Bela Gem, two new boards

giuliomoro

The opamps for the analog inputs and the ADC support a supply down to 3V, so I guess it should be possible if we can provide a regulated supply above 3V.

The issue is that the codec is powered from the PB2-provided 3v3 rail, which is on an LDO from the input voltage. So if your input is 3.2V, the 3v3 line will actually be something like 2.9V and more noisy, because the LDO won't be able to regulate properly. Things should still work - I believe - but you may have surprises.

slk

giuliomoro
Makes sense, thank you for the clarification.
We will do some tests and see what works best when we get the Gem.
Thank you for great support!

violapwr

giuliomoro

Congrats on this great step forward for the Bela series!

I have a similar question/request regarding the Bela Gem Multi: are schematics available? And if not, any idea when they might be? I'm working on building an expander/connected PCB of sorts & would be great if I can get the necessary dimensions tightly aligned.

Look forward to receiving the order & getting started with it 🙂

giuliomoro

Boards from the CrowdSupply campaign are finally shipping. If you haven't received a tracking number, you should receive one soon.

Schematics and kicad symbols and footprints are available here, see here for more details.

Getting started page is here: https://learn.bela.io/bela-gem-get-started/

If you purchased a pre-flashed SD card, I recommend you follow the update process in the IDE as soon as you power up the board. That will, among other things, give you access to the 'hardware control' feature which allows to control the outputs of the board (i.e.: set a pin high or low) or to modify the input values as seen by the running program (e.g.: simulate a button press or a potentiometer) via a GUI. This is useful to debug wiring and programming issue, it allows to quickly answer, without second-guessing, questions such as:

is my LED wired up correctly?
is my code actually writing this output value I expect it to?
is my potentiometer misbehaving?

And also it helps in case you want to test a program without connecting external components to your Bela, as you can simulate them within the GUI.

Here's a sneak preview:

DragonSF

I got the boards today (Gem multi and pocketboine 2), BUt I can't find any Gem-specific image.Where is it?
Got it, I used the wrong imager.

giuliomoro

the getting started page linked above has the image flashing instructions right there.

giuliomoro

Here's a guide to assist you with migrating projects from Bela, Bela Mini or CTAG to the new Bela Gem boards: https://learn.bela.io/get-started-guide/migrating-to-bela-gem/

PS: if you have issues or questions related to using your new Gem board, please consider creating a new thread instead of hijacking this one.

cyberduck

Hi @giuliomoro ! First, Congrats of having reached this milestone !
Second, When the crowdsupply campaign will be considered as fulfilled ? 😄
I can't wait to get a Gem but I live in the EU and the crowdsupply shipping fees are very high.

giuliomoro

Timely question. It was just announced as being available on our shops, shipping soon.

https://eu.shop.bela.io/ <<< EU
https://uk.shop.bela.io/ <<< UK
https://shop.bela.io/ <<< rest of the world
https://mailchi.mp/bela/bela-gem-update-shipping-and-more-11042994

jayrope

Lo-ve-ly, that the new boards are in the EU shop now. Yet, i can't buy anything without a credit card or trusting my data to a commercial service like Shopify sharing this data.
Can I use a bank transfer connection within the EU (free, no data tracking!), or just Stripe or even Paypal (ooph)?

giuliomoro

jayrope yes, email orders@bela.io

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