Openvizsla

[sn00p]

Was anybody here a backer (kickstarter) on it?  I missed the opportunity, but used to check the page every so often to see what was happening (or not as the case was...).

In the past few months they've obviously started shipping units, but they decided to make their status updates private so only backers could see them.

I just wondered if anybody had any information they could share?

Cheers.

[senesazi]

Actually there isn't much information in the open about it. I can't even tell that they have any working device, much less shipping it. This is the latest piece of news I found: http://go.bloomberg.com/tech-deals/2012-08-21-after-getting-funded-some-kickstarter-projects-stall/

[wild]

last update 2013-01-30:

Hello all,
Here is the latest update if for some reason you cannot view it on Kickstarter.
"Assembly Call."
We've made great progress with this delayed near-final prototype and we wanted to share the images with you in this interim update.
They say a picture paints a thousand words..
Here is the start of the process, this is the PCB panel being stencilled with solder paste. This machine squeezes the correct amount of solder through a highly polished, laser cut metal stencil.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/paste_printing.png
After the stencilling is completed and the solder placement has been checked the board it sent over to the machine that places the components on the board.
Here are the majority of the components placed into that "pick and place" machine.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/components.png
The machine has a file with the coordinates of each component that needs to be placed onto the panel. The component is picked from the reels and then placed onto the board at incredibly high speed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUy_efV6OcE
The panel with placed parts.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/placed_parts.png
Once the placement is complete then the board is again checked and goes into the vapour phase soldering machine.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/vavour_phase_soldering.png
This machine uses condensation heating, reflow is achieved by sitting within a layer of saturated vapour that causes the solder paste to melt.
Here are the settings just before it starts the reflow process.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/soldering_display.png
Here is a video of this process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDegfybAF7M
Once the board is completed the components are visually checked (using a microscope) and then they move onto X-ray inspection.
This is the X-ray inspection of the FPGA
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/fpga_xray.jpg
This has been placed and soldered near perfectly (there will be some slight adjustments to the ground pad vias and solder paste so that we get even more uniformly reflowed solder there (but this certainly isn't a show stopper).
Here you can see a close up of the "via in pad" that is used to breakout some of the signals from the incredibly small FPGA.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/via_in_pad_xray.jpg
And here is the X-ray of the XMOS part (you can even see bond-wires onto the actual silicon inside the chip package!)
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/xmos_xray.jpg
The X-ray machine is able to check the actual solder joins on a part using 3D X-ray techniques, here is an image of the USB PHY part, you can see the part itself, copper tracks, vias and other passive components nearby. This machine is amazing and really helps with checking for any hidden physical problems related to the board.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/usb_phy_xray.jpg
Once all that is done the PTH (plated through-hole) components are added (USB connectors etc) and the units are removed from the panel.
We hope you will agree that this has been worth the wait.
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/ov2_1.png
http://openvizsla.org/production_ud/ov2_2.png
The OpenVizsla board placed on top of a Credit Card.
This board will be tested over the next few days and assuming all is well, this will move onto serial production very soon.
More updates to follow over the coming days!

In few words: I'm not sure they will be able to deliver what they promised...

[sn00p]

Many thanks Wild.  Not sure why they've decided to go into super secret mode now though.

And you're right, what a bizarre update.  Some pictures of pick and place processes but no update on the status of software or anything.

Did you back the project?

I could do with a USB analyser, I've actually been tempted in the past to hook up a PHY to a FPGA and an EZ-USB and do it myself but as with all things actually finding the time to do it is almost impossible!

[wild]

Yes, I backed the project.
At its time it seemed a good idea... now a bit less!

[sn00p]

Yes, I backed the project.
At its time it seemed a good idea... now a bit less!

If I'd have seen it at the time I'd have taken a punt for the small outlay as well.....I'm not quite sure what they've been doing over the past 2 years, lets face it the hardware is trivial and they seem to have overcomplicated it by putting in that XMOS part and all sorts of other rubbish. 

What's wrong with what every other USB analyser does?

PHY+FPGA+SDRAM+CYPRESS EZUSB chip. (And this is part of the reason I refuse to pay for a usb analyzer because the hardware is so trivial)

Clearly they never heard of KISS or they've been sipping one too many pinacoladas since funding!

Keep us updated if you finally get hold of a piece of hardware!

[sn00p]

Seems there are public updates now....basically, one of them has gone off with components/money and the other one is trying to get much simpler hardware working with what he has left!

Seems the keep it simple idea has finally come full circle.

I hope they get an open source design out fairly quickly because it really shouldn't be *that* difficult, it's something that we'd intended to do during quiet periods at work...but we've not had one of those for a couple of years!

Fingers crossed something actually comes of this.