Ready To Build Again

Well, after a little break from DIY electronics, I am starting to pick up where I left off.

I have a whole new bag of supplies from Tayda and am ready to to continue work on my TPCBoard.  The last version of this board is number 6 and it looks like this...

The main difference is the FTDI connector on the right edge.  The point of this addition was to allow the use of an FTDI adapter to program and communicate with the board. With this addition, I have a cheap, shield compatible Arduino clone that can be built at home for less than five dollars.  Of course I have to build it...

Which should be my next post!

Slightly Revised TPCBoard

After the physical build of my TPCBoard, I noticed a couple of changes that needed to be made.  They are slight, but I think they are nice...

I am out of the latching DPDT switches as well as LM7805 voltage regulators. So I will have to make an order pretty soon!.

I will try to upload this project files to my Github space later today.

Weekend Update

As the weekend draws to a close, I guess I should show some of my work to the world...

TCP Board

The "Trinket Pro Clone" board is this silly idea I had to take the basic Trinket Pro and blow it back up to Arduino size.  What does that give us? It gives us another avenue to pursue akin to the Metaboard project... a somewhat-compatible Arduino clone that can be built at home for a few dollars.

What the Trinket Pro's bootloader gives us is another way to program the device via USB without the need for an USB-to-TTL Serial chip.  This method does not require a jumper to enable the programming mode.  In previous Trinket-fashion, the reset button is pressed to put the device into programming mode for 10 seconds.  The red LED on pin 13 will pulse to indicate that the device is ready to program... as a USBtinyISP.

Well enough talking... here are the pics and diagrams...

I decided to layout the board based on some basic changes to the schematic to match that of the Trinket Pro.  I did not even breadboard it to see if it would work.  Luckily, after a few false starts, I now have a Trinket Pro clone... with a standard R3 Shield layout.

I have included my DPDT latched switch to toggle the two pins used for RX/TX between the USB and the shield header sockets.  I have kept this on the right side, extending beyond the normal edge.  Otherwise, with no jumper to mess with... there was no reason not to switch back to the "left-sided Arduino".  Besides, the room was needed by the ICSP pin header... which I found was actually used on some shields.