Mike Hord wrote:
> Also, and this may be a minor point or something for the
> user to worry about, but it'd be cool to see some feature which makes
> monitoring the current consumption easy- maybe a jumper that can be
> removed to provide a shunt?

I was thinking of providing pads for automotive power input, which would
include a series resistor so that the voltage clamp has something to work
against.  This could also be used as a current sense.

> Perhaps being certain to include pads for a 32.768 kHz crystal near the
> PIC, for easy and accurate Timer1 RTCs?

Timer 1 oscillator crystal seems so obvious I don't know how it got missed
in the first place.  The prototype area would not be good for that since you
want to keep the leads really short.  I'll add pads for a watch crystal and
caps close to the processor.

> A small surface mount prototyping area?

Hmm.  There are so many different SMD footprints I think it would take up a
lot of board space for something not often used.  I've made a note though
and will consider it after seeing how much board space is left over, if any.
Maybe one 14 pin SOIC commonly used by opamps, many of which aren't
available in DIP.

> I also want to ask:  what happens as the pads in the prototyping area
> start to "wear out"

They're not supposed to wear out, you're supposed to buy a new one for each
project ;-)

Actually I'm not totally joking.  Temporary projects are best done with
those protoboards with the zillion pin sockets.  I was envisioning my boards
to save the tedium of wiring up one off but more premanent projects.  One of
my boards together with a protoboard would be a good fit for
experimentation.  My board takes care of all the mandatory basics like power
supply, oscillator and some nice options like RS-232 and debug LEDs.  You
solder wires to the processor pin pads, power, and ground, then use the
protoboard to connect them to the experimental circuit.

> If you get it done soon enough, I'll order a few with the EasyProg I'm
> putting off ordering.  ;-)

I think I'll just get it done in time for Masters, which is only two months
away.


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