Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

rsc — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 12:18:06 GMT

I have dozens of one-of-a-kind projects that started from development boards. Manufacturers normally want customers that "go into production" and buy thousands of something, but they need to realize there are those of us that need to make one of something and don't have time or a full team to design boards and write custom drivers for a project.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

colporteur — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 16:08:19 GMT

I completed the survey but didn't realize this post existed.

I wasn't aware of dev kits with support resources for future developed. Wouldn't it be nice to have the CAD files for the component? Documentation of lack of documentation has always been a torn in my side with development.

I would find it interesting to have a list of all the different support resources vendors have provided in the dev-kits. That list would form part of my evaluation of a dev-kit. Bigger vendors might provide more of the items listed since they have greater resources but I suspect there are some critical ones most developers would like to see.

As a maker, especially PCB's those symbols and footprints are golden.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

DAB — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:28:01 GMT

I have used development kits for many decades and they have always provided me with good insight into each technology.

They provide a good learning experience and can lead to simpler prototype implementations.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

ntewinkel — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 04:11:06 GMT

Interesting survey. Makes me realize that a lot of the reasons I have for choosing a dev board as a hobbyist likely also apply to professionals, and maybe more so as their time is even more critical. I’ve worked for enough startups to know time is their biggest hurdle.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

dougw — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 18:00:10 GMT

I would like to see dev kits come in 2 flavors:

a small low-cost module that has the minimum infrastructure that is always needed, like a Pi Pico
a module that breaks out as many standard interfaces as possible with standard connectors and example supporting code

The 2nd type allows you to rapidly prototype proof of concept designs and get a crucial head start on software development.

The first type allows rapid development of easy-to-assemble low volume products or unique prototypes.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

gam3t3ch — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:47:52 GMT

Done, great job on it.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

manojroy123 — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:36:57 GMT

Done

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

dougw — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:24:07 GMT

I answered with reality although it was tempting to answer with what I would prefer to see.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

dang74 — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 16:22:04 GMT

I like development boards that can act as a daughter card on a custom designed carrier board... this allows the dev kit to act as a control module. One challenge preventing a dev board from becoming part of a product is that they often use components with commercial rated operating range as opposed to industrial grade.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

kmikemoo — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:06:22 GMT

Done.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

neilk — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:33:32 GMT

Done. Also not sure if a hobbysit's views are all that relevant.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

BigG — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:08:42 GMT

Some manufacturers now favour a board format that plays nicely with popular maker boards, but does that add value or remove flexibility? Would you take a development kit all the way through to early production? It must be said, the cost of a kit in moderate volume could be lower than spinning your own PCB.

Every single project has to start somewhere. Your ideas typically start to take shape on your desk, and it's a messy process of hooking up wires between sensors and a microcontroller. It's when mistakes most likely happen. This, in my opinion, is where standardised board formats, like Arduino R3, help as you become familiar with the layout.

But then what. How do you develop the software and how do you field test your project. This is where shields and breakout boards add value. It's why formats like Adafruit feather gained traction as you could more readily place boards and breakouts into enclosures and make something useful beyond your desk.

However, I believe much of this structure and order is now changing again, as the cost of making custom boards is a fraction of what it was a couple of years ago and the quality of manufacturing has greatly improved. Even PCBA is more affordable now and the turnaround time is remarkably quick (I'm getting finished boards in under 10 days from order). In fact, I now more frequently just jump straight to PCBA and iterate from there.

I saw this great video the other day that touched on the topic of the challenges between hardware development versus software development. Worth a watch (at least the first half from 3 mins 12sec onwards)

[View:https://youtu.be/rG4rC5oLx7Y?si=ZykWPOanq7wEV3aM&t=192:640:360]

Still, I find it remarkable how many people still think you can skip field testing and iteration, and come up with perfectly functional hardware.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

michaelkellett — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 12:55:27 GMT

Done, not a bad survey either - I got to the end without cursing that any of the questions were un-answerable.

RE: Development Kit Survey: do you love them, or hate them?

obones — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 12:05:32 GMT

Done, even if a hobbyist opinion might not be the most appropriate for these products