Expansion Boards

A number of expansion boards have been designed and more are being developed. Basic information about the boards is given below, further information including schematics and pcb layouts are available on the MDP website and in the MDP Forums .

General Purpose Expansion Board

The MDP expansion board stacks on top of the micro-controller board and is intended as the standard add-on. It provides standard connectors for the common interfaces that the micro-controller board supports as well as some additional I/O facilities. Primarily designed for project and experimental work the board has all vulnerable ICs socketed for easy replacement and voltage protection to prevent damage to the main processing board. The board can be populated to give a smooth DC supply for the main control board and any user analogue circuitry. The board also features a vertically mounted 9 way D-plug which forms the base of a stackable I2C based bus system.

Features

Runs from unregulated 6-24V supply
Switching regulators generate clean 5V, + optional 15V, -15V rails.
I2C level shifter. Shifts from 3.3V on Balloon 3 to 5V logic level.
Excess voltage protection

I/O Ports

USB Host
USB Slave
RS232 Serial port
8bit IO port
8 Indicator LEDS
6xADC 10 bit (15way D-type female)
Motor Driver (4 Channel) Bi-directional PWM motor control. Uses L293s or optional external H-bridg
Zigbee interface (optional)

MDP I2C Bus Boards

These boards are built as robust and low cost interface and prototyping boards for use with the MDP I2C bus. The bus is based around standard 9-way D connectors and carries I2C signals (5v CLK/DCL), 5v upto 2A, ± 15v upto 1A, 0v and one user selectable line normally 12v or supply). Most boards are designed around a publically available track layout which simplifies debugging and development of bespoke dervatives.