Hello again folks, I ran into some troubles with the board design for EChucK, specifically the connectors. Although the screw-down terminals I selected are fairly inexpensive, they are physically large and occupy too much of the board space. Also their cost dominates the cost of the boards, at about 40 cents US per node. Furthermore, as a friend points out, the method of interconnection is not foolproof, and in fact it is easy to make reverse power connections, which would of course destroy the chips. What I need is a super-inexpensive, small two-conductor connector that is hopefully semi-rigid and adjustable in length. Maybe what I'm looking for is a small Molex type connector or a header or something, I'm not sure, but it must be foolproof, small, and inexpensive. In the mean time I have recalled that DigiKey sells a miniature breadboard for $7.37 US, which would be perfect for prototyping EChucK. So I'm going to buy several of those and some parts for prototyping EChucK modules while I try to figure out the best connector system. Actually I wonder if the best connector is no connector at all. Users can simply solder the modules together. That would be a super low-cost approach and would lend itself to miniaturization very well. As a potential EChucK user, would you be opposed to soldering the components together? What connector system would you use? Les (Inventor)
Hey Les,
I don't mind soldering, but I think that soldering the components together
is a bad idea. Having to heat up the soldering iron to rearrange things
could be quite tedious, and if you're soldering and desoldering the same pad
over and over, there's the potential to burn off the pad or pull out the via
if it is a through-hole.
I'd personally prefer a simple stake header (the kind you'd use for a
jumper). The insides of old PCs typically have one or two cables that have
stake header connectors on them. Molex connectors might be a little more
ubiquitous though.
How small are you planning to make these boards? I used some blue screw-down
terminals for a class that weren't very big (maybe .5cm x .5cm footprint,
1cm tall?)
-Kevin
On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 5:15 PM,
Hello again folks,
I ran into some troubles with the board design for EChucK, specifically the connectors. Although the screw-down terminals I selected are fairly inexpensive, they are physically large and occupy too much of the board space. Also their cost dominates the cost of the boards, at about 40 cents US per node. Furthermore, as a friend points out, the method of interconnection is not foolproof, and in fact it is easy to make reverse power connections, which would of course destroy the chips.
What I need is a super-inexpensive, small two-conductor connector that is hopefully semi-rigid and adjustable in length. Maybe what I'm looking for is a small Molex type connector or a header or something, I'm not sure, but it must be foolproof, small, and inexpensive.
In the mean time I have recalled that DigiKey sells a miniature breadboard for $7.37 US, which would be perfect for prototyping EChucK. So I'm going to buy several of those and some parts for prototyping EChucK modules while I try to figure out the best connector system.
Actually I wonder if the best connector is no connector at all. Users can simply solder the modules together. That would be a super low-cost approach and would lend itself to miniaturization very well. As a potential EChucK user, would you be opposed to soldering the components together? What connector system would you use?
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Kevin Nelson