History of the PmodLS1

As you learned from James’ post, Digilent offers 63 Pmods! Each of those products has its own story of its conception and evolution. One of those products that had a very interesting beginning is the PmodLS1.

 

A few weeks ago while chatting with James (another intern) and Gene (our co-founder), we were discussing how the company began and how the board design process works. In this discussion, we discovered that the Pmod LS1 had its beginning in education at Washington State University (our local institution of higher education).

 

The current version of the PmodLS1.
The current version of the PmodLS1.
The original Line Sensor 1 module.
The original Line Sensor 1 (LS1) module.

About nine years ago, a group of electrical engineering students began their senior design project. Every student at WSU is required to take a year of senior design, where they design and build a project of their choice. This group chose to create a line-following robot. As part of this challenge they had to create a Pmod that interfaces with the sensors they were using and creates a digital signal that will influence the direction of the robot. Above you can see the original design of the PmodLS1. What isn’t obvious from the images is that the original PmodLS1 was about 4 times the size of current version! At the time, Gene  did most of the design of the board and decided to make this project into a product.

 

Now that you know the history of the PmodLS1 check out the product page here, and make sure you check out its most popular application too.

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