Inexpensive header board for P1?

K2

I'm a poor man so whenever a new project comes up, the starting point is usually an old $1.50 Arduino Nano plucked from an infinite stash I purchased many years ago. Got a project now that demands a P1. $35 seems steep on my extremely limited budget. (I really ought to file for Social Security benefits.) Cluso99 used to make an inexpensive board. I've also heard (or maybe just dreamt) that there are board houses that have open source board designs donated by the public, to the effect that you can pay to have a few PCBs made from one of those designs. Since I have a stash of 40-pin DIP P1 chips, something like that would be ideal...if they exist.

So I'm just asking if anyone knows of a source of unpopulated P1 header boards, or a source of inexpensive populated P1 boards?

Jeff Haas

If someone here has a board design for the P1 and will share their Eagle files with you, you can send the Eagle files to JLCPCB and have several boards done very inexpensively. If they're under 100mm x 100mm, then the total cost - shipped to you! - is less than $6.00. Then you'll need to get the other parts to assemble them yourself.

The PCB fab houses do this by selling the margins between the bigger boards going through their machines on a standard sized panel. So it gets them a bit more cash per board and acts as an ad. Once you look this up, you will get Google ads for the service in your web browser!

Mickster

@K2
Please PM me. Get you sorted

Craig

Edit: Heck I can PM you

WBA Consulting

I still have tons of fabs from my M44D40 Module that makes a DIP40 sized complete P1 setup that have much less purpose because they discontinued the QFN version. However, they also work with the DIP40 version of the P1 for the basic Prop circuit setup. Would be happy to send you some, PM if interested.
https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1027197/#Comment_1027197
I also still have fabs/parts or Powertwigs (the little power supply board in use with the M44D40)

iseries

I think the price of your Arduino Nano has gone up in price. Now maybe you need to be thinking Raspberry Pi Pico that's only $4 or $5 dollars with pins.

This moves you from 8 bit to 32 bit and still gives you 40 pins to work with.

Mike

K2

@iseries said:
I think the price of your Arduino Nano has gone up in price.

Absolutely right, wouldn't even consider getting more. But there was a time in the 2010s when the value proposition was irresistible and I bought many dozen...so many that I don't even know how many. Nevertheless I'm happy to have them and I dip into them regularly. But the high speed jitter-free timing, juggling-multiple-balls-at-once, situation I have right now is just the ticket for the P1.

I greatly appreciate all responses. More follow-up to come...

K2

@"WBA Consulting" said:
I still have tons of fabs from my M44D40 Module that makes a DIP40 sized complete P1 setup that have much less purpose because they discontinued the QFN version. However, they also work with the DIP40 version of the P1 for the basic Prop circuit setup. Would be happy to send you some, PM if interested.
https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1027197/#Comment_1027197
I also still have fabs/parts or Powertwigs (the little power supply board in use with the M44D40)

That's a really clever idea - populating the DIP header with a Propeller. PM sent.

K2

@"Jeff Haas" said:
If someone here has a board design for the P1 and will share their Eagle files with you, you can send the Eagle files to JLCPCB and have several boards done very inexpensively. If they're under 100mm x 100mm, then the total cost - shipped to you! - is less than $6.00. Then you'll need to get the other parts to assemble them yourself.

The PCB fab houses do this by selling the margins between the bigger boards going through their machines on a standard sized panel. So it gets them a bit more cash per board and acts as an ad. Once you look this up, you will get Google ads for the service in your web browser!

Filling up otherwise unused space on a large panel is an excellent idea! Certainly a P1 header board could be smaller than 100mm x 100mm. Perhaps four could fit in an area that size. The trick now would be finding Eagle files.