Dev Blocks

[Mookitty]

uC prototyping blocks, aka "Dev Blocks." These are small single component boards that are ready to plug into a breadboard. Nothing special, but a real time saver. I have them standardized so that the picaxe pin always connects to the leftmost terminal, then ground. The rightmost is for V+ or a second picaxe pin, depending on application.

The bi-color LEDs are nice space savers, they're actually three colors, since if you power both anodes, you can get amber out of it.

The connectors are interlocked in the first picture. The blocks are, from left to right:
Piezo element
Bi-color LED (red/green) x2
SPST, N-O momentary switch w/ pulldown resistor
Light dependent resistor (LDR)
DS18B20 I2C digital temperature sensor
LM35 temperature sensor (10mV/C)

Here the connectors are in a more natural state:

 

[Dippy]

I'm sure they are lovely.

Is this a product that you are trying to market?

How do they benefit people over and above breadboard?
If you pop a tranny (or whatever) you have to dig out the soldering iron.

Anyway, if people wish to replicate them they look like low-cost PCB terminal blocks stuck on a bit of stripboard.

 

[hippy]

That's the same system I've been using for home development, I called mine "AxeBlobs"

Every time I get a new sensor or IC it goes on a board like that. I've got similar screw-terminal breakout boards for PICAXE processors, I2C / SPI chips, LCD, 433MHz Rx/Tx, transistors and FET, pots, voltage regulators, sockets, standard 22K/10K download interfaces, etc etc.

I find them very convenient. It's easy to put a circuit together using stranded wire, and easy to connect to breadboard with solid core if needed. Less chance of accidentally pulling a wire out or breaking if it takes a knock, plus each board is pre-built and ready to use as well as being well documented. Each module has all the support it needs ( pull-ups and capacitors etc, molex links to use or remove those etc ) so no need to check which way round a component needs to be or how it is used and less chance of getting it wrong or having to debug it.

You have to build the boards which takes time and using screw-terminals adds to the cost but is IMO a price worth paying. True, if you blow something up it needs unsoldering and replacing, but build a few of each and it can be swap-to-replace, fix later.

 

[Mookitty]

Thanks Hippy, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm not fond of breadboarding, and having to work up a board from "scratch" each time makes me tend not to play around as much as I'd like. This way I can hook stuff up quickly. I didn't splash out too much for the screw terms, it took some digging at Digi-key to find the cheap ones on 5.08mm pins (25 cents/ea. for 2 pos./32 cents/ea. for 3 pos.) for my 0.100" hole centers on my perfboard.

My wire wrap sockets should come in the mail today, I'll post pics of converting them to download circuit plug-ins soon.

And Dippy, just showing off a little over something I made.