Ultimate Development Kit

[granz]

New project (I know, I know - no more projects until after the meetup; what can I say SQUIRREL. )

This is a fork from my other thread Arduino Development Boards(https://savagechats.com/index.php?topic=431.0) where I was trying to come up with a cheapy dev board to hand out at the meetup. This comes from browsing over 1000 breadboard projects on Thingaverse. I never saw one that really grabbed my attention, although several did come close.

So, I decided to try to make the Ultimate Dev Kit^TM.

Most of the Thingaverse projects were variations on the Sunfounder boards that Chris showed (and that I purchased) on the parent thread to this project.
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The biggest troubles with these boards is that they are inflexible. The one that I purchased (and Chris' also) are designed to hold a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino (Uno/Mega/etc.) There is no easy way to use one of them and put something else in the other space (see Chris' board above, there is a Raspberry Pi, but the Arduino slot, kinda hidden in the shadows, is empty.) I put a Pi Zero into my board (and it fit onto the screw posts) but there is not enough room in that Pi slot for a battery box, or power bank. And with the screw posts in the Arduino slot, most other types of boards won't conveniently fit. And, who really needs two different control systems anywho? (Yeah, you could use the Pi's WiFi to remote in, and then control/program the Arduino, but really, who would do that except for some loon like me? )

So, for my first, rough draft, here is my initial idea:

This will be on a board (plywood, 3D print, etc.) about the size of a standard letter-sized piece of paper. The two breadboards in the center are standard full-sized 800 hole breadboards (with power rails.) the four custom boards will be custom-designed, 2" by 4" boards for whatever is needed.

For the "power" board, there will be one design for direct +5VDC & ground, another design for using a USB power bank, another for plugging in a laptop power supply and the board providing +3, +5, +12 and maybe one, or two, variable (0-19VDC) outputs. Others would be coming as the user sees the need.

The "processor" board would be similar: there would be one for an Arduino (probably Nano,) a Pi Pico, an Intel 8052, a PIC, a TI MSP-430, and whatever else tickles my (or the user's) fancy. Maybe moving to a vertical format for the PCB we could even have small Z-80, 1802/05, 6502 or 6800 systems.

For I/O, there would be a discrete LED/pushbutton board, a hex keypad, an LCD/OLED board, a relay board (1-4 relays?) an analog I/O (ADC/DAC) board, and any of a zillion other I/O boards.

Maybe, the whole design could be slid down the board a centimeter, or so, leaving room at the top for a larger LCD, maybe mounted on an angle for better viewing. This could be for more IT-type control systems (such as a POS/cash register, or a MAC machine-type system.)

The idea would be to have several of these boards (maybe kept in inbox/outbox type trays,) and put whatever custom boards you need, one for each project. Anything beyond what is on a board in your supply cabinet could be quickly laid out in your CAD, then printed by Seed, or your favorite PCB house, or could be laid out on the breadboards. This system would give you the flexibility to use what you want.

Anyway, two of these custom boards would fit on the 4" by 4", cheapie PCB runs, with a V-Score down the middle for easy separation. The first thing that I will design is a couple of the "processor" boards (using the on-board USB power port for a Pico, and an Arduino Nano.) These would be quickly followed by simple I/O such as on the Parallax PDB (https://forums.parallax.com/uploads/FileUpload/73/8b122d123e194f1db99319e31bfaa2.pdf). After that, the world is my oyster.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions or questions?