The problem is OpinionSourcedHardware. Projects that start with an open invitation for spects, where everyone gets a say in said specs ... well, they tend to die quietly long before anything gets made.
That sort of project stands a far better chance if it is just one guy who just starts out with a personal project, and does the initial work. Then at some point, when there is something sorta-usable, he shows off the advantages of project XYZ and opens it up for people to join. And doesn't have to be just one person. I'd say 3 max at the initial stage. Anything more will get to be too much noise real fast.
Incidentally, a project dying somewhere along the spec stage doesn't have to be a total loss. Post mortem extraction of the good ideas and then using that as inspiration for your project XYZ can be useful.
And to keep it on topic, why invent a new "standard" when there's already things like USBTMC and LXI? Why not use existing specs, write an open sourced implementation, and plonk it on github?
@mrflibble, you're are right at the point. I've started some time ago
DIB "initiative" that is in line with OpenLab discussed here. It went nowhere because of too many opinions, musical wishes, wishful thinking with the occasional trolling
![Smiley :)](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/xsmiley.gif.pagespeed.ic.R8GFI-pF6f.png)
.
But, I've continue working on that idea and first realization is DIB specification described
here, and first project based on it is EEZ BB3 (Bench Box 3) discussed
here (
GitHub).
There were a lot of dead ends (
XMOS as MCU, my own AC/DC power pre-regulator aka
CF-DIC), but something was learned along the way and what came up was rewarded through a
crowdfunding campaign. The first module created is a DC power module (
DCP405), a continuation of the EEZ
H24005 project, the second is a two-channel auxiliary DC power module (
DCM220) and three new modules are currently being worked on:
MIO168 (mixed signal I/O, data-logger),
SMX46 4 x 6 switch matrix) and
PREL6 (6 x power relay).
Everything is open source, comes with heavy support for
SCPI (over 400 commands so far), supports MQTT, MicroPython and we have our multi-platform
EEZ Studio for communication with SCPI instruments and for visual programming GUI for local touch screen!
Communication with PC is over USB or Ethernet. Ethernet will be used to communicate with other EEZ chassis (i.e. BB3 and new one without TFT display but with more slots).
Currently the "master" MCU is STM32F769 (I've H743 version ready for prototyping) running FreeRTOS, but we also working with
ULX3S team that have a successful implementation of Lattice ECP5 FPGA for future more capable modules that will communicated with extended DIB, e.g. v2.0.
I will try to continue working on new modules, and I will be especially pleased to work with others who want to add new modules, already have an instrument but want to "weaponize" it with everything we have added so far through this project, etc.