As summer ends and I transition to the XMC4700 Relax Kit I can't help but think back to the opening scene of Grease. I had a wonderful time these last few weeks working with the XMC4200 Platform2Go board. Not only did this development board serve as my introduction to the world of ARM Cortex it also afforded me the opportunity to brush up on my programming skills. So as I say good bye to the Platform2Go it is bittersweet.
With that said, I am excited to start working with the XMC4700 Relax Kit. It is the more compact of the two boards, and it's well suited to be integrated into systems as a daughter board. However, the Relax Kit doesn't have any dedicated Shield 2Go sites. To compensate I decided to design a simple carrier board. This approach should result in a nice clean platform by reducing the number of cables.
Top Side
The top side of the carrier board is shown below. The Relax Kit is installed onto the carrier using a set of Arduino compatible connectors. The site for the Shield 2Go module is situated towards the top of the board. This is where I will install the DPS368 Pressure Shield2Go module.
Bottom Side
The bottom side of the board is shown below. The lower right hand side of the board features a switching regulator that will convert the +5V DC input to +12V. Generating the +12V onboard in this manner will save me from buying a wall wart power supply to produce this rail.
At one time spinning a board for the sake of cable management would have been cost prohibitive. However, in recent years many overseas options for inexpensive PCB fabrication have emerged. The cost for ordering 5 pieces of this PCB design is $20 and that's only because I requested red solder mask. Had I chosen green, white or black solder mask, the cost would have been a mere $13.
Designing the carrier board was a fun little diversion, but now it's time to get back to coding.
