Seeking input on pssible Teensy3 socket board for general use

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bboyes

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Hi everyone -- so we are in the process of using Teensy3 more instead of Teensy++2 and I find myself wishing for a breakout board for Teensy3 (at the moment I have 5 of the 100-mil white proto boards on my bench with various sensors and displays connected to different Teensy modules), and google shows only breakouts to the Arduino shield form factor. I'm giving a talk at end of Sept using Teensy as a smart HVAC thermostat and the question of available hardware is probably going to be asked. Here is some of my wish list. If anyone has any ideas to add please do. We could sell these as bare boards or assembled. I don't plan to give away the board gerbers but do plan to publish code and schematics. Here's the list of wishes:
  1. Teensy3 socket accepting pins underneath and in center of PCB. If Teensy has wirewrap style headers installed, it will plug into the sockets on the board and still have header pin exposed on the top for attaching a scope or .025"-square prototyping leads
  2. Rows of holes on 100-mil centers for mounting headers or sockets for access to all I/O pins from Teensy3
  3. Power supply 5-24 V AC/DC input, switching type 3v3 output at 1000 mA or more, 5.5x2.1 jack and screw terminals and latching pin connector. We are trying to standardize on all 3v3-capable devices so don't plan on supporting 5v0 if possible since that is a can of worms.
  4. Possible POE (Power Over Ethernet) support
  5. W5100 (or newer) Ethernet interface with RJ45 jack
  6. Radio pattern for Hope RF RFM12B, RFM22,23 modules such as used on JeeNodes. These are small and cheap and support 433, 866, 915 MHz ISM bands
  7. Xbee pattern for Digi radios? Opens up WiFi, Zigbee, BT, more
  8. JeeNode and Olimex expansion headers to use their sensors
  9. Serial memory (SPI I think since it is much faster) to hold more configuration or logging
  10. micro SD socket for logging
  11. I2C clock and calendar chip with coin cell socket for backup
  12. Buffers on SPI so you can run longer wires (at slower speeds)
  13. Repeater on I2C so you can run longer wires (at slower speeds) see http://ics.nxp.com/products/i2chubs/; any better than others?
  14. Possible I2C to Maxim 1-wire chip DS2482/2484 family for stringing e.g. temperature sensors tens or hundreds of meters away. Just got some samples of these bridge chips. Have not tried them yet.
  15. maybe some 2N7002 or 2N439 NFETs to drive relays or large LEDs
  16. RGB LED for local board status
  17. Maybe a small pushbutton or two: for what? Remap the Teensy reset PB to a more accessible place on the breakout board.
  18. board size perhaps 100x100 mm Euroboard if all the stuff will fit, fits in our DIN-rail or wall-mountable plastic Snap-Track. Smaller if possible.
Yeah, that sounds like a lot. Maybe too much. But it doesn't all have to be populated. It's just a wish right now.
 
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I'm planning to integrate W5200 support (and optimizations) into the Ethernet library for Teensy 3.0 in future versions of Teensyduino. Some people have already made it work using mods to the library, so you might consider the W5200 or WIZ820io module, rather than the older W5100.

You might also put a jumper or other way to use the coin cell with Teensy3's VBAT pin. An external RTC chip with temperature compensated internal crystal offers the best performance. But for just using an ordinary 32 kHz crystal, you might as well just put the crystal on Teensy3 and connect the coin cell to VBAT.
 
Looks like Google is broken at your end:
Teensy3 breakout board at Tindie

;-)
Hey thanks for that link, I may order one (they are sold out at the moment). It's just a board which brings all the pins out. It has none of the circuitry listed above. But it makes it easier to use in a white protoboard.

Just for fun I googled "Teensy 3 breakout" and the closest was this: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/11/22/the-ultimate-teensy-3-0-pin-state-test-rig/

Then "Teensy 3.0 breakout" and got this: https://www.tindie.com/products/loglow/teensy-30-mini-breakout/ which is in stock and I will order some now. But again it is just a pin expander: no additional electronics.

best regards
Bruce
 
Yes, the two Tindie boards are from the same person also introduced first here on the forum. It is rather unlikely that you'll find a board that will fit your application requirements. As such these proto boards are great to develop just such a thing.
 
A note on the I2C bus:
It reallly depends on your application which may be the best I2C repeater, level shifter or buffer or if you even need one at all. Some chips combine level shifting and Bus buffering. Depending on how long you intend for the wires to be (2 ft, 10ft, 50ft ?) and what kind of wire you intend use (rubbon, twisted pair phone, Cat5 ?) a real I2C buffer like the PCA9600 allows really long wires (50ft, CAT5) still maintainig FM+ spec (meaning I2C bus frequency 1Mhz). As opposed to most of the normal Arduino's the Teensy3 suports I2C bus frequencies way in excess of 1MHz. The Arduino's I am aware off only use 100-400KHz. At 100KHz you can use 3-4m of CAT5 cable and several devices on the bus without a buffer or repeater. But again, it depends on the application you have in mind.
 
A quick update on this possible project. We are currently so busy with development (using Teensy3 and BBB) that this is on the back burner. It may come back to life in future.
 
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