Hello, I have been working with Arduino for the last couple of years. Slowly I have been improving on the project I have been working. In the latest rendition, I made my first PCB. I am waiting for my second version to be shipped to me now. I messed up the first. As I was fixing it, I thought about how to make it more flexible for future projects. So I made it bigger and added ways that other people might be able to use it for their projects. I would like your opinions about my design and what I should change.
This is for a Mega 2560 V3. The card will slide into an aluminum box with a 140mm slot. The PCB will have the Mega mounted on top, but under the Mega, on the opposite side of the PCB, there can be a serial RS232 to TTL card. I have put holes along the header pins to allow for easy solder points. There is a place for two right-angle terminal blocks to be installed as well.
I plan to make a 3D print file on TinkerCad that can be a faceplate for the box.
Anyway, I am not an expert at doing this, just a guy that needs one PCB, but will end up with five. Trying to make it as usable as possible. Let me know your ideas.
I’ve done a few of these myself and have added leds that can be jumpered to outputs, pots to give analog ins , push buttons, extra 5v/0v pins and open collector drivers .
You have a lot of free space - fill it !
This helps when designing a new project .
I would say the Mega is not so popular these days with the likes of Nano every around .
Check board size , certain sizes cheaper to have made
I did put some on Ebay , sold none - can’t make them cheap enough in small quantities !
Thanks for the comments. Hammy, I love the board. That is far beyond what I am trying to do. I am using a Mega because I run out of memory and need multiple RS232 connections.
As my projects grew and became more complicated, my builds became a mess of wires. So I tried to mount it all in a single box. I wish I had taken some photos, Looked good on the outside but rotten on the inside. This PCB should mount nicely in an aluminum box 140mm wide. I tried to make all the ports available for wires soldered when needed. I put in place resistors not because I need them but because it is the most used for my projects right now. Maybe later, I will expand.
