Can anyone direct me to where I can purchase Gadgeteer compatible protoboards, and related accessories. like the one in the photo? i was looking at the Tamiya 70172 Universal Plate but wanted experienced feedback first. Thank you in advance.
Bi, that one is called the Tamiya Universal Plate. You can get them at Amazon and other places. Steve Preseley (on here) can also make them for you with his CNC.
The Tamiya boards are great, although are sometimes hard to find.
Shoot me an email to steve at stevepresley dot net with dimensions of what you want. I’ll be cutting out some different sized and colored boards this week to put up on my site for sale, but can do anything custom you’d like.
@ stevepresley -
Excellent, I will be checking your site. At this point I have no hard and fast requirements, just looking for a couple of proto boards similar to the Tamiya 70172 Universal Plate (210x160mm) as shown on the Pololu - Tamiya 70172 Universal Plate L (210x160mm) site. If you have anything comparable with mounting hardware that would be great.
I’ve bought the large Tamiya universal plates from Pololu, as well as the next size down. The medium size Tamiya universal plates come with a set of plastic rivet-type connector (one “socket” piece that pushes through the holes, and a “pin” piece that pushes out the split underside of the socket piece to lock it in place. I find these connectors VERY useful for quick prototyping on these boards. For some modules, though, I still stick with 4/40 bolts/nuts, particularly for my mainboards and other stuff that I want to be securely attached to the board.
I’m not sure if Steve has mounting hardware (yet 
) . There is a thread in here somewhere with a whole bunch of mounting option links. Maybe it was moved to the Wiki? Everything is 4-40 sized, and I’ve had very good luck with nylon bolts, nuts, and spacers. GHI sells packs of aluminum standoffs which are great for stacking stuff. Amazon is a good place to find the best prices on quantities of 25, 100, or more. I’ve even had good luck at my local Ace hardware store, but selection can be limited and retail prices tend to be quite high when buying in small quantities.
I have spent well over 35 years in large scale systems design and development, and my recent interest in the area of embedded IT systems has me rethinking what I knew to be well designed IT architectures. The IT laws of highly scalable virtualized OS’s, SAN Storage, and Communications simple do not translate to small resource constrained embedded systems that take your thinking right to the metal". My journey down the road of embedded systems, has found that even Gadgeteer is in over-engineered for the platform. Of course the platform will grow into NETMF and a whole new perspective will come into view. Right now, the IT world of the large and the IT world of the small is the IT equivalent of General and Special Relativity (I know, grossly exaggerated :p) . While they have much in common and work very well together, they each operate under a very different set of IT laws. It is the only place where I have found myself in very engaging IT conversations on the Wiki Forum, developing sophisticated C# software, and then having to ask where to buy a board with holes in it. Very humbling and enjoyable. :-)). Sorry for my rambling.
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@ Bob - its an adventure that I am very much enjoying as well
Thank you all for your direction and help
Yep, I have mounting hardware as well. Stand-offs, bolts (steel and nylon), nuts & washer (steel and nylon as well) and the FBBC’s will work for my boards as well as the Tamiyas or anyone else’s that is using a 3.2mm hole on a 5mm grid.
These methods are much more “solid” than the plastic “push pins” that @ DevHammer describes below.
Actually, Amazon isn’t necessarily the best place, but your local big box store is around the same price for a quantity of 10 or less for what you’d pay at Amazon, Grainger, ReidSupply, Enco or McMaster. Depending on the piece and quantity, I’ve ordered certain things from any/all 5.
Since being here I have found and learnt alot as there are many very intelligent people with a lot of experience in many areas willing to share and help. I am sure you will impart a lot as well and help keep this an exciting and vibrant community
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As you can tell on that board I various length #4 bolts and make my own standoffs by using however many nuts (the only solution I could come up with at Home Depot as they didn’t have standoff spacers), thus far I’ve been rather happy with the results, but of course I’m waiting for someone to sell a better solution so I can buy some.