Category Archives: dev boards

Bus Pirate PIC programmer through-hole version

MickM decided to rework our PIC programing adapter to a through-hole version. He made two versions of the board. One for both Bus Pirate V2go and V3, and one that supports only V3. I got very confused reading the schematic, and had to redraw it. One thing led to another and I laid it out […]

Getting started with the STM32F4-Discovery board and ChibiOS/RT

Giovanni writes to inform us about his guide regarding the STM32F4-Discovery. This article will explain how to get started with the recently released STM32F4-Discovery board using ChibiOS/RT. This board is really cheap (below $20) and is an excellent evaluation platform for the STMicroelectronics Hi-Performance & DSP STM32F4 family. Via the contact form.

nedoCPU-16: PIC16F87X breakout board

Here is a breakout board for the PIC16F87X microcontrollers. It has a onboard 5V power supply, a 20MHz crystal, and a reset button, while all the IO pins have been broken out into a single row header, so its easy to interface with a breadboard.The UART and ICSP programing header have been broken out on […]

Eaglefree PIC18F2550 development board

Jose built a PIC18F2550 development board. It’s on a single layer with all through-hole components, making it friendly to DIY PCB etchers. It was designed using the Eagle free license constraints, and fits within the 10cmX8cm board format. The board features: 8 LEDs. 4 push buttons with pull-down 220Ω resistors. 2 potentiometers. 1 relay with […]

Thursday Project: XC95144XL CPLD breakout board PREVIEW

After Jason shared his design of a XC95144XL breakout board, we made our own breakout for the same chip. It features a single row of 39 pins that can be interfaced with a standard bread board. All the remaining pins are broken-out to dual-row headers on top of the board. A 800mA 3.3V voltage regulator […]

TIDeals: MSP-EXP430F5529 USB experimenter’s board

Bluehash from 43Oh writes to inform us of today’s TiDeal: the MSP430F5529 USB Experimenter’s Board. “On the board itself is USB connectivity, a five-button capacitive touch pad, a MicroSD slot with a 1GB card included, a 102 X 64 dot matrix LCD, four push buttons, three LEDs, a scroll wheel/potentiometer.” TI is offering this dev […]

Coolrunner II XC2C256 breakout board

Jason built another CPLD breakout board. Following his XC95144XL breakout, he has now completed a Coolrunner II XC2C256 breakout. As with his previous project some pins are broken out into a single row of headers for easier use with a breadboard, and the remaining pins are broken out to two dual-row headers. A power supply, […]

RS-485 temperature sensor source files uploaded

As a follow up to his RS-485 temperature sensor board, Ezflyer added PCB and schematic files: I’ve been meaning to post the Eagle schematic and board files for this project for a while now, but never got around to it. An email from a forum member (thanks Karel!) interested in this project prompted me to […]

MSPism V2 RF transceiver + MSP430 update

Brian updated his MSPism RF transceiver design to version 2. He added a dual output low-drop-out voltage regulator and a LiIon battery jack. MSPism is a X-Bee compatible RF transceiver with an onboard MSP430 microcontroller, using a cheap Nordic nRF24L01+ module.  The firmware is currently under development. Via the forum.

XC95144XL breakout boards

Jason decided to make breakout boards for the XC95144XL CPLD. A voltage regulator along with bypass capacitors are placed on-board. He provided a oscillator, connected to a global clock pin as well. The board is built with a single row header so it can be used with a standard bread-board. There are two additional dual […]

Another Microchip TQFP 100 breakout board

Here is another Microchip TQFP 100 breakout board built by Haley0918, similar to the board we posted yesterday. The PIC IC and RESET button are placed on the top side of the board. The voltage regulator, quartz crystal, and all the decoupling capacitors are on the bottom. It was designed for the dsPIC33FJ256MC710 with digital […]

Open source GSM/GPRS autonomous weather station

Andrianakis built an autonomous data logging system using a GSM/GPRS cell phone modem module to transmit data to a online server. It’s designed to read wind velocity for a future wind power station installation. A PIC16F877A communicates with a SIM900 GSM/GPRS module, and reads sensor values. By using a battery and a solar cell charger, […]

TQFP 100 break out for Microchip devices

After noticing that most of Microchip’s microcontrollers in TQFP 100 packages use the same basic pinouts, we decided to make a breakout board to take advantage of it.So far we checked support for PIC24F, dsPIC33E, and PIC32 devices, and with the exception of the programing header all the 100-pin chips are compatible with the board. […]