Any takers: "nearly all pins" teensy 3.5 connector board

jasper

Active member
teensy 35 nearly all pins breakout .png

we have developed this board for our internal use. If there is some interest we might sell it on amazon.
any feedback on pricing?
Our small volume build of 5 was quite pricey.

The useful thing about this board is it sends power and ground to many, many connectors making it useful for wiring in sensors and peripherals.
Some pins end up as jst connectors and some end up as 0.1 inch pitch through holes (with power and ground nearby) so you can solder on your own header pins.

We also have a nicely color coded wiring harness for you to connect directly to your favourite outputs!
Some of the pins are buffered.
This board breaks out 5 serial ports.
One of the serial ports goes to an xbee format header with 3.3 v.
You have to supply this board with regulated 5v, it does have an inline thermal fuse.
It does have a powered square wave buzzer on the usual pin.
It has a built in voltage divider on an analog pin so you can measure supply voltage.
At the moment it doesnt break out any of the pads or pins underneath.

This has been really useful to us. I wonder how many other people in the world there are with similar pain points that prompted us to design this board.


Oh and of course it does work with teensy 3.2!

these are the pins we broke out:


S_GPIO3_PIN 6 //CN16 CS on teensy 3.2

SD_CHIP_SELECT_PIN 6 //"SS" CS for sd card reader, not needed, teensy 3.5 uses built in sd card reader

// UART3_RXD pin 7 // CN8
// UART3_TXD pin 8 //CN8
// UART2_RXD pin 9 //xbee and CN7
// UART2_TXD pin 10 xbee and CN7
MOSI_PIN 11 //CN9 SPII DATA input to device
MISO_PIN 12 //CN9 SPII data output from device, not needed for led display
// 3.3v
S_GPIO4_PIN 24 //CN17 not connected on teensy 3.2
//25 - 30 : not connected
// UART4_RXD pin 31 // CN3
// UART4_TXD pin 32 //
//GND
// 46 - 40 not connected
// round the corner
//VBAT 3.3V GND PGM RST
// round the corner going up
//3.3 v
//47 to 53 not connected
UART5_TXD pin 33 // CN4
UART5_RXD pin 34 //

//CN21
S_GPIO9_PIN 35 // not connected on teensy 3.2
S_GPIO8_PIN 36 // not connected on teensy 3.2
S_GPIO7_PIN 37 // not connected on teensy 3.2
S_GPIO6_PIN 38 // not connected on teensy 3.2
S_GPIO5_PIN 39 // not connected on teensy 3.2


S_DAC0_PIN DAC0 //CN20 not connected on teensy 3.2
S_DAC1_PIN DAC1 //CN19 not connected on teensy 3.2
//gnd
ledPin = 13; //
SPII_SOFT_SCK_PIN 14 //CN9
SPII_CS1 15 //CN9
LED_PIN 16 //CN10
pintrig 17 //CN8 DIO pin
// I2C SDA pin 18 // CN13
// I2C SCL pin 19 //CN13
S_A6_20_PIN 20 // CN18
// pin 21 VBAT
with peripherals.pngpins.pngteensy 35 nearly all pins breakout .pngcloseup.jpgbare top.pngbare bottom.png
 
possibly, i'm in the process of building my own board for use as a data logger. My board uses USB connectors as the cables are readily available, are the connectors easy to find and wire up? Your board looks very professional--way better than mine. Do you have a price in mind? My needs are 2-4 boards.
 
The above photos were hand soldered, so it will look better when we get into production.

we think we need to price it around $30-$60 , to align with pricing of other similar boards, e.g. for the mega (below). we do provide a bit more careful design and electronics than the one below so could possibly justify the extra cost:

https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-A...&sr=8-24&keywords=arduino+mega+xbee+expansion

I would pay that IF it had pogo pins to break out the bottom pads including reset, and included the mating JST pigtails.
Without the pigtails included, it would be a hidden cost, harder to source solution which I would not buy at any price due to the headache of tracking down mating connectors, tooling, minimum orders at multiple distributors, and additional shipping. Creates a bigger problem than it solves. But if it is a nice all in one bundle with the pigtails terminated in breadboard pins, I'm in.

slomobile
 
Thanks for the feedback, we will plan for that in a revision.
agreed the connectors can be a pain to replace . It's designed for an industrial application so we wanted some beefy connectors.
Maybe we should include 2 sets so one can be used during prototyping.
 
