Product idea: Universal comms board

Whilst looking at the latest Arduino (Giga R1) to be released it struck me as yet another missed opportunity. It has CANFD, which is awesome, but there's no driver chip onboard. If you want ethernet then you'll have to provide your own magnetics and driver board.

The year is 2023, basic connectivity isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. Having to buy an assortment of add-on boards to make a relatively expensive board usable in the real world is just wrong.

As a solution, how about a universal comms board that has the essentials, ethernet, USB host, CAN/CANFD, RS485 etc. with a basic microcontroller that presents an API, (or SPI bus), that can be used by any past or future 3.3 or 5v Arduino board.

To save cost you could have a single PCB that can be partly or fully populated. Don't constrain it to being a shield, just keep it simple with mounting holes so it can be mounted nearby.

And you are interested in funding the development?

A microcontroller usually has a specific purpose.

A single board computer is more universal but you still probably can't find one with RS-422 or CAN bus or GPIB, etc., built-in.

Where I work we make a board with several interface options but it has a more-specific purpose and you can't program it for your own use it like an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, etc.

Computers don't have RS-232 anymore.

So far, none of by Arduino projects need ANY connectivity other than USB during programming.

If The Arduino company ran a Kickstarter style campaign I would contribute, however their current product development process is opaque and boards just appear at random. I would guess that ARM as their business partner wouldn't necessarily be interested in making a board that mostly consists of chips made by other manufacturers.

Sounds like a reasonable idea, how much do you envisage charging for the finished board ?

I'm just a customer, the manufacturer sets the price.

Actually the manufacturer will set the price at what the customer will pay. If that will not cover the development costs, the manufacturing costs and on-going support costs, then it will not be made.

OK, so one board to do it all.

Say for example you want RS485 comms for a project, what would the advantage of 'one board to do it all' versus the current RS485 boards ?

Single form factor instead of a myriad of form factors some of which don't even have mounting holes.

Ok, let's say I have a bunch of those exact boards. The price is the sum of all the individual boards that you can but right now. Would you pay for one of my boards rather than just buying the WIFI board you need right now?

Are you operating as a one person company? If so, then definitely not, for the same reason I'll never use a Teensy product. The risk of the company and its products disappearing overnight due to ill health or whatever is too great.

Are you charging Arduino prices but using your own branding? If so, then no. The Arduino branding is used as justification for the inflated prices. If you are using your own branding then prices should be competitive with other companies products.

So, if you are backed by a substantial company that will continue to exist at least for the next 10 years and are prepared to price competitively, then yes.

You would not know because you would be buying from a dealer who is buying in bulk from a distributor who may have ordered 5,000 boards from the manufacturer.

A complete absence of screws or clips to keep the boards in place or provide stress relief when plugging and unplugging cables.

What were the designers thinking?

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