It is well known that you can order 10 100mmX100mm pc boards from China for $5. This is the motivation for designing one pc board for RC2014 that can have 10 different functions. Another word, by populate with different components, jumpers, and different firmware, such multifunction pc board can perform 10 different functions. Since it is for RC2014, a board size of 50x100mm with through-hole components is desirable.
The design I'm thinking of is based on the
Frugal RAM/ROM 512K board. It already has multiple functionalities so I'm thinking of adding more to the list:
1. RAM/ROM 512K with CF interface and I2C interface
2. Emulated 6850 serial port
3. Second CF interface
4. Clock & reset supervisor
5. EPROM programmer
6. Discrete inputs and output LEDs
7. 4x40 LCD display
8. Six 7-segment displays
9. SPI & I2C interface
10. Diagnostic board
The design revolves around a CPLD that can be programmed for different functions. Multiple components occupy the same pc board location but only one is populated for a given board function. Jumpers may be needed to enable/disable certain functionalities. This is really 10 separate designs, so a few iterations are needed to get them all correctly. I hope to implement all 10 functions after 2-3 iterations of board design. The design will be open hardware so anyone can order their own pc boards.
This is the design blog for the 10-in-1 board. I expect it to go on for a while since several iterations of the 10 designs will be described in this blog.
Bill