I am considering to make these to put in creations and wanted to get a little feedback before I send out for the first batch.
The board is the same size as Justin’s large board at 300 x 200 but I have added a couple of Gadget headers on one side. I often want a connection I can wire up for testing etc. They are brought out to 3.81mm connectors with labels on the PCB.
Thoughts?
PS. If you think I am stepping on Justin’s toes, by all means let me know and I will retain these for my own use. I am in the process of ordering some of his anyway.
My only suggestion would be that you avoid 3.81mm pitch screw terminals. Much easier to get 5.08mm, at least in my part of the world, without going to a specialty online store (i.e. I can buy these http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=HM3130 within 20 minutes including the drive in the Sunday morning traffic)
Thanks Brett. If I was selling the boards without the terminals, I would do this. The company I use for board manufacture has never had an issue sourcing the Phoenix Contact connectors I use. I rarely have space for the 5.08 size and 2.54 is a little on the small side.
@ andre.m I may go for that option if the cost for this board and a Gadgeteer module with terminals was cheaper but as there is no breakout with terminals I am not sure this would be the case. In that case, would a Gadgeteer module with terminals be more useful then, seeing as Justin is offering the mounting boards?
Looking at my workshop I am using breakouts with soldered header-pins pressed down into a breadboard a lot. A gadgeteer breakout module with screw-terminals would make a lot of sense to me.
While we are at it, a module with screw-terminals and a range of generic pnp/npn and other pull-ups and pull-downs. Would be nice.
I’m actually working on something similar that I should finish up this weekend. I’m using these to get sponsorships for NashMicro. Basically, I’m building a mounting board that has a ring of LEDs onboard that surround a 1" x 2" white silk box that I can place the sponsors sticker in. The ring of LEDs has a Gadgeteer socket and acts as a module. I already have two kits sponsored! Once I get five sponsors and Gus gets his new educational kit finished up then I’ll be placing an order. The boards will be OSHW once available in case anyone else wants to borrow the idea for their group.
I think I may abandon the large board idea and go with a small Gadgeteer board with headers and also go with the 5.08 pitch as that seems to be the most popular even though this will increase the board size. A quick check and the ones I have here are 50mm long as block of 10 positions.
Maybe I will split them into two 5 ways on each side of the board.
I’ll mock up the PCB this weekend and see what it looks like.
yep, that’s how I’d envisage it would be “optimally” laid out. Could you move the two rows closer by 5mm, and not encroach on the space at the side of the socket and the hole keep-outs? If it came to it, personally I’d prefer to keep the 5mm and the pwer/gnd silkscreen than compromise that…
I’ve done a couple breakouts like this and found oshpark.com to be the best bet for small volumes (if you’re in the US). Another tip - start with a small batch to cover initial interest here, then do another once you’ve made any final tweaks. Even with the simple breakouts I did, I ended up tweaking the design a couple of times based on actually having the PCB in hand and great feedback from this forum.
I’ll take a couple. I use & recommend DFRobot’s PCB service. BTW, they have a sale starting tomorrow for 3 days that will get you free DHL shipping if order is over $50.
In that case, would a Gadgeteer module with terminals be more useful then, seeing as Justin is offering the mounting boards?