On second thoughts, pogo pins might not be a good idea after sustained use in an industrial environment the pogo head will, due to the vibration, wear through the gold flashing and then the copper pad underneath the teensy – once this happens, the contact will become very intermittent and unreliable. Corrosion could also introduce an unreliable connection over time.

We would rather use sockets to receive an array of pins that you solder onto the teensy if you need the extra teensy pins
 
not with pressure and die-electric grease... the pogo pins will last a very long time..

the handbrake system in the car uses a spring type contact similar to a pogo pin when engaged, those contacts are dry and had intermittant dash light issues, rejuvenating the contacts by a little sanding and applying dieelectric grease will never have problems again
 
On second thoughts, pogo pins might not be a good idea after sustained use in an industrial environment the pogo head will, due to the vibration, wear through the gold flashing and then the copper pad underneath the teensy – once this happens, the contact will become very intermittent and unreliable. Corrosion could also introduce an unreliable connection over time.

We would rather use sockets to receive an array of pins that you solder onto the teensy if you need the extra teensy pins

Either way is fine as long as it is done right. But to do it right you need to specify the exact right pins to use, offer them for sale or include them, and provide a simple means of aligning all the pins while soldering. At minimum, that is a second through hole pcb with cutouts for access to solder at least 2 pins in each row, and you need to demonstrate how to connect the reset pad because it ain't easy.

Any solution that does not address the interior pins is just grabbing low hanging fruit. Worthless as a breakout IMO and certainly not worth $60. It might be easier to assemble like a castellated shield(note the cutout areas) as https://www.oshpark.com/shared_projects/Gnvbt7io from this thread https://www.oshpark.com/shared_projects/Gnvbt7io.

Since your existing board has unpopulated space between the pin headers, there is room for an additional bottom side adapter board. You might make a narrower castellated shield out of flexible pcb that exits the end of teensy and terminates in a fpc connector. That would serve your board well by only adding an fpc and additional JST headers at the edge, without disturbing existing routes. Eliminates pogo pins.

The bottom side adapter would make an excellent stand alone product for anyone needing to access the interior pins while the through hole pins are already populated. Because flexible kapton circuits are insulated and very thin, it could be self aligning by adding through holes for the exterior pins to pass through. It would just get sandwiched between the mated exterior headers. It could continue the breadboard friendly DIP format by adding a through hole for each trace on its way to the fpc connector. Now, THAT is a product I would buy.

slomobile
 
thanks for the comments and honest suggestions. all taken into consideration for our next build.
We currently have 3 from the first build that we are using up, and once those are committed to projects we will plan our next revision.
It is clear that the underside pads are essential to break out in an elegant and reliable way. From the suggestions above there are a few options for doing this:

1) pogo pins - come with the pcb so no teensy soldering needed, but not an asserted connection so could vibrate loose over time.
2)pins soldered to the underside of the teensy and then a socket on the PCB to receive them - snug fit but requires soldering onto the teensy, and could be tricky to get in and out https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/molex-llc/0015910160/WM17462-ND/614778
3) bottom side adapter board - easy to fit, no soldering needed, optional extra, and is a stand alone product on its own, but requires additional development and manufacture costs, plus might run into connectivity problems with vibrations.
4) cut a hole in the bottom of the board so users can access the pads - not really a solution , but easy to do
 
thanks for the comments and honest suggestions. all taken into consideration for our next build.
We currently have 3 from the first build that we are using up, and once those are committed to projects we will plan our next revision.

I'd be interested in one! I need to pick up my beats by teensy project and it's going to get a processor upgrade and hopefully eliminate the mess of wires. This board would achieve that in fine fashion :)
 
I can confirm that the pogo's work just fine.
I bought a couple that were a bit too high, so buy the small ones...
DSC_0131.jpg
 
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