Pardon me if this has already been suggested, but I haven't found it anywhere yet.
I think it's a really, really bad thing that the breakout boards don't follow any noticable standards. IMO, the hole configuration should follow a standard. Then, Arduino cases could be made to host one or more breakout board easily and safely fastened inside the box. No matter if it's a real time clock, a relay, or any other kind of module.
And, better yet, using a grid of multiples of 8mm c/c, holders with LEGO stud compatible interface could be 3D printed to hold the boards to a LEGO baseplate instead of swinging around randomly and threatening to short against the nearest next board.
Which "breakout boards" are you talking about? Shields in general, or something else?
A lot of shields (motor, ethernet, audio, etc) have special connectors, height, or cooling requirements that would make them really difficult to meet standards.)
"breakout boards don't follow any noticable standards"
Breakout boards for what? ICs? How many pins?
Displays?
Motors?
Buttons? etc.
If you have something specific in mind, perhaps we can help you locate it.
Or get one designed, you could have a bunch built and be the distributor for it.
spycatcher2k:
Why? I manufacture and sell over 50 'Breakout' boards, and not a single one of them was designed for use with the Arduino!
Then why do you bother to trash my idea completely? What are you doing in an Arduino forum anyway, if you apparently aren't interested in Arduino stuff at all? You ask 'why?', so you don't understand what is so very bad with the current Anarchy and you don't see any benefits in a method to peg down the boards in a fast and easy way. But nevertheless you trash my vision. Now it's my turn to ask: Why?
CrossRoads:
"breakout boards don't follow any noticable standards"
Breakout boards for what? ICs? How many pins?
Displays?
Motors?
Buttons? etc.
If you have something specific in mind, perhaps we can help you locate it.
Or get one designed, you could have a bunch built and be the distributor for it.
Buttons, switch matrices, real time clock, displays of various kinds, sensors, multiplexers, and a lot of other stuff that don't come up in my mind right now...
I have absolutely no problems finding them, with signal levels perfectly matching Arduino pins. But I'm talking about the total Anarchy of the mounting holes alignment. Why not set a standard grid? (I would prefer 8 mm for resons already mentioned, but I can live with another grid, even an inch based.)
Most perfboard is on 2.54mm grid, 3 holes 7.52mm.
You could come up with a protoboard and put the holes for your breakout board where you wanted them, making sure to miss the USB header and power jack and ICSP headers like I did here
I don't see how that shield would help organizing a prototype project like this for example.
I still would find it extremely helpful if I could just snap the different boards on for example a LEGO baseplate, preventing them from accidental collisions.
So ... are you asking for boards that would, say, plug onto a lego base plate as "mounting" (for physical permanence and rigidity), completely separate from their size and electrical connectivity ? Sort of half-Lego pieces that would mount the PCBs by screws on the top, and plug onto Lego blocks on the bottom? Sort of like the free universal construction kit/
That's actually a pretty interesting idea... As you say, the lack of ANY standardization for mounting holes makes it difficult to create a universal version of such a gadget, but something that converted the typical 0.1inch grid of prototype boards to the 8mm grid of lego studs would be a start...
I've always wondered if there were good reasons ways to pick where mounting holes are placed. Aside from obvious "matches the mounting holes in a particular box", Lego's 8mm grid is one of the first guidelines I've seen...
Now we're getting somewhere! Sorry for getting a bit grumpy last night, but it gets quite frustrating when one doesn't master English enough to put things understandable.
There are already a number of Arduino holders you can attach to a Lego baseplate, to either buy or 3D print. It woud have been a lot easier (and cheaper!) to make if the Arduino Uno and so on had had a more Lego-ish mounting hole pattern. But, of course, this standard is set a long time ago so we just have to live with it. But, as said earlier, I think it would be wonderful to be able to mount other boards to a Lego plate, too. I was thinking of four identical legs, or pillars, to begin with. Either a snapping system on top or just a screw hole.
I looked at this a bit more. LEGO is really huge compared to a lot of the breakout boards that we'd be talking about
I generally try to stick m2 (2mm) holes in the corners of my boards, but have to leave out a corner now and then because I have too many components. Lego needs 4.8mm holes, and probably more than one in a group, if you want anything remotely sturdy
I'll try to keep the spacing and hole size in mind on projects, but it looks a bit unlikely.
(The big problem is that the "sweet spot" for having PCBs made is (was?) 50x50mm, which is pretty small. You generally like to fill that up with parts. The area taken up by 4 2x1 Lego-brick hole patterns exceeds 20% of the board area, without including the space you lose by having to awkwardly route around the holes...)
I think a simple solution would be to glue regular standoffs to lego bricks, then you can plug the brick onto a lego baseboard, and then attach any type of board to the standoff.
I've designed some Gadgeteer modules, and for small modules most of the area is taken by mounting holes and connectors, which is quite restrictive. I can't see manufacturers of small breakout boards adding holes according to any sort of spec, whether the pitch is 5mm, 8mm, 10mm, 25mm... they are primarily driven by cost.
Therefore a workaround would be to create PCB mounting clips that a PCB can slot into, and then the clip plugs into a baseboard (lego, pegboard, whatever).
Funny, in the old days we used a piece of wood board, and nails or screws into the board (hence the origin of "breadboard"). This could be made in 5 minutes with common materials. Nowadays, people seem to expect everything to be made to a standard, and ready made for them... at no extra cost of course.
SimLego:
I didn't think for a nanosecond of having 4.8mm holes.
Ok, so we can eliminate one number, that still leaves a lot of other possibilities I think it would help if you could create a sketch to illustrate some ideas.
I found some adhesive clips, which could be used to mount arbitrary sized boards onto a base. e.g. self-adhesive spacer for PCB
One of the problems is cost - LCD boards for example are sold to a range of customers , who might have an Arduino, Pi, or a custom design . An Arduino specific one would therefore cost more .
Another problem would be pin allocation , where you might at present use an analog pin as a digital because you've run out - this freedom would be lost and you'd find you could not use an LCD with a motor board or whatever . There is some standardisation in that shields do fit on top of one another . You could I guess make a board with a soldered in LCD , that fits as a shield ( a few are available) - there would still be allocation problems however.
Have a look at the industrino and similar packaged products , and lilly pad stackables. There are also ( non franchised ??) companies that will embed Arduino onto boards with other devices . Personally I've made a few PCB boards that have say a plug in NANO , some I/o drivers , MAX 232 and so on - this actually costs very little and tidies up your finished project
