Paint Flow Control Project 4 - It's still alive ...

That's Me.

Thomas Nguyen of VividInc (VividInc) and a representative from UEI, Universal Electronics Corporation, (http://www.uei.com/) expressed an interest in reviving the Paint Flow Control Project. UEI had some clout in pushing the controller project forward, hoping to sell the controllers to some of their clients in Asia. I had suggested to Thomas that we might be able to use a Digi International BL2600 Single Board Computer for the Paint Flow Controller instead of manufacturing my board design. See the BL2600 info at http://www.digi.com/products/wireless-wired-embedded-solutions/single-board-computers/bl2600.  The UEI representative liked the idea and if we used the BL2600, we wouldn't have to be in the manufacturing business to build the controller boards. However, I had a caveat on my suggestion that it may not be possible to protect binary code from being pirated from a BL2600 board whereas the binary code on the Microchip dsPIC33FJ chip can be protected as the binary code is stored and run from on-chip flash memory whereas the code on the BL2600 is stored in an EEPROM which can be pirated. Furthermore, Microchip provides a means for disallowing the code to be copied from the dsPIC33FJ chip. And of course my controller with the Microchip dsPIC33FJ256GP710A chip was "My Baby" that I had put my heart and soul into designing and developing, so to speak. Info on the Microchip dsPIC33FJ chip is at http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en546064. My pre-prototype is shown below.

Paint Flow Control Board with Microchip dsPIC33FJ Microcontroller Chip.

I had used Z-World (now Digi Incorporated) microcontrollers and their Dynamic C compiler on previous Paint Flow Control projects for K&H Finishing and Enclosures Engineering for which I had previously blogged. In addition I was using a Digi BL2600 microcomputer board for the ill-fated SilkScreen Project for which I also had previously blogged and really liked as the BL2600 as it has adequate analog input and output capability, was speedy and worked quite well, programmed with the powerful and easily usable Dynamic C compiler. See the BL2600 board below.

Digi International BL2600 Single Board Computer.

After doing some more checking on code protection for the BL2600, I am recommending to Thomas that we go ahead with manufacturing of my board with its Microchip dsPIC33FJ... chip and have begun getting quotes on manufacture of the board and also board loading or assembly of the board. I got quotes from OshPark (https://oshpark.com/), Small Batch Assembly (http://www.smallbatchassembly.com/) and SFCircuits (http://www.sfcircuits.com/) and hope that UEI and VividInc will fund the project so we can go ahead with the manufacturing.

So it sounds promising with and we will see how it plays out.