First impressions of PinBoard II R2 AVR + STM32

Somehow under the Old New Year, I decided to place a post about PinBoard II R2. And literally within 20 minutes, he was hard-pressed with two negative votes (it was decided to move the topic into drafts). Without having special experience in writing topics, specifically in writing any reviews, lack of time and the desire to correct anything. I decided to leave everything as it is, adding only this retreat. In any case, I am ready to accept negative karma, to listen to opinions and wishes.
I would like to note that this post is in no way an advertisement of an izi-resource, or an advertisement of its products. This post carries with it positive intentions to express opinions and wishes on the PinBoard debugging board, and is a kind of self-expression in a respected Habré.

I think we should continue

Perhaps each of you had a great desire, but did not have the opportunity to purchase two (and more) debugging boards for different microcontrollers and architectures. Looking ahead, I note that at the moment you have the opportunity to purchase one debug board for almost all known microcontrollers and architectures, this option provides PinBoard II R2 .

PinBoard is actively developed and maintained by the respected DiHalt , and development and support is not only about correcting and supplementing the debug board, the author actively maintains and develops his blog , where you can find quite useful information, as well as a series of training courses and educational programs on MK programming .
')
Actually impressions

So, 12/21/2012, I ordered myself such a device. Despite all the statements of the online store manager, that the shipment will be made after the New Year holidays (because volumes, orders, complete sets, etc.), my request to send the goods has not been ignored before (for which special thanks Di). I do not know what forces and means were thrown on the implementation of my order, but the parcel was sent by the 1st class on the 24th.

The Di headquarters , as I understand it, is based in Chelyabinsk, according to official data from the Russian Post, a 1st class parcel from Chelyabinsk to Krasnodar is sent 4 days, and from Krasnodar to its destination is less than a day.

Judging by the tracking, on December 30 last year the package was already in the city, but due to the New Year holidays, I managed to pick it up only on January 3 of the current year.

Returning home from the post office, anticipating the beauty of the contents of the package, I immediately hurried to open it. It turned out that not only the debug board was there, but also some surprises that I wouldn’t like to talk about, so as not to strain Di next to come up with something new, something he certainly can do.

In addition to the surprises inside me, I expected the following set:

- PinBoard II R2 Baseplate
- Fixed AVR module with ATMega16 controller
- Adapter for in-circuit debugging AVR based on HAPPY JTAG ICE II
- STM32 module with STM32F103C8T6 controller
- Adapter for in-circuit debugging JTAG ARM based on CoLink
- LCD display. Character 16x2 familiarity. Based on HD44780 controller
- A set of contacts and a colored loop for the manufacture of jumpers
- A set of three quartz at 12 MHz, 16 MHz and 32768 kHz (hourly).
- Plastic racks, caps for buttons

A few photos:

The parcel itself turned out to be fairly well packed, but the first or not first class, Kock is still present, it can be seen in the photo below



Autopsy





In general, the modules and main board were packed neatly





What I liked:

- There is no clear binding of MK ports to specific devices, as well as a clear binding of devices to something
- Enough compact board for all its peripherals
- 2 USB ports, debug and directly MK-shny, with the ability to disable the latter
- PS / 2 presence for keyboard and mouse
- JTAG debugging and ISP presence
- Replaceable module MK and debugger (allowing the use of microcontrollers from different manufacturers)
- The presence of almost all the necessary elements for the possibility of debugging
- Ability to switch power between CPU power and Main Power board power
- Ability to debug Ethernet devices (with the presence of a LAN Ethernet Adapter Expansion Card on ENC28J60 )
- Rather active support of the project not only by the author, but also by other developers (regarding extension modules)

What amendments would like to see (personal opinion)

- First of all, it seemed to me that the board was too compact. Nevertheless, 2 cm on each side can be added, and the free space can be distributed between the elements;
- The panel in the lower left for prototyping, I think it is worth replacing with a conventional bezpechny prototyping board like this:

because Collet sockets are nice, but there’s really nothing to install. Suppose I could not establish the IRF540;
- Add one more encoder and variable resistor;
- To carry the LCD above or somewhere else in order to get visual access to the segment indicator;
- Put in the kit one more row of sockets on the cable BLS-1, BLS-2, because only one BLS-3 is inconvenient to make a complete circuit switching, let me have to kill three pieces of BLS-3 to make single and single row sockets of them;
- Include in the kit a heat shrink tube for the corresponding wires that are supplied in the same kit;
- Also included in the package more jumpers (different colors) for the plugs on the board, I suppose it seemed very convenient to replace the jumpers on the power of blue, on the jumpers red;
- Return ISP-6, sometimes very convenient;
- I really need a COM port as such, I understand that FT2232, but still;

In principle, all that I wanted to express. In general, the debug board came out very successful and easy to use, I advise both beginners Embeddedders and Professionals .

Professionals:


We are waiting for new amendments, extensions and implementations!

More details can be found here:

Pinboard II debug board
Pinboard II REV 2
Pinboard II documentation

Thanks for attention.
Sincerely, zhogar.