Cheap & Rugged Dev Boards to buy for class project.  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: paschwuerfler
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 07:14:53 pm
content: I'm currently planning a workshop where a few people with varying amounts of electronics knowledge are supposed to quickly build a prototype circuit on a perfboard.I know from experience that some Microcontroller Platforms are easier to break than others. I've shorted ATMEGA pins to ground without the chip dying, while ESP8266s have kicked the bucket from abuse that seems minor in comparison. For the project, I would like to choose something that is rugged against abuse.The project requires interfacing with andI2CIMU; interfacing with someWS2812bLEDs and generating aPWMsignal for a servo.The MCU board chosen for this should be able to beprogrammed over USB via the Arduino IDEto make software overhead as small as possible for the participants, as the workshop has rather tight time constraints. - This also means that boards that need to be fiddled with to flash(i.e. MCUs with a build-in USB interface) are suboptimal. E.g. The ESP32-C3 needs to be unplugged and plugged in again for flashing and doesn't play nice with the Arduino IDE in general.The workshop is also rather budget-limited, so I'd like to spend less than4$ per MCU Board.Which boards have survived your abuse in the past and fit those requirements? I look forward to hearing some horror stories! I've heard from somebody that they were able to flash an ATTINY after snipping off a part of the actual die. (I would instantly use an ATTINY, but the flashing process has been quite flakey for me in the past).

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 08:40:08 pm
content: Arduino Uno R3/CH340 clones with a USB type B connector are cheap, and mechanically rugged.You could also use Nano V3.0 clones with header pins and plug them directly into a solderless breadboard. They are a little cheaper than the Uno clones (about $1 less).

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 09:03:32 pm
content: There are "ruggedized" version of arduino. I forgot what they put into them, but probably something like TVS diodes and 20 to 100 Ohm series resistors on all I/O pins, but you are not going to get such boards for USD 4.For ruggedness. I've got a feeling the're getting more fragile with each generation. I started with the PIC16F84, and when switching to the AVR's I got a feeling they were a bit more fragile, and they became a bit more fragile about 10 years later. I guess a die shrink does that to those chips, although I do not see a good reason to keep the last I/O stage and protection circuit the same size transistors as previous generations (That would not be a straight die shrink but need a bit of re-engineering). Because of this, I think you're best off with an older design uC. But you also want software compatibility. I doubt you would be able to get much better then the old ATMEGA's. I also got the impression that PORTC (with the analog inputs) on the Atmega8 and 328 is more easily damaged then the other ports, but I do not have enough data to know this for sure.

author: mariush
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 09:18:27 pm
content: It may be worth to stretch your budget to buy one or two Microchip SNAP programmers, they're now around $15 :https://www.microchip.com/en-us/development-tool/pg164100You can program majority of modern pic16f, pic18f etc etc and some are available in DIP package and have cool features, they work down to 1.8v if you run them at lower frequencies (so you could run with a 3v cr2032 battery if needed), have internal oscillator, some have dacs besides 10-12bit adc ...an example of all around versatile good price for the features chip :https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technology/PIC16F15243-I-P/12807193https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technology/PIC16F15244-I-P/12807428(same as above but 2x the flash space)https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technology/PIC16F18145-I-P/16643826https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/microchip-technology/PIC16F18154-I-SP/18876321

author: uer166
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2024, 10:49:46 pm
content: $4 a board and anything you might call "rugged" doesn't really mix well. Consider either increasing budget or removing any kind of requirement that makes the board more expensive

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2024, 06:22:48 am
content: Is snapping parts of a die seriously a requirement for rugidness?For whom is this workshop? Carpenters?IMO don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. Get some breadboards with an Arduino Nano 5V, or perhaps Uno's. It drives WS LED strips directly. It can talk to many I2C devices. The genuine Atmel chips won't blow up in your face if you short a pin. The debug interface is mature and solid.The 4$ budget is a bit tight tho..In general the ESP32s are a bit overhyped for being a 1$ WiFi SoC. That doesn't make them a great platform to start/learn on.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 15, 2024, 08:29:55 am
content: Arduino nano, it's about $2 or so. They have same MCU as Arduino UNO (ATmega328P) and a few extra pins. Easy to fit in a breadboard, or to solder on a PCB. Supported by all Arduino IDE. They look like this:https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=arduino+nano&iax=images&ia=imagesI've bought 5 of Arduino nano v3 for $2.5/pcs, with free shipping included (from Aliexpress, in 2015). During all this time they were by far the most used type of devboard from all the many types of devboards I have (including Arduino UNO or Arduino MEGA). Still using them to try different project ideas.