Homebrew Experimenter's Board

[mikejp56]

Hi All,
After browsing the Micro Electronics Lab website and doing research on Google, I was inspired to design and build my own PIC experimenter's board. It will have the following:
40 Pin ZIF Socket
8 LEDs
4 Pushbutton switches
2x16 LCD display
USB programmer
64K I2C EEPROM
Temperature and Humidity sensors
Potentiometer for 0-5V analog input
Piezoelectric buzzer

The ZIF socket will be wired for a 16F887, with all of the port connections coming out to female headers. The peripherals will also have female header connectors for easy interconnects.
Other PICs will be available for use by inserting them into an interface board wired with different sized sockets. The interface board will have 40 pins that plug into the ZIF socket, allowing any PIC to have access to any of the port pins and any of the peripherals. The only restriction to the use of the interface board is that only the PIC in use can be plugged into its socket; the other sockets cannot be populated.
I will post schematics and a bill of materials soon.
regards,
mike

[mikejp56]

813081298128Here are the schematics and a bill of materials for the PIC Experimenter board. One thing that I forgot to mention in my first post has to do with the USB Programmer. The schematic, firmware, and programming software are available from Circuits Gallery. A google search will find the link to "How to build your own USB PIC programmer." I will post schematics for the adapter board soon.
Regards,
Mike

[Heckler]

Hey Mike,

That is looking pretty good.
A couple of thoughts...

I did not see any regulator on board to power your projects.
You may want to consider making it possible to use either 5v or 3.3v by including both regulators and a selection header.
Or are you planning on the usb providing the power?

[mikejp56]

Hi Heckler,
The 5 volts is supplied by the USB connector.
Sorry that I forgot to mention that.
Regards,
Mike