Mini proto board for Demo/Proto boards, etc?

Rayman

I was thinking this morning that it might be nice to have a little prototyping board like this one that could be plugged in with a 10-pin header onto the Parallax Demo or Proto boards (or maybe my PropBox Prop board [coming soon]).

I don't think I have the resources to produce this myself, but maybe somebody else could do it?

Or, does something like this exist already?

Bill Henning

I have something very much like that in my production pipeline... actually two tiny proto boards are in the works

I produced a test run of one design a while ago, but never sent it in for production yet.

Rayman wrote: »

I was thinking this morning that it might be nice to have a little prototyping board like this one that could be plugged in with a 10-pin header onto the Parallax Demo or Proto boards (or maybe my PropBox Prop board [coming soon]).

I don't think I have the resources to produce this myself, but maybe somebody else could do it?

Or, does something like this exist already?

Bill Henning

This early FlexMem prototype is the only image I could find of my "MiniPro" prototyping board.

Rayman

Yes, that's very close to what I was thinking of...

LoopyByteloose

It would greatly help if Parallax would realize that the Proto boards with the microcontroller in the middle of all the available holes greatly limits the usefulness of all those holes they drilled. Larger DIPs can only take so much space.

From what I understand, the size of the boards are generally sized to fit the BOE robot. If they went to a half size and offer mini-proto boards I suppose they would sell less CPU units. So I guess we will continue with that size. But getting the CPU off to one side - like the SX48 board would be more useful to the builder.

There could be other enhancements in geometry as well. If DIPs are being used, having power go down the middle and having three holes on each side of the power lines be linked to each other really makes building much easier.

So far Parallax seems to just provide a bunch of hole without much thought as to what might really work best for the amateur builder. I suppose if one has wire wrap equipment, the current set up is a breeze. But very few beginners are aware of wire-wrap or feel they can use it.

WBA Consulting

With a little bit of cutting, the Blank Proto board will yield 4 mini proto boards that are compatible with the 10 pin header format.

Rayman

That's not too bad...

But, I think I'd cut it into three tall pieces of the lower type...

Only the lower one has two rows tied together...

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

The Parallax Proto-DB plugs into both the Propeller Backpack and the upcoming Propeller-based Spinneret.

-Phil

Rayman

I think the Blank Proto board, cut in half would work pretty well, but then it's kinda big...

Rayman

Now that I think about it, the problem with the proto board (the regular and blank one) is that there aren't many rows of pins tied together, except for power and ground. This makes it a pain to wire up a chip...

LoopyByteloose

Rayman wrote: »

Now that I think about it, the problem with the proto board (the regular and blank one) is that there aren't many rows of pins tied together, except for power and ground. This makes it a pain to wire up a chip...

Ditto that, not many pins tied together. I can always cut traces, but building them with wire and solder is a heck of a lot slower.

Bill Henning

Sounds like you would like my Propteus board...

http://mikronauts.com/products/propteus/

And there is a bussed prototype board that fits on top of it:

http://mikronauts.com/products/proteus/

Both Propteus and Proteus were designed with a bussed layout designed to optimize DIP chip placement.

Both of course stack on top of my Morpheus:

http://mikronauts.com/products/morpheus/

Loopy Byteloose wrote: »

It would greatly help if Parallax would realize that the Proto boards with the microcontroller in the middle of all the available holes greatly limits the usefulness of all those holes they drilled. Larger DIPs can only take so much space.

From what I understand, the size of the boards are generally sized to fit the BOE robot. If they went to a half size and offer mini-proto boards I suppose they would sell less CPU units. So I guess we will continue with that size. But getting the CPU off to one side - like the SX48 board would be more useful to the builder.

There could be other enhancements in geometry as well. If DIPs are being used, having power go down the middle and having three holes on each side of the power lines be linked to each other really makes building much easier.

So far Parallax seems to just provide a bunch of hole without much thought as to what might really work best for the amateur builder. I suppose if one has wire wrap equipment, the current set up is a breeze. But very few beginners are aware of wire-wrap or feel they can use it.

Bill Henning

I agree, which is why Propteus and Proteus are bussed.

I've been kicking MiniPRO back and forth with Sapieha all day, so a new/improved version will go to production soon

Rayman wrote: »

Now that I think about it, the problem with the proto board (the regular and blank one) is that there aren't many rows of pins tied together, except for power and ground. This makes it a pain to wire up a chip...

Bill Henning

Sapieha as usual had some great ideas!

I will be sending in MiniPRO (rev.2) for a small production run, I should have them available for sale around Nov.15th

MiniPRO is 1.150"x2.70"

Just like the original MiniPRO, rev.2 will fit the Protoboard 10 pin connector format, AND it will also fit 2x5 connectors used on some of my designs.