Saturday, October 24, 2020

KiBoard 3, again an Arduino Clone

The year 2020 is almost over now. Unfortunately, my job is very busy during the COVID19 pandemic. Today (October 2020) I have a real vacation for the first time this year. I used the time and developed 2 boards. Not really anything new. It's Arduino compatible boards with Atmega328 again. They contain a buck regulator, 3.3V LDO regulator, EEPROM, buzzer and an RTC (DS 1307 or DS3231). These boards are designed to be mounted with spacers on the back of a 1602 LCD display, which contains an I2C adapter. I decided again for an I2C display and deliberately did not choose a parallel connection because it "eats up" too many pins.
A UART header is available to connect a USB converter.


I ordered only the boards for the DS3231 version from JLCPCB.
I did not order the version with the DS1307 and will test it at a later date.



Today I got the PCBs from JLCPCB. I then assembled and tested 3 boards of the DS3231 version. It all looks very good. The board fits perfectly on the back of my 16x2 LCD display and everything seems to be working.
Fortunately, it contains protection against reverse polarity of the operating voltage (7 - 24V). Otherwise I would probably have grilled one of the circuit boards :-) ...






My KiCAD project files can be downloaded from my Google Drive:
Google Drive

There is another archive in the ZIP files. This can be uploaded directly to a board manufacturer (I use Seedstudio or JLCPCB) to order professional PCBs in your desired color.

My project is free for private use. It is aimed at experienced people. I take no guarantee! Duplication is at your own risk and responsibility!
You are welcome to customize or modify my project and publish it. However, you always have to refer to the origin!
 
Update 2/2021
I have finished my device. I added two p-channel power MOSFETs. Now it controls the lighting in my aquarium. The special thing is that I can now control the colors blue and white of my lighting separately. Now my fish have a blue night light and daylight that is accurate to the minute. And all of this is softly dimmed without stress.


 

No comments: