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Terminal board for Propeller — Parallax Forums

Terminal board for Propeller

Nick McClickNick McClick Posts: 1,003
edited 2010-01-29 20:40 in Propeller 1
I was looking at the screwshield for arduino, and thought it would be nice to have a similar thing for the Propeller Platform. I thought their 'wing' style was a little flimsy, so I've put together single board design;
termboard.png
Any interest? It's a fairly large board and it uses a lot of screw terminals, so it would run $15 - $20.

There's also a lot of empty space in the middle of the board - not sure what should go there...

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Comments

  • UnknownUnknown
    edited 2010-01-25 20:43
    Looks like a good idea.· I·don't always want to commit·to soldering.
  • pacmanpacman Posts: 327
    edited 2010-01-25 20:54
    Excellent idea, I'd buy a couple...

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  • JonnyMacJonnyMac Posts: 9,230
    edited 2010-01-26 01:25
    How about some pads in the middle and a dog-bone to select between connecting the terminal block right to a pin or some other circuitry? One example of outputs would be a ULN2x003 for driving moderate-current loads.

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    Jon McPhalen
    Hollywood, CA
  • UnknownUnknown
    edited 2010-01-26 05:10
    I was thinking you could put an SD card or mosfet switch with fuse in the middle.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,845
    edited 2010-01-27 13:08
    Since I have a lot of projects dealing with robots, how about an h-bridge for two DC motors, and an ADC contraption. That kind of module might attract people with an interest in robotics. With all the connectors, an h-bridge, and an ADC gizmo that would be perfect for building your own 'ground up' robot. And of course you would need some battery connectors for the DC motors, and platform power.

    Ray
  • Nick McClickNick McClick Posts: 1,003
    edited 2010-01-28 09:28
    @rsadeika - except for the ADC (which you could always add on a Prototyper or ProtoPlus module), does the OctoDriver fit what you're looking for?

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  • Timothy D. SwieterTimothy D. Swieter Posts: 1,613
    edited 2010-01-28 09:39
    Are the screw terminals pluggable/removable or soldered directly to the board? Nothing is worse than setting up a project and then having to undo it in order to fix a board or get to the board stack underneath it.

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    Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
    www.brilldea.com - Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, 3.0" LCD Composite video display, eProto for SunSPOT
    www.tdswieter.com
  • Nick McClickNick McClick Posts: 1,003
    edited 2010-01-28 17:33
    Not sure if I understand, but it would be very similar to the screwshield:
    3555435151_fb73628b2d.jpg

    screw terminals would be soldered down, but would (mostly) be accessible without messing with Propeller Platform stack. Does that make sense?

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  • Timothy D. SwieterTimothy D. Swieter Posts: 1,613
    edited 2010-01-28 23:34
    Right now the PCB you showed in your first post, it looks like a complete module sitting squarely over the Propeller Platform, right? The picture of the Arduino is wings.

    Here is the scenario I am picturing because it has happend to me (and therefore I bet to others). I mount my controller board on a device (robot, home control, etc). I then wire the device to the terminal blocks. Once I power everything up I think - oh no something isn't working I need to get to the controller board. However in my wiring (or someone elses wiring), they left no service loop in the wires to the terminal blocks and I can't easily jimmy around to get to the controller without undoing something. Therefore I have to undo all the wires to get the controller in order to make a change. I think you understand this.

    With wings, there is some flexibility to remove the wings without undoing the wires, unless you need to get to the wing board itself.
    With the PCB over the Propeller modules, with wiring on both sides, I imagine one would have to undo at least one side of wiring to get the module off.

    With pluggable terminal blocks - blocks that plug into headers on the module or wings, one could remove the terminal block without having to undo the wires.

    Of course, pluggable terminal blocks may take up more room and they may be more expensive.

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    Timothy D. Swieter, E.I.
    www.brilldea.com - Prop Blade, LED Painter, RGB LEDs, 3.0" LCD Composite video display, eProto for SunSPOT
    www.tdswieter.com
  • Nick McClickNick McClick Posts: 1,003
    edited 2010-01-29 20:40
    Okay - I see what you mean. This is probably less of an issue with a Platform Module because you can always just pull the module off the Propeller, and most of the terminals will be 'outside' of a stack of module. But it wouldn't be as easy a removable terminals.

    I think the purpose of the design is more to provide a partial alternative to breadboarding - somewhere between a temporary setup on a breadboard and custom pcb.

    @Jon - I think what you really want is a 'High Power prototyper / breadboard'. I'm not sure if this design could fit both design objectives, but a High Power prototyper might make for a good module on it's own.

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