AtomDev

Ok this is my first new dev board in a while and I’m trying to actually consider the term Dev.. meaning Development… There seems to be a ton of breakout and so called “Dev.” Boards out there but they all seem.. a bit too small.

Developing something new shouldn’t start off small or hard to work with. It should be a simple and labeled nicely. Something where a datasheet isn’t always needed just to find a pin.

So I’ve been working on this for about a month but only an hour a day or so. I do have many other designs and things to do.

This is AtomDev (R1):

It is a simple board with many features. Like a 3A 3.3v supply for starters. Powering a MCU and other peripherals can be a challenge but his puppy will get you through most designs without needing to supply power from extra sources.

Yes it’s a DC/DC BUCK style converter. It can be powered from 4 different sources. A Lipo battery, USB plug (micro), terminal 2pin, or 2.1mm jack.

Every other peripheral can choose whether they use this as power or accept power from external source. To use internal Powe simply use a jumper on the sections SPWR header. All GND’s are tied together.

To the left of the supply is a Lipo charger which has 2 rates. Either 100mA or 500mA. Using a simple smt switch to select between choices. This is only powered via USB. As to not need extra circuitry for other sources.

To the right of the power supply is the USB portion which includes a USB to UART (CP2104) IC.

This includes its own 3.3v linear regulator at 600mA for simpler purposes or in case your project doesn’t need a full supply. I might omit this part in Revision 2 of the board.

It has 3 LEDs. Power, TX and RX. All important pins are broken out. You can program most UART driven ISP MCUs with this.

To the right or under the USB section is the RTC section.

The RTC chosen here is the DS3234S. It is a SPI part that just never failed me. Also a CR1225 style battery to keep time after power down.

Under the Lipo and DC Power peripherals is the I/O portion.

This is a simple 3 button and 3 led section. The 3 LEDs have a 330ohm to ground. So you simply supply a logic high to the pin and it’ll turn on LED. The buttons are all pulled low and transition high when pressed.

Below that is the micro SD section.

Simple and straight forward connections with a Card Detect which is pulled low and transitions high when a card is inserted.

To the left of the MICRO SD peripheral is the wifi section. It supports a ESP8266. All pins broken out and a Program/User switch with a reset button to easily place the device into programing more or user mode.

Behind the WiFi is an OLED.. 0.96″ I2C display.

These small displays are perfect for debugging and displaying a some data to users. I use it for a Bluetooth board of mines. To display connection status amongst other things. The board has a header for allowing the SCL and SDA lines to be tied high.

Squeezed between the Micro SD and OLED is a little IR section. IR is rarely used but I love it. It’s a simple infrared wireless signal. No special stuff needed most times. There is an IR LED for transmitting and a 38khz receiver for …. You guessed it… Receiving…

This last section is kind of what ties it all together. Obviously you can simply wire any and all of these peripherals to your own mcu board or breadboard but I’ve also included a nice spot for an MCU card. 

Art work is made by my wife. Caterine. Rev 2 has a nice image. Since she never denies me my electronics enjoyment and has only been a great addition to my life I decided to included some little doodles she draws when she’s bored. I asked her to draw a few just quick. Nothing time consuming. I like when it’s rushed to be honest.. it’s more natural and rough.

For the MCU card I use a 1×20 pin header for the main card and a 3×20 for wire jumping and line sharing. 18 pins are for signals while 2 are hard wired for power. The ground is a permanent signal while power can be actually removed via jumper on AtomDev. So you can use a 5v MCU with a level shifter and be ok to share ground.

I currently have a Atmega328P board made and tested. All works great so far. I do have 2 more cards being made.

I have since redesigned the Atmega328P board and also created 2 other boards. One is a LPC2101 variant and the other an ESP32-PICO.

Here is a sneak peak on Rev 2.

Some Changes:

• Bluetooth module added (HM-10)
• AtomDC-DC buck converter (on board or module based)
• Silk screen fixed and cleaned. Size, Orientation and Sections/Peripherals are now labeled.
• I/O section is entirely SMT besides headers
• New Artwork

Think something should be added? Removed? Changed? Or want to order a board. Send me an email: AtomSoft@gmail.com or Jason@atomsofttech.com