"Und3rb3lly" - Upgrading the Propeller Proto Board to C3 style memory

Tubular · 2011-02-04 02:17

This board is a by-product of another project i'm working on. It fits under the propeller proto board and gives it C3 compatible memory functionality - twin SRAM, one Flash, one ADC, one USD.

There is also 3 resistor TV out, but no audio just yet.

Ttailspin · 2011-02-04 07:09

That is a lot of stuff for such a tiny circiut board, very cool stuff Tubular.

How do I attach it? looks like it is soldered from the top side of the Proto board, Yes?
Also where/how do I hook up the TV?

This is why this forum exist's, thanks Tubular.

David Betz · 2011-02-04 07:37

Very nice! Is this board going to be for sale or is it just something you built for your own use?

Duane Degn · 2011-02-04 07:54

Tubular,

Cool. Are you selling them?

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a microSD socket that small before.

How many ADC channels?

I'm really bad at reading "vanity" license plates. For those who are also so impaired the board is called "Under Belly". I think I'm probably the only one who wont see that imediately.

It's a nice looking board. I hope I'm not the only one who thinks circuit board are "pretty"?

Thanks,

Duane

Edit: I didn't see David's post before posting mine. I was still trying to figure out "Under Belly".

ctwardell · 2011-02-04 08:09

Duane Degn wrote: »

Tubular,

It's a nice looking board. I hope I'm not the only one who thinks circuit board are "pretty"?

Duane,

I have to agree, that is a "pretty" circuit board, the purple solder mask really sets is off.

One of the things I miss on the surface mount boards is the color bands on resistors, those are one of the things that made circuit boards look "neat" when I was a kid.

C.W.

WBA Consulting · 2011-02-04 09:51

Beautiful!!!! I love the design and the uSD socket you used. I am a big fan of that socket line from Molex even though they aren't very available. I have about 30 from a Molex rep and have a plan for a tiny board to make the tiniest micro SD card breakout board anyone has seen. Your concept of an add on board that mounts to the underside of a proto is well executed. What design software did you use?

Tubular · 2011-02-04 12:26

WBA Consulting wrote: »

Beautiful!!!! I love the design and the uSD socket you used. I am a big fan of that socket line from Molex even though they aren't very available. I have about 30 from a Molex rep and have a plan for a tiny board to make the tiniest micro SD card breakout board anyone has seen. Your concept of an add on board that mounts to the underside of a proto is well executed. What design software did you use?

Yep those have an amazingly small footprint (about 13x6mm), I find them really useful. And the higher versions > 3.35mm are not too bad to hand solder (3.35 3.75 5mm). The lower profile ones are difficult due to overhang of the body above the pins.

I have a paid copy of Diptrace, but often revert to Rimu which was recommended by someone here on the forum. Kiwi product, very easy to use. But its schematic companion isn't a patch on diptrace or eagle.

I showed someone who manufactures products with uSD that connector during the week. They had never seen anything like it. It does seem to be unique - perhaps patented?

I look forward to seeing what you do with it

Tubular · 2011-02-04 12:32

ctwardell wrote: »

Duane,

I have to agree, that is a "pretty" circuit board, the purple solder mask really sets is off.

One of the things I miss on the surface mount boards is the color bands on resistors, those are one of the things that made circuit boards look "neat" when I was a kid.

C.W.

C.W., when I was a kid I loved the look of 5k6/56k/560k resistors, something about the blue and green bands I guess. To this day my favourite number is 56 as a result.

The purple boards are Laen @ Dorkbotpdx's new standard color, they certainly do stand out. But he sure had some horrible murky browns on the way to finding that purple!

Tubular · 2011-02-04 12:57

David,

Thanks!. I don't have the time/infrastructure to sell these at the moment. These will eventually be manufactured as they the heart of an upcoming product, but I'm still tweaking the "Prop" side of the board, but that doesn't affect the underbelly side, which tests fine.

So in the spirit of open source I'll make the design available in a few different formats. ExpressPCB is a good match as you could fit 6 on each MiniBoard, and the 7 mil traces are required. Its a single sided design apart from that pesky link, so its also home etchable for the adventurous.

Duane Degn wrote: »

Tubular,

Cool. Are you selling them?

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen a microSD socket that small before.

How many ADC channels?

I'm really bad at reading "vanity" license plates. For those who are also so impaired the board is called "Under Belly". I think I'm probably the only one who wont see that imediately.

It's a nice looking board. I hope I'm not the only one who thinks circuit board are "pretty"?

Thanks,

Duane

Edit: I didn't see David's post before posting mine. I was still trying to figure out "Under Belly".

Hi Duane,
The MicroSD is from Molex and I haven't seen anything else on the market quite like it. You can mount it next to the Prop chip as I have done on the "Prop side" and it slides across the top surface of the prop chip. The footprint is about 13x6mm.

There are just two ADC channels on this board, connected with power from the 4 surface solder pads. Thats all I could fit on that inner 1.0" square. I am going to make a minor mod so that a second board at SPI address 9-14 can be stacked, so that would give a whole second set of peripherals and 4 analog inputs in total.

Point taken regarding the "3" vs "e" thing. You're clearly not the only one! I might have to change that on the next rev.

Thanks for the kind words.

Tubular · 2011-02-04 13:04

Ttailspin wrote: »

That is a lot of stuff for such a tiny circiut board, very cool stuff Tubular.

How do I attach it? looks like it is soldered from the top side of the Proto board, Yes?
Also where/how do I hook up the TV?

