| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| universal AVR ZIF board |
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| shved:
Dear forum members, i have a question considering viability of planned product. Backstory: about 10 years ago i was broke student and made home-etched boards and projects for couple of connections i made in a local ham swap-meat. Usually simple AVR projects, audio stuff, etc. Now i work with a lot of regular clients(boards for audio, power-tools, CNC, AVR, Arduino and radio), but I still have some contacts from old times. One of the old-time clients is bugging me for some of my old projects(boards, MCU hex files, etc.) periodically, and usually it ends with me shoeing them away, finding cheap boards on aliexpress, or ordering a cheap batch of boards. But yesterday he brought up one of my oldest projects: universal AVR ZIF board. As usual I've recommended him to search in China. Later he responded that Chinese do not make adequate universal AVR ZIF boards(for PIC they are a lot of choice), and he really wants another one of my old boards. I don't want to redraw a board and factory order a batch for just 1 guy. Photo is attached. The main question is: do you think this kind of assembled boards or kits, or bare boards are a viable as a product? You can PM me for statistics, If there are interest - I will redo the layout and spin-up a bunch of factory boards. Thanks in advance. Yuri(shved). |
| coromonadalix:
I've seen universal zif socket block / pcb for pickit 2 and 3 programmers for 20$ usd You had some interfaces pcb's for an avr dragon in the past, just solder an 40 zif socket and snap the corresponding pcb ... If you want to go that route, buy an good gold plated 48 pins zif socket, pricey tough and many dupont wires jumpers ... I had many programmers, many interfaces pcb's, the list goes on and on, many drivers conflicts, the simplest but x-pensive solution was to buy an universal programmer with an 48 pins zif socket, i was lucky to snatch an brand new but not used beeprog 2 for a mere 500$ usd One of the most versatile and relatively less expensive is the TNM5000, it use cheaply priced standard sockets. You have the "old" minipro programmer who could program chips with higher voltage, the newest version has more limitations In the end you need to have an truth table to manage all the possibility(ies) you want to have or add in your universal socket pcb A simple 48 pins zif socket with a row of 24 pins 0.1" on each side would do fine. But you talk of 1 client ... i would not invest $$$ just for 1 client ??? make him pay your search time / parts etc .... or simply make him pay for an minipro ? Examples, something like this ? https://www.ebay.com/itm/PIC-Programmer-Universal-Adapter-board-ZIF-socket-Programming-PCB-PICKIT3-or-2/333272679979? |
| shved:
You haven't quite understood me. All universal ZIF-40 adapters for sale cheap in China are for pickit2&3 and none are for AVRISP. Long time ago (~10 years) i used to sell such boards for AVR, the board(on the photo) supports AtTiny and AtMega, the most popular chips in dip packages(selectable by DIP SW), for SMD stuff i have a drawer full of different adapters too(DIY and commercial, one-hag-low and brand-name stuff) that's not the point. The layout and compatibility is totally different! This is for AVR's only, for PIC's, EEPROM's, etc. there are different ready-made cheap and better solutions. The demand for such boards is very low, my clients were: the hobby-student types, washing machine and elevator(lift) repair men, couple of friends(with a discount), old CNC machine maintenance guys and i sold some to local hams. I have the board in regular use for ~10 years, i have the files. The board can use re-layout because it was one of my first paid projects full-stop, there are some cringe-worthy layout, but everything works OK. I have 1 client that desperately wants one, but i just can't justify re-engineering and ordering a batch of boards. If there were even a little regular demand(2 customers per year) - I would of risked it. But it is first guy in ~3 years. So I'm testing the waters, if there is interest in this kind of thing - i can spin-up some boards and sell them for a reasonable price. Bare boards, assembled or kits, i'm not sure. Any thoughts? |
| moffy:
Since most AVRs and ICs have gone surface mount, I don't think there is much of a market. DIP packages sadly are dying out. |
| Siwastaja:
--- Quote from: moffy on December 21, 2019, 11:37:42 pm ---Since most AVRs and ICs have gone surface mount, I don't think there is much of a market. DIP packages sadly are dying out. --- End quote --- This, and while you could solder an SMD on an adapter board, this requires having such a board, and once you need this, the board can include the programming header as well - or even USB interface - explaining the popularity of Arduinos and similar. |
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