Confused why the AD3 addnin modules don't have protective cases.

[JonD]

Confused why the AD3 addin modules don't have protective cases.  For example the analog.board for the AD2/3 has an open circuit board.  I"m using the AD3 analog board for automotive diagnostics and want to be able to put this in a diagnostic bag. I don't have a 3d printer to make such a protective case.  I would think students would damage these addin boards because there again is no protective case.  There should be provided protective cases with the addin or available for purchase.  This would make the products more durable.  Including making potective case for the AD3 with rubber bumpers so that this scope can be used for automotive work.

 

 

[JColvin]

Hi @JonD,

I can't quite tell from your post, but I presume that you are referring to the various add-on boards for Analog Discovery 3 / 2 such as the BNC Adapter or Transistor Tester or whichever? The Analog Discovery 2 and 3 both come in their own case that has rubber feet.

As for the various adapters, it is true that many of them do not have rubber feet (Impedance Analyzer does if I recall correctly), but they are all exposed circuitry. From my understanding, any metal standoff feet on Digilent devices, whether that is the BNC Adapter or Zybo Z7, are not electrically connected to anywhere else on the boards.

Anecdotally speaking, as Digilent started out primarily making educational based boards, our devices tend to be fairly resistant to abuse, particularly the Test and Measurement devices as they were planned with classroom teaching and inexperienced students inadvertently shorting things in mind. The automotive support within WaveForms only became a thing less than 1 year ago (July 2023 according to the Beta download changelog).

I'm guessing that in terms of automotive work, simply using rubber stops for kitchen drawers won't quite be sufficient (and dripping epoxy over the exposed material is a hassle). What style of enclosure would you be looking for? Just some covers like the for the Pynq Z1, Plexiglass Covers: Recommended Addition for the PYNQ-Z1 - Digilent, https://digilent.com/shop/plexiglass-covers-recommended-addition-for-the-pynq-z1/, a more robust enclosure like for the Eclypse Z7, https://digilent.com/shop/eclypse-z7-enclosure-kit/, or something else (I'm guessing not just a soft case that holds both the AD3 and whatever adapter, https://digilent.com/shop/analog-discovery-3-soft-case/)? Would this enclosure be form fitting to individual adapters, or more modular and workable among a wide range of adapters (this would be difficult as the adapters are all wildly different sizes).

As a side point, as far as I remember, you're also the first person to request this sort of thing for the adapters, so the market for it is, presumably, relatively small which will make it hard to convince the various stakeholders to invest time into making such such a protective case.

Thanks,
JColvin