Rascal 2 prototype: first look

| Brandon Stafford

There's been radio silence over here at Rascal Micro headquarters for the last few months because of three all-consuming projects:

  1. The new design for the Rascal 2.

  2. A radiation monitoring system for a lab at the University of Texas.

  3. My wife and I have a rather young daughter. It is amazing how having a kid plays havoc with your existence. Yes, I would do it again.

Anyway, due to said havoc, I'll get to the point. The first revision of the Rascal 2 is done. Unfortunately, I accidentally rotated two of the connectors by 180 degrees, so when the system is plugged together, the power supply is shorted.

The picture above just shows one Rascal 2 PCB with the Rascal 2 brain (a Beaglebone Black loaded with the Rascal software) plugged underneath. There is still another PCB, yet to be designed, that will live under the brain and provide the Arduino headers familiar from the original Rascal.

I have a list of fixes and improvements for the Rascal, but the new PCB may take a while because of the radiation monitoring project I'm working on for the University of Texas (basically, setting a radiation sensor up with a modified Rascal, GPS, and wifi connection) I'd say more, but it's all secret for now. Also, I'm biking home to take the kid to the pool now. Zoom!