This is why this forum exist's, thanks Tubular.

Hi Ttailspin,
There are two, 12 or 13 pin 0.1" SIL headers than connect through to the proto board. One for P8-15 and one for P24-31. You can just use a header and solder both ends (for something rigid), or use a header and socket like I've done (so it can be removed). I'll attach a photo shortly to better show what I mean.

The TV signal is one of the pins on the end of each 12 pin header. It needs to attach to an RCA phono connector, let me get a photo of that too.

Duane Degn · 2011-02-04 13:43

Tubular,

Don't change the name on my account. Most people catch number/letter tricks much faster than I do.

hinv · 2011-02-04 13:55

so you just make these beautiful little boards to tease us huh?
I would like to see one with 4 spi rams so that a whole long could be fetched like bill was doing...and may eventually get done. Maybe you could help out the guy with the proppad as it is a nice little device, but is missing a lot, and you like to cram a lot of stuff in a little space like I like. Or maybe you could get with jazzed to make a tiny little board with 32MB and uSD, etc.

Thanks,

Doug

Tubular · 2011-02-04 15:11

hinv wrote: »

so you just make these beautiful little boards to tease us huh?
I would like to see one with 4 spi rams so that a whole long could be fetched like bill was doing...and may eventually get done. Maybe you could help out the guy with the proppad as it is a nice little device, but is missing a lot, and you like to cram a lot of stuff in a little space like I like. Or maybe you could get with jazzed to make a tiny little board with 32MB and uSD, etc.

Hi Doug. Sorry for the tease, can't afford to support these for others right now, really wish I was retired and then it might be easier. Or perhaps I need to talk to GG.

Thanks for the feedback. I think Bill was picking up data in a parallel nibble at a time, which would be faster, the restriction here is really one SPI device at a time (unless more than 1 underbelly is stacked somehow). I think Jazzed is working on something small too, not sure what exactly.

WBA Consulting · 2011-02-04 16:12

Tubular, nice, if you would be willing to share your library file for the molex footprint, I would love to have it to help me make the board quicker and I'll send you a couple PCBs when i get tehm made. As for the different heights, you are spot on. I have 3 different heights and they can work great a few different ways. I am slo planning on using it like you are with the uSD card hanging over the prop on my backpack board for my M44D40+ module.

Tubular · 2011-02-04 18:23

WBA, sure. What's your preferred pcb layout program?

WBA Consulting · 2011-02-04 23:20

Oh, oops, guess I should have mentioned that. I have the full version of DipTrace. Thanks!

Tubular · 2011-02-06 03:36

Ttailspin wrote: »

That is a lot of stuff for such a tiny circiut board, very cool stuff Tubular.

How do I attach it? looks like it is soldered from the top side of the Proto board, Yes?
Also where/how do I hook up the TV?

This is why this forum exist's, thanks Tubular.

Ttailspin, here are those couple of photos I promised.

This version needs to mount behind (under) the proto board, which isn't ideal. I'm working on a couple of variants that mount on top of the proto board above the Prop chip.

tubular

Cluso99 · 2011-02-06 03:55

Nice tubular

I find the uSD sockets a bit fiddly because they are so tiny.

Tubular · 2011-02-06 04:01

Cluso99 wrote: »

Nice tubular I find the uSD sockets a bit fiddly because they are so tiny.

Know what you mean. I've given up trying to do everything with one tiny board, I'm heading towards two versions, one ultra compact with limited breakout and one which will use the full size SD cards

Ttailspin · 2011-02-06 08:12

I think this warrent's the slang phrase,,"That's the Bomb, dude".. :thumb:

This in kit form, different components could be selected to customize heights and such. yes?

So, when, where, and (i have to ask,) how much $...

P.S. this is somewhat off topic,
I am cursed to notice everything today.. don't take time to answer, if You don't have time... but..
Is there a funny story behind that scuff mark on that big capacitor in the picture with the RCA jack?

Cluso99 · 2011-02-06 15:53

tubular: I am back to using the same old trusty microSD socket I use in both TriBlade and RamBlade (Digikey HR1941-CT). A number of others here are now using this also. The connectors are uncovered at the front making it really easy to hand solder.

Ravenkallen · 2011-02-06 16:12

Very cool board. And i love the purple color to. It is such a hot color(I thought i was the only one:)). I agree that it would be really cool if you sold them.

HShanko · 2011-02-06 16:39

Cluso99,
Are you sure that DigiKey number is right, HR1941-CT? DigiKey couldn't find it.

Tubular · 2011-02-06 17:33

HShanko wrote: »

Cluso99,
Are you sure that DigiKey number is right, HR1941-CT? DigiKey couldn't find it.

HShanko, I think just remove the hyphen, if that doesn't work search for DM3D

Cluso, I agree that is a nice connector and would be slightly easier to solder. Double the real estate from my point of view though. Still I'll keep it in mind, thanks.

Tubular · 2011-02-06 17:40

Ravenkallen wrote: »

Very cool board. And i love the purple color to. It is such a hot color(I thought i was the only one:)). I agree that it would be really cool if you sold them.

Yeah the purple boards have really grown on me. They are from Laen @ DorkbotPDX. He went through a few interesting brownish colours there before settling on this one, which looks real pretty.

HShanko · 2011-02-06 17:55

Tubular,

Thanks for the hint. That hyphen was the culprit. I was curious what the device looked like. Looks usable to me. And hand-solderable, though SMD. Thanks again.

"Und3rb3lly" - Upgrading the Propeller Proto Board to C3 style memory

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