next topic »

[on:]

After a couple weeks of testing the production version I figured I would make my official announcement of my new board the the forums. The JKD Freeduino Hybrid.

The board is an Duemilanove/UNO compatible Arduino with both a 3.3V and 5.0V regulator.  It also has a level shifter for up to 8 I/O's so the board can run at 5.0V while interfacing and powering 3.3V devices.  The level shifter was designed to also allow you to connect your own reference voltage if you need to interface with a device that is neither 3.3V or 5.0V

One other unique thing about this board is that you can use both surface mount or through hole parts for most of the components.  This allows the same board to work as a kit with through hole parts.  There are a few options for connecting power, a jumper for disabling auto reset and you can use a crystal or a resonator.

The design is released under the CC SA 3.0 license.





More info is available http://jkdevices.com/arduino-compatible/arduino-duemilanove-compatible

[Reply #1 on:]

Looks very nice. I sure would like to have a look at the schematic drawing, but the link doesn't work?

Lefty

[Reply #2 on:]

Sorry... try now.  I saw it error out on you so I just re-uploaded it.  BTW woopra is great for seeing what is happening live on your website.

Also I will have the Eagle files available soon.  I am still working on cleaning them up a bit.

[Reply #3 on:]

Thanks, works now and the printer is spitting it out. I like arduino designs that go out of the box a little on features and options.

Lefty

[Reply #4 on:]

Very neat and thoughtful design.

[Reply #5 on:]

One other unique thing about this board is that you can use both surface mount or through hole parts for most of the components

That's a very cool idea that I'd like to see done more often. Luke Weston has designed a few boards that way, including the MobSenDat (Mobile Sensor Datalogger) that used hybrid footprints to allow either SMT or PTH for most parts:

http://www.freetronics.com/mobsendat
--
Jon
Arduino Shield List: www.shieldlist.org

[Reply #6 on:]

Thanks for the feedback.  After designing this I decided to make any future through hole boards also surface mount compatible.  It just makes sense to do if there is room and helps the design have a longer lifespan.

I personally prefer assembling boards where all the passives are surface mount.  It seems to go a lot faster for me and there is a lot less waste.  Although I haven't gone smaller than 0805 yet for manual assembly.

I'm also hoping to do some more 3.3V stuff in the future... maybe a 3.3V (or less) adapter shield or something.

[Reply #7 on:]

I personally prefer assembling boards where all the passives are surface mount

Likewise, and often when using prototyping shields I use 0603 or 0805 parts straight across the grid. Works brilliantly, and results in a very clean board with high part density. I also often substitute SMT parts on PCBs that aren't designed for it: any part that's set up on a 0.1" footprint (such as PTH resistors mounted vertically, or ceramic capacitors) can just be replaced with an SMT version.
--
Jon

[Reply #8 on:]

looks good
are the larger SMD components already installed? (2 plus 2 regulators??)

[Reply #9 on:]

are the larger SMD components already installed? (2 plus 2 regulators??)

Yes they are... along with the LED's for the FT232 and a resistor for the level shifter.

Also I just finished building up all the boards so currently they are only available as fully assembled.  But I have another batch of boards coming in that will include some silkscreen fixes.