Hi all,

To try and add more value to the Pocket, last night I put together
another (preliminary) schematic and PCB design for a MKII version.
Except for using a 16F877, it uses the same components and has all the
features of the first one except that it can now accept a personality
PCB which plugs into a SIMM socket. I looked at using PCMCIA cards but I
couldn't find one with a big enough pin count. These would have looked
much neater.

The idea being, as I'm sure everyone already knows, is to configure each
of the 40 ZIF pins to suit a particular chip family.

I modified the power supply slightly and used an LM317 so that an
adjustable VPP voltage can be set if it is different to the standard 13V
for PICs. The output voltage is set by a resistor on the personality
board.

I don't see why a C or JAL compiler couldn't be used to create modules
similar to the way the Engine does. I'm sure there are ways to 'hook'
into the operating system to read/write the I2C memory and access the
LCD display etc.

Hopefully all this will mean, if you want to program a mid range PIC,
load the module and plug in the PCB adaptor, same for Scenix, I2C,
parallel eeproms etc.

The only addtional feature I can think of is to put an IDC expansion
connector as well.

If anyone is interested in the design in PDF format, it is at...

http://www.bubblesoftonline.com/pocket/pockMK2.pdf

The PCB is a preliminary design, so any feedback welcome :-)

--
Best regards

Tony

mICros
http://www.bubblesoftonline.com
mailto:sales@bubblesoftonline.com

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