New Development Board Suggestion: "USB BUB BBB"

[mdAndy]

New Development Board Suggestion: "USB BUB BBB"

There are many times that having just an BBB board
with USB built in is all a person needs.
The power draw of a 328P idle is 25 ma and the
USB max. current is 100 ma.

On your BBB board do the following:
#1. Remove all power supply options.
#2. Add your "well designed" USB BUB to a section of the
board in which you removed the parts from #1 above.
Make it so that the board is "pre-soldered" with
only the surface mount components needed by the BUB.
This makes it easy for the end user building your kit.


Would the cost go down by combining your BUB with a BBB?

[floresta]

The whole idea of the BBB is to separate the seldom used USB circuitry from the always used microcontroller.

Microcontrollers are typically used to obtain input signals from sensors and provide output signals to devices in response to those signals. In this context the only purpose of the USB interface is to provide a means for downloading the instructions (sketch) that the microprocessor needs to operate. Once the instructions have been downloaded to the microcontroller the USB circuitry is not used. So - if the USB circuitry is on a separate board (BUB) that USB circuitry can then be used with another microcontroller while the first microcontroller continues happily working away.

If you insist on lugging around a computer to power your microcontroller (via USB) after the instructions are downloaded there are options that are less expensive than BUB circuitry on the microcontroller board. Here's a link to a USB to 5.5mm Barrel Jack Adapter that costs less than $3 http://www.nkcelectronics.com/barrel-ja ... -5555.html.

If you want to lug a computer around to get textual information back from your microcontroller then just buy a real Arduino, or better yet use the microcontroller that is in the computer to do the whole job.

Don

[mdAndy]

The whole idea of the BBB is to separate the seldom used USB circuitry from the always used microcontroller.

Maybe for your "stand alone" applications. For others, like me, having the PC tied to the BBB constantly via USB BUB suits me fine.
That is why I suggested to have the circuit already built into the board as an alternate product BBB. As for cost, going and purchasing
the stock Arduino would not save me any money. Besides the BBB is a very compact microcontroller PCB.

[oz]

I did wonder about putting the ftdi chip on the RBBB a la Lady Ada's boarduino. As Don mentioned - I kind of designed things to get away from the comm chip on the board to make it all smaller and cheaper. Putting the com chip back on kind of ends up back at the Arduino - but in a form factor that doesn't fit all the shields everyone seems to want on their boards.

The idea of a USB only unit is kind of attractive though - but I do wonder about the market - since it would have no overwhelming rasion d'etre except for my cute form factor. The price advantage would be marginal - with just a few arduino parts missing, and I can't compete with the prices they get on mass production anyway.

To tell you the truth, my thinking was always along the lines of Don's, that people who wanted a unit tethered to a laptop would just end up getting an Arduino - or another of the clones.

Paul

[floresta]

mdAndy:
Sorry, I overlooked the 'Development Board' part of your heading.

Paul:
What I would like to see is a BBB with the analog pins turned 90 degrees so they will plug into the breadboard along with all the other pins. This would make the board only slightly longer than the BBB or Boarduino. The USB circuitry could go in the new space 'above' the rotated analog pins. You would wind up with a unique product, a board with full Arduino functionality that will plug into and use up only one side of a solderless breadboard. You could also market a sub-product, one without the USB parts, for embedded use in a product or for people like me who use the ICSP header for programming.

Off topic: You really should think about emphasizing that the BBB is the only Arduino type board (that I know of) that includes the recommended filtering on the AVcc and Aref lines.

Don

[Aaronhycle]

Its impossible to make it for the centaur, because of that... WEEEELL, Ill first make the module as a non-starter, but when the centaur is finished, it can be used for that?

[Michaelkfyif]

Its impossible to make it for the centaur, because of that... WEEEELL, Ill first make the module as a non-starter, but when the centaur is finished, it can be used for that?