Development Board Recomendations ???

[bbarney]

Thank's Steve

[vacpress]

so... i looked at the easypic 4 boards -they seem amazing featurres\dollar... however, one major issue held me back... is it really helpfull to have to switch in LEDs and switches in banks of 8?

Sure it makes the device more economical and easier to route, but really, putting all of port a as switches and b as LEDs is a bit silly?

most of my programs have a few switches and LEDS, not 8 and 8! what does this do to the smaller devices? also, is there any flexibility with LCD pin assignments, etc?


please correct me if this is not the case, or if you have found this concern isnt an issue in practice! i had my card out at one point! then i read the manual and backed off...

-Robert

[mister_e]

i have to agree, it's a bit silly but, you could still attach your breadboard to it really easy. 2 choice, do your own personal adapter or use the EasyConnect adapter

sometimes EasyInput is also handy

Have a look at their plug-in board. Cheap enough to buy few of each.

And nope, there's no way to change the default LCD pinout. It's assign to PORTD (+ PORTB for GLCD) all the time and don't work on smaller device than 40 pins unless you trick the board. Nothing is perfect!

I had an idea for the ultimate development board... but when i calculate the final pricing, it was clear enough that it was way too expensive and out of the actual competition pricing. So i flushed the idea.

[vacpress]

i would be very interested in a board that has everything the easy pic 3/4 has, but with more routing flexability.. this dosent have to be a major cost inflation over their design... i just needs to be a bit different, and possibly not use PC style jumpers, but instead use 2 sets of female header and jumper wires or something... i mean... i really want this board.. but i dont want it to end up being a terminal for some 40 pin pic i never take out of it..

it seems great for education or something...

this doohickey i see with the screw terminals... this just extends a port to 8 screw terminals?

sorta OK... i mean.. wouldnt it have been Cooool if it was possible to have the 2 LCDs at least on different ports?

oh well. it still looks like a rad board.. many less 'is it this or that' problems to face durring debugging... i guess you develop the project on the board and then change the code for the actual device... i dunno... ~$150 can buy alot of other neat stuff if you allready have the essentials of what the easypic has...
carry on :_)

[muddy0409]

Hi Vac,
Did you have a look at the Microbyte board I mentioned above?
That would address most of your queries!!

[vacpress]

sorta.. eeexcept.. almost twice as expensive with marginal differences. the easypic board has some key features for me.. the usb port for working with 4550s, my main interest, as well as the usb programmer... this board looks nice as well.. i think i will stick with breadboards and my $25 carrier board i added terminal strips to and a usb port and other various common goodies.. for a total cost of like $40...

[muddy0409]

Yep, fair enough.
Can't argue with that!