Building a development board is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Like many other robot builders, when I want to just work on a concept or play around with a new sensor, I don’t want to have to build a new circuit every time. So I built a development board. It comes complete with a mouthful of features so here I go…

1. 5 volt, 2 amp power supply.
2. Sockets for all PIC Microcontrollers, with in-circuit programming.
3. Sockets for all Basic Stamp microcontrollers, with in-circuit programming.
4. Socket for the SX-28 microcontroller, with in-circuit programming.
5. 2 x 2 amp motor controllers with directional LEDS. The power can be switched so the motors run on an external battery. This can also be used as a bipolar stepper motor driver.
6. Unipolar stepper motor driver with directional LEDS.
7. Socket for a parallel LCD in 4-bit mode.
8. Socket for a serial LCD.
9. 8x8 LED matrix with red and green LEDS.
10. 2 x 7-segment common cathode LEDS.
11. 2 x 7-segment common anode LEDS with driver chips.
12. Peizo speaker.
13. Audio amp with connector to attach an external speaker.
14. 2 x Potentiometers, with the legs attached to 5 volts and ground.
15. DB-9 connector
16. 8 x servo headers.
17. 8 x LEDS that can be controlled independently, or through a serial to parallel shift register.
18. 8 x buttons that can he read in independently, or through a parallel to serial shift register.
19. Solderless breadboard.

All of the pins for the microcontrollers and the control pins for the devices run to sip headers on the side of the solder-less breadboard. Everything can simply connect to each other using a wire or two.

Next to the power input I placed a set of 8 switches. Each device that requires 5 volts is connected to one of the switches. Now no power will be wasted running a chip that you are not using.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.