LCDuino... Yet another Arduino compatible platform

Other Hardware Hardware Development
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I'm not sure the world needs one, but I've thrown my hat into the ring.

Almost all of the things I do with Arduino involve a 2x16 RGB backlit LCD driven over i2c with the LiquidTWI2 library. At first I used the AdaFruit RGB LCD shield, then the OpenEVSE backpack display. Lately, I've been making my own special-purpose backpacks, but that's another story.

I've always found that mixing Arduino with breadboards to be problematic. What I really wanted instead was all of the I/O of an Uno, combined with the ease of loading sketches with a connector easier to interface to a breadboard, along with an integrated i2c display.

And that's what LCDuino is.

It's an 80x36 mm SMD Uno clone with a 26 pin .1" DIP header with all of the I/O. Additionally, there is an MCP23017 driving an RGB backlit LCD that piggy-backs onto the board. There is a micro-USB connector for power and uploading sketches, or power can be supplied over the I/O cable. There's also a 14 pin DIP header for the buttons and piezo supported by the LiquidTWI2 library.

If you have an investment in shields, I have a shield adapter that goes with LCDuino. It has a 2.1mm power jack and 5 and 3.3 volt regulators. It replaces A4 and A5, which are the i2c bus (brought out on the Rev3 style extension pins) with A6 and A7 (available on the TQFP package ATMega used), so you get a full compliment of analog pins despite using i2c.

Lastly, the bottom 6 pins of the I/O header are arranged to form an ISP header, in case you need bootload the controller.

The USB interface is an FTDI232R.

Check it out at http://store.geppettoelectronics.com/ or Geppetto Electronics: LCDuino

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It replaces A4 and A5, which are the i2c bus (brought out on the Rev3 style extension pins) with A6 and A7 (available on the TQFP package ATMega used), so you get a full compliment of analog pins despite using i2c.

Note that A6, A7 are analog input only, with no digital input/output capability.

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CrossRoads:
Note that A6, A7 are analog input only, with no digital input/output capability.

Absolutely correct. But it's better than losing A4 and A5 entirely, IMHO.

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From your blog

In large volumes, those prices could potentially come down, but that's hard to bootstrap when you're basically blogging to yourself. :slight_smile:

Welcome to the world of "no-one gives a crap about what you are doing" :), at least until you have something real to offer which it looks like you do now.

But as long as you are enjoying it that doesn't matter much.

Rob

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Graynomad:
at least until you have something real to offer which it looks like you do now.

Yeah, that's why I didn't post anything here until now. I only like to announce things that are real. :slight_smile:

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I only like to announce things that are real.

That's a lesson I've been slow to learn.

Many people (myself included) ask what people would want in a new board, truth is almost nobody knows or if they do they aren't interested in giving you their ideas. So you forge ahead and then everyone says "Why didn't you include X?"

It's a hard life :slight_smile:

Rob