 pixels (can be found on AliExpress or similar for ~$5)
  • 4 or 5 conductor cable of custom length

The JST connectors contain pre-crimped wires, which is handy if you don’t have crimping pliers. To connect to VESC, you’ll need to remove the wires from the 4-pin JST and plug them into the 8-pin JST housing.

IMG_1509

I will ask $9 / €8 shipped (world wide) for one kit. I’m located in Brno, Czech Republic. I’ll ship untracked with the Czech Post. The $9 includes a $1 of “insurance” that I’ll use to re-ship in case any packages are lost. (Still cheaper than shipping tracked.) The experience so far is that the delivery time is 3-4 days to Europe and 1-2 weeks to the rest of the world.

My time for dealing with the orders is limited, so I need to make it simple for myself. I can ship

  • one kit for $9 / €8, or
  • two kits for $15 / €13.50.

No more flexibility. I’m sorry if this is inconvenient. Please don’t order two unless you’re ordering for someone else. For the small/cheap parts, I’ll include some spares, no worries.

To order, please PM me your address. I’ll assume one kit unless specified otherwise. Please send the correspondent amount to my PayPal account [email protected]. I’ll aim to ship the first kits on Wednesday. After that, I should be able to ship every next morning after receiving the order.

If you prefer to wait for the package before you send the money, that’s fine, but please do friends and family on PayPal so that no fees are deducted. I’m doing my best to keep this cheap and don’t want to waste money on transfers. I accept both USD and EUR. Please do NOT convert to CZK.

Please don’t PM me with questions unless absolutely necessary. Ask any questions related purchasing the kit in this thread. Ask any questions related to DAVE in the DAVE thread. Thanks!

I’m looking forward to people having their own DAVEs. Some exciting developments on the enclosure are already in progress and there has been a bunch of great ideas in the DAVE thread. I’m sure we’ll make it a great gadget together!

Useful links:

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Great work. I’ll wait until you can ship assembled kit :slightly_smiling_face:

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Kinda wanna get one but gonna leave the beta testing to people that understand electronics better. Im sure these will go insanly fast. :+1:

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Got two displays today :sweat_smile: But unfortunately i‘m not experienced with arduino yet, so I probably also will wait till the beta tests are finished.

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I’m gonna wait for the updated version, but I can help with designing the enclosure if anyone needs help. I also have a 3d printer to test designs on.

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Will beta test through the bits Ben has ordered.

Just want to say again, making this as open as you have and not trying to turn a huge profit from the community is pretty noble. It’s appreciated and I’m sure this project is going to see loads of awesome offshoots and usage in the years to come. Thanks again for this.

Edit: Obviously it’s been successful because of the name and not your hard work, but take a little credit of course.

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Ah hell I already ordered the display and all, but I’m pretty lazy. I’ll wait for batch #2.

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Annoyed with myself for being impatient any getting all the bits now :persevere:

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Update about PayPal: I accept both USD and EUR. No need to convert to CZK. Please do friends and family, so that we don’t waste money on transfers. If you prefer to wait for the package before you send the money that’s fine. I could accept Transferwise or direct bank transfers as well, but I prefer not to simply because it would make it more difficult for me to keep track.

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Thanks @Janpom, what you do and how you do it is what it does this community different. I just want a odometer to hide it inside the enclosure, maybe, in the future!!! :heart_eyes:

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Dave lite (aka DAVIEga :)) is on my TODO list. I already have some ideas. I just now have full time job and two kids to take care of, so my time for this is limited. It will take a while, but we’ll get there.

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I received $9 (or $8.35 after fees) from someone named Klaus Noelp with a message that he’s new on the forum. If you read this, could you please PM me or email me at [email protected]. Thanks.

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@Mich21050 You messaged me that you would prefer to do a bank transfer. We can do it if necessary, but I would prefer PayPal to make things easier. I’m trying to understand the reasons why PayPal doesn’t work for some and if there’s something I could do about it. Could you please explain what the trouble is? Thanks.

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Yeah no problem. My paypal Account has been hacked and someone bought something for 600€ :frowning:

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Ugh, that sucks. I’m sorry. I will PM you and we’ll figure something out.

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I keep receiving some payments in CZK and it turns out that costs some 20% on fees (most of that on the sender side). I’ll tweak my PayPal account settings later on today. Please don’t send me any money until then.

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  • no arduino background
  • got issues enough on my own
  • no 3d printer
  • i suck i guess i will have to wait for another batch
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I may need some crowd wisdom here to correct me, but from what I understand so far, to avoid PayPal fees (which are pretty ridiculous), the following is necessary:

  • do not convert the currency
  • do the transaction as “friends & family”

Here’s how I believe it should be done:

  • select “Send & Request”
  • send payment to: [email protected]
  • you send: 9 USD
  • recipient gets: 9 USD
  • set “Sending to a friend”

… or if you’re doing EUR then

  • you send: 8 EUR
  • recipient gets: 8 EUR

I hope that EUR and USD covers 90% of people. If you have neither EUR, nor USD, you can either do the currency conversion and pay the fees or we can do Transferwise.

Note: Given the amounts to be paid, I find it completely unnecessary to use the buyer protection and pay extra. If anyone is uncomfortable doing “friends & family” as an advance payment, feel free to send the payment only after you have received your package.

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Sigh I’m getting itchy. Any more spots left?

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@deucesdown Yes, there are. I should be able to ship 11 kits tomorrow. Then I’m out of buttons though and they don’t have them here so I’ll need to wait for the package from China, which I expect any day now. More kits to hopefully go out next week.

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