EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: fake-name on April 02, 2017, 06:52:09 am
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Does anyone make microprocessor eval boards with prototyping areas anymore?
I've been throwing together some slightly silly one-off weather logging sensors recently, and they're all turning into horrible multi-PCB disasters because I can't find any decent low-effort micro-controller boards which have a decent amount of prototyping area.
I remember in the early 2000's basically every MCU eval board seemed to be half prototyping area, but I'll be damned if I could find *any* boards with any space for implementing any of your own circuitry anymore.
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Olimex does some, I think.
(Oh my, the autocorrect on my computer kept trying to change that to 'climax.')
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Olimex does some, I think.
(Oh my, the autocorrect on my computer kept trying to change that to 'climax.')
They all seem to be oddball MCUs, or have a bunch of useless peripherals though.
I'd kill for a really simple board with a ATmega328, a voltage regulator, and a bunch of prototyping area.
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Quote from: fake-name on Today at 07:01:00 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=86092.msg1176614#msg1176614)I'd kill for a really simple board with a ATmega328, a voltage regulator, and a bunch of prototyping area.
isn't it what an arduino mini on a breadboard is ? yes some kind of upside down but ?
(https://blog.arduino.cc/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/arduino-nano.jpg)
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http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/74-atmegaxx8 (http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/74-atmegaxx8) ?
https://www.olimex.com/Products/AVR/Proto/ (https://www.olimex.com/Products/AVR/Proto/)
In general, an arduino clone plus a mating proto board or shield is cheaper and easier.
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Does anyone make microprocessor eval boards with prototyping areas anymore?
MCU board, plus 0.1" header pins, plus stripboard of your choice.
Beyond the issue of finding a "hobbyist" board with sufficient well-distributed ground connections, you'll have to explain what more you want.
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https://www.freetronics.com.au/collections/arduino/products/kitten (https://www.freetronics.com.au/collections/arduino/products/kitten)
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0045/8932/products/kt-oblique-800_1024x1024.jpg?v=1287818639)
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0045/8932/products/KitTen-top_1024x1024.png?)
Its a stripped down through hole Arduino Diecimila (https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardDiecimila) clone kit with a header for a FTDI cable instead of the on-board FTDI USB serial chip, a socketed ATmega328P and a 6x14 0.1" pitch proto area.
Currently out of stock, but you may get lucky with one of their distributors.
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With Arduino, you can also get a protoshield like this:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/7914 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/7914)
Or sometimes other shields that don't take up the entire shield footprint have proto areas:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12761 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12761)
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13158 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13158)
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13750 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13750)
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I'd kill for a really simple board with a ATmega328, a voltage regulator, and a bunch of prototyping area.
Get a Pro Mini and some of these: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=4x6+protoboard+pcb&_sacat=0 (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=4x6+protoboard+pcb&_sacat=0)
Join the Pro Mini to the PCB using the supplied header pins.
It looks really neat and tidy if you wire wrap the Arduino pins to the other stuff underneath the board. The top only has the Arduino and jumper wires visible.
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Get a Pro Mini and some of these: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=4x6+protoboard+pcb&_sacat=0 (http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=4x6+protoboard+pcb&_sacat=0)
Join the Pro Mini to the PCB using the supplied header pins.
It looks really neat and tidy if you wire wrap the Arduino pins to the other stuff underneath the board. The top only has the Arduino and jumper wires visible.
MCU board, plus 0.1" header pins, plus stripboard of your choice.
Beyond the issue of finding a "hobbyist" board with sufficient well-distributed ground connections, you'll have to explain what more you want.
See original post about a multi-pcb disaster. Also, all those PCBs with only single-pad lands make things a lot more annoying.
Something like the permaduino (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/permaduino (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/permaduino)) with more prototyping area, and without the silly battery stuff would be ideal.
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Not the cheapest ones around but you could take a look at the MikroE range of "Ready boards": https://www.mikroe.com/ready/ (https://www.mikroe.com/ready/) - or perhaps not, now that I'm looking at it the prototyping area on the AVR version is tiny.
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Take NXP Kinetis freedom boards, slap a cheap prototype arduino shield.
You have your proto board, even if you can't use all I/O of the board.
This applies to all arduino form factor compatible boards...
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Most of the little modules have pins on standard 0.1" spacings. You can stick all the little modules you're using onto one larger piece of perfboard and you've got as much prototyping area as you want. Personally I never found much use for the built in prototyping area, usually my dev boards are used for multiple things and I don't like to solder project specific parts to one.
