Posted on February 09, 2018 at 06:53 ST is to be complimented for three specific design improvements apparent in the 769disco. FIrst, it actually has a connector to the display, rather than the LCD cable being soldered directly to the board, as is typical of the 429-disco and the 746-disco. This ought to make it much easier to upgrade the system. Furthermore, ST is actually making two versions of the 769-disco - one with a display, and one without, so we don't have to buy a system with a display, and then throw the display away because we are upgrading the system to a larger brighter display to be sunlight visible. The third is that the 769disco has mounting holes, as does the 746disco, where the 429disco has none. I have wanted all of those improvements with other systems we have bought from ST through distribution. Thanks for the progress ST!
However, I also have a question or two. One, I would like to see downloadable full system source kits including the CubeMx project file, for all boards, starting with the 769disco, of course! It would make it a lot easier to adapt the system, rather than having to puzzle out what device support is required. If you have not had to do that, lucky you. ST, please make this happen soon. You should find that to be dead easy, and VERY popular.
Two, I would like to see better stability in the product mix available. We shipped multiple 746disco units that we upgraded to 7' sunlight visible LCDs, and now find that there are no more 746disco units available here, and only electronic rumors of 87 being available at Newark UK. Newark in Canada has not be able to nail down their UK options for us to date. Digikey, Arrow, and Future have no stock of the 746disco at all. However, there are nearly 1000 pieces of the 769disco available, so we are checking out the 769disco because we are forced to, not because we want to.
I am sure we can be criticized for having shipped systems with xxx-disco units, and be told that we should have built our own boards to ship. However, if what ST is doing with chips is good, what is wrong with using their boards too,
instead of only using their board designs? If what you are doing is selling, figure out how to sell more of it, and keeping stock in the distribution channels sounds like a good move. Dropping product availability significantly makes the marketplace wonder what is really happening.
If you agree or disagree with the points above, say so. If enough of us encourage ST in the right direction, they might actually go there!
Dan
#downloadable-full-source-kits #stability-of-product-mix
