Looking for a housing?

This week has been extremely busy and I definitely need a day of rest and spend some quality time with my family after all those long nights. Quite a lot of things are coming together:

• As you can see I have collected quite a few different housing styles over the last couple of weeks. This will be helpful in designing the package. The top photo shows the top and bottom of each of the housing types.
  To give you an idea of what the size of the boards is in comparison, take a look at this photo:
  
  
  
  The first prototype board is on the left, the new PCB design is on the right (in paper form).
  
  
• The new PCB design went out today for manufacturing. Looking back at the design process, I ask myself: "Wow, how did I manage to stuff all those parts in such a tiny area, including a full dock connector!" And guess what, I even managed to connect 3.3V power from the iPhone/iTouch and the L/R audio out through. I guess thinking about PCBs during my commute to work paid off. Whether this design will make it, is ultimately dependent on the performance of the chip antenna, so let's hope for the best. In the meantime, I will be working on a patch antenna backup solution in case the performance would be lacking.
  
  
• The majority of the new PCB parts has also arrived this week.
  
  
• This new PCB design also has a few "light(n)ing" options since some people have posted in the comments that they were concerned about a bright flashing LED when the module has a GPS lock. They'd rather see this reversed: flashing when searching for a lock and steady on when a lock is found. I will post a poll at some point later to see what configuration is most favorite and what LED colors you prefer. The new design will be able to accommodate for quite a few options.
  
  
• We also hit 750 votes today! And that only 11 days after we hit 500 votes. I think some people posted this website on their own blogs which is a great thing! So if you have your own blog or want to spread the word, feel free to do some advertising :)
  

Well, time to catch up on some sleep now... Gd'Night.

Smaller, please...

I am still working on the new PCB design. The picture shows a preview printed on paper (top right) in comparison to the old boards (left and bottom). The width is about the same and the height is about 5mm shorter and it has a full dock connector instead of a mini-USB plug. I am simultaneously working on the package design as the two will need to be in sync with each other.

Only a short post this time, since I am trying to get things done as quickly as possible. This project requires quite some multi-tasking of different things and I need to be working on all of them in parallel in order not to loose any time (I guess all of you are eagerly waiting for the time when you can place that order):

• Designing the PCB board
  
• Package design which needs to fit the PCB, connectors and iPhone/iTouch
  
• Ordering the PCB components (I am getting parts from quite a few places and all need attention)
  
• Getting ready for production (both for the PCB board, the package and assembly) which means interacting with one or more contract manufacturers.
  

So hang in there with me :) If you'd like to have something more to read in the meantime, you can click on some of the human rights related links on the right.

Halfway there for a first production run!

Today, the number of voters who want a GPS module for their iPhone and/or iTouch has hit 500! This is great and since some people even want more than one module, it is more than half way to those 1000 pieces that are required for a first production run.

I am currently working on finishing up another PCB design which will bring you an even smaller form factor of about 27mm (W) x 19.5mm (D) x 8mm ! (H). This will be a universal module for both the iPhone and the iTouch and it will have a similar dock connector as is present in the iPhone/iTouch so that you can use your standard Apple cables/chargers.

Whether this will be the ultimate production design will be dependent on whether satellite tracking performance is acceptable after I build a prototype. This new prototype is using a chip-antenna instead of a patch antenna and I will have to test if the chip-antenna performs as well.

Stay tuned....