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What about Atmel's xplained boards?
http://www.atmel.com/tools/mega328p-xmini.aspx (http://www.atmel.com/tools/mega328p-xmini.aspx)
Only $10 at digikey:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/microchip-technology/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI-ND/5338500 (https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/microchip-technology/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI-ND/5338500)
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What about Atmel's xplained boards?
http://www.atmel.com/tools/mega328p-xmini.aspx (http://www.atmel.com/tools/mega328p-xmini.aspx)
Only $10 at digikey:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/microchip-technology/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI-ND/5338500 (https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/microchip-technology/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI/ATMEGA328PB-XMINI-ND/5338500)
Neat, I might pick one up. I like the on-board debugger (via a ATmega32U4 running mEDBG FW), and the proto area with 2 or 3 interconnected holes.
I've noticed that many/most manufacturers now offer very inexpensive, basic dev boards that incorporate an on-board programming and debug interface and require nothing more that a USB port. This is nothing like when I first played with PICs and had to build my own serial port based programmer (no ICD of course), or when I rebooted my interest in them years later and spent nearly $100 on a PICKit and a dev board and still had no ICD. These days you can get into microcontrollers with just $5 or $10, and that's using manufacturer's dev boards, not cheap ebay junk. Of course, as fake-name has implied, most of these boards don't come with a solder-able prototyping area any longer. Pin headers for I/O pins is often all you get. The above board is an exception, even if the proto area is small.
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Quote from: evb149 on April 02, 2017, 08:47:14 PM (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=86092.msg1177283#msg1177283)
Yeah there ought to be .... "very likely useful" populated components or at least non populated wired in circuit foot prints for DIY add ons.
>[long list...]
Wow. I'm sure all of that would be wonderful if it were free and took up zero space. But I observe that people don't actually tend to be willing to pay the price for such boards, and in fact the switch to "bare minimum" boards like an Arduino nano or Cypress Prototype kits is a pretty good thing for everyone. I own a lot more $30 minimalist "eval boards" than $150 "highly expandable development kits", and I really don't want to see a return to $300 "official demo board" days...
it is almost always easier to make a custom PCB
Well, yes. Exactly. It has become MUCH easier and cheaper to make a custom PCB than it used to be, whether that's some sort of "shield" (I don't like that term, but it's stuck...) that attaches to a minimalist board or a full custom PCB.
It's a little surprising that you don't see more "modular reference designs" where you can pick and choose features and get an "almost" PCB design. (Hmm. THERE'S an interesting idea for a OSSW project...)
MCU board, plus 0.1" header pins, plus stripboard of your choice.
See original post about a multi-pcb disaster.
I'm really not seeing how "generic proto pcb" plus "MCU Core board" (two PCBs total) turns into THAT much more of a disaster than a single PCB with similar prototyping area. Yeah, if you start to use a separate "breakout board" for each of those neat little peripheral chips that are only available as fine-pitch SMT, things can get out-of-control, but ... they wouldn't have fit on a proto area anyway.
all those PCBs with only single-pad lands make things a lot more annoying.
Heh. The general lack of agreement on a "useful" prototyping layout is another problem... Almost all of the eval boards that I've seen that have a "significant" prototyping area seem to use that pad-per-hole layout, and ... I don't see the point!
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Yes, what's the point of pad-per-hole? How many projects have zero connection per pin? And what about parts that aren't on a 0.1" grid?
It would be far more useful to have a handful of common designs (8 pin dual opamp with feedback and +V/GND pull-up/pull-down connections), and at least three holes and an rectangular pad for other nodes.
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I used these a few times for prototypes, the are cheap, good quality and have a practical layout. Bought at DX.COM, SKU 138294.
(https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0Bxpcl1OprwA3aDhxdzdubDlfRzg)
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Well, uh, seeed is having that 10 PCBs for $5 thing, and this happened. Boards have a SAMD21 on them, with the required support bits, and a big 3.3V reg. Every single pin is broken out, too.
Since the boards are so stupid cheap, I also made up some solderable protoboards. For $0.50 each, it's way way cheaper to design my own, then buy commercial ones.
I also ordered one of the OSHStencils stainless stencil things. It was only marginally more expensive then the kapton option, and I was curious. There are three different projects on this one stencil.
Parts are here tomorrow.
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Nice one!
Makes me want to do something similar for an STM32F0