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Microcontroller Dev Boards: What features do you like to have (or to add?)

baldengineer

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A couple of weeks ago, I bribed (with coffee) to send me one of his Pi PIco Eurocards. As the name implies, these are a development board for the Pi Pico / RP2040. In the past, another friend sent me one of his all-in-one microcontroller development boards (pictured above). And I have designed a few boards that had development features on them. Besides those, boards like Adafruit's Feathers or even the iconic Arduino Uno could be considered dev boards. Last, historically, microcontroller manufacturers had elaborate evaluation platforms for their chips.

All of these points made me wonder: what are the features YOU want to see in a microcontroller development board?

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If we use 's Eurocard, some notable features are:

  • Headers for changing power source (external / Pi Pico / Programmer)
  • Integrated programmer/debugger (RP2040-based Xiao, in this case)
  • Prototype areas for through-hole and surface mount parts
  • SD Card
  • Button
  • LED
  • (and many more)

In addition to features, what tricks or tips have people learned when making a board like this one?

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  • Perhaps may need to differentiate between different classes of board definition here, although with access to cheap one-off PCB manufacture these days, and entire systems on a single chip, then the lines may have now blurred a bit.

    The first board looks more like a trainer or prototyping class board as it has additional IO devices included on the board and looks like it may be used many times for different tutorial type projects. The breadboard suggests that it may be used for many different hardware designs throughout its life.

    Shabaz' board looks more like a dev board that might be used primarily for developing a single project prior to a first PCB design. It looks like it could be populated with additional components and be slotted into a rack enclosure for prolonged testing. It has options for additional debugging type modules but doesn't have much in the way of on-board IO devices. 

    Historically that first one-off PCB would have been an expensive step, and it was likely cheaper to get a mass-produced 'dev board' that basically provided you with the device plus supporting hardware with its pins broken out to easy to work with connections.

    Then there is the likes of the evaluation board which may have minimal core components plus a specific sensor or actuator intended to allow you more quickly test the functionality of a specific device.

  • in reply to beacon_dave
    beacon_dave said:
    Shabaz' board looks more like a dev board that might be used primarily for developing a single project prior to a first PCB design

    I agree the definitions are vague. (Admittedly, I did not define "development board" on purpose.)

    That said, the two boards, in my opinion, are extremely similar. The biggest difference is that the top board supports multiple microcontrollers, while Shabaz's only supports the Pi Pico. Both accept microcontrollers, support flexible power supplies, and have a handful of useful peripherals across multiple projects.

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  • in reply to beacon_dave
    beacon_dave said:
    Shabaz' board looks more like a dev board that might be used primarily for developing a single project prior to a first PCB design

    I agree the definitions are vague. (Admittedly, I did not define "development board" on purpose.)

    That said, the two boards, in my opinion, are extremely similar. The biggest difference is that the top board supports multiple microcontrollers, while Shabaz's only supports the Pi Pico. Both accept microcontrollers, support flexible power supplies, and have a handful of useful peripherals across multiple projects.

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