mikroBUS pinout standard specification

Here you can find latest news on mikroElektronika products.
Author
Message
User avatar
anikolic
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 1775
Joined: 17 Aug 2009 16:51
Location: Belgrade
Contact:

mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#1 Post by anikolic » 13 Dec 2011 14:36

mikroBUS pinout standard specification

As we promised earlier, we are bringing you a complete explanation of the mikroBUS pinout standard specificaton.

Image

We've prepared a specialized mikroBUS webpage, where we put all relevant information: we explained
what is mikroBUS, described the host connector pinout and dimensions, provided you with information
how to integrate it in your design and explained terms and conditions if you want to produce your own
mikroBUS compatible board.

But we also took the whole thing a step further and gave you the mikroBUS connector in form of Altium®
Designer component, and PDF of connector's footprint, as well as vector file with mikroBUS logo, in case
you want to make your own boards.

We invite you to visit the newly created mikroBUS webpage, and get to know this fantastic new pinout standard.

Yours sincerely,
mikroElektronika
Web Department Manager

Mince-n-Tatties
Posts: 2780
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 15:22
Location: Scotland

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#2 Post by Mince-n-Tatties » 14 Dec 2011 14:37

does the mikrobus logo need to be displayed on the silkscreen, if an end user wants to design their own board where mikroE click boards are going to be connected?

can i suggest that to swap the text columns left to right to match that of the picture... (i notice that the listing is the correct way in the specification document).
mikrobus.jpg
mikrobus.jpg (24.83 KiB) Viewed 303861 times
Best Regards

Mince

User avatar
anikolic
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 1775
Joined: 17 Aug 2009 16:51
Location: Belgrade
Contact:

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#3 Post by anikolic » 14 Dec 2011 15:18

Mince-n-Tatties wrote:does the mikrobus logo need to be displayed on the silkscreen, if an end user wants to design their own board where mikroE click boards are going to be connected?
Yes Mince. mikroBUS logo has to be placed on both the Host Connector silkscreen, and mikroBUS-compatible board.
Mince-n-Tatties wrote:can i suggest that to swap the text columns left to right to match that of the picture... (i notice that the listing is the correct way in the specification document).
Sorry, we saw the mistake and it was corrected this morning. Thanks for noticing this.

Best regards,
Aleksandar
Web Department Manager

Mince-n-Tatties
Posts: 2780
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 15:22
Location: Scotland

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#4 Post by Mince-n-Tatties » 14 Dec 2011 15:34

anikolic wrote:
Mince-n-Tatties wrote:does the mikrobus logo need to be displayed on the silkscreen, if an end user wants to design their own board where mikroE click boards are going to be connected?
Yes Mince. mikroBUS logo has to be placed on both the Host Connector silkscreen, and mikroBUS-compatible board.
i am sad to say, that restriction makes it a non-starter and will IMO damage possible sales of mikroE click boards. I can fully understand protecting your IP such that you control reproduction of your click boards but to restrict the usage of the click boards is just a poorly thought out business model. Lets face it, we are talking about a pin-pin layout here!

I truly hope this is not a sign of things to come.
Best Regards

Mince

User avatar
anikolic
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 1775
Joined: 17 Aug 2009 16:51
Location: Belgrade
Contact:

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#5 Post by anikolic » 14 Dec 2011 17:19

Dear Mince,

The whole idea of mikroBUS was to help engineers and to make their lives easier. It is not our attention to complicate things in any way.
Is placing a small mikroBUS logo in full form Image, or even shorter version Image on your host connector of your custom board such a big deal to you?

We really think it is a useful feature in your design to provide this information on the silkscreen,
so the connector is fully described and your users are informed about compatibility with the boards they are supposed to be using on that connector.

We are open for discussion, of course, maybe you have some argumentation that is more convincing, that didn't cross our minds.
We invite you to explain us your point of view, so we can all benefit from this discussion.

Best regards,
Aleksandar
Web Department Manager

Eumel
Posts: 14
Joined: 28 Aug 2009 14:03
Location: NW Germany

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#6 Post by Eumel » 15 Dec 2011 15:05

Hi,
one question: why do you call this standard pinout a bus?
My understanding of a bus diverges with your microBUS.

Greetings
Einhart

Mince-n-Tatties
Posts: 2780
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 15:22
Location: Scotland

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#7 Post by Mince-n-Tatties » 15 Dec 2011 15:37

Hi Aleksandar

The main problem for me is...

your products are not CE approved and AFAIK mE are not ISO 9000 approved either. Our end products are CE approved and we are ISO 9000:2008

This makes it impossible to attach a label for a product which does not conform to these standards. Obviously i could use the pin layout and have my board CE approved but i would not be able to apply the mikroBUS label.

second issue is that i often build prototypes without silkscreen (quick turn boards up to 200 units) and there is no way i would absorb the cost of printed labels to stick on the board.
Best Regards

Mince

User avatar
anikolic
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 1775
Joined: 17 Aug 2009 16:51
Location: Belgrade
Contact:

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#8 Post by anikolic » 16 Dec 2011 09:02

Hello Mince,

According to TÜV, mikroElektronika has ISO9001:2008 certificate of quality management system which covers
"Design, development, production, sales and distribution of hardware and software tools for work with microcontrollers" :)

Image Image
[click on image to enlarge]


Most of our products are CE confirmed by the General Rules section of the CE standard,
and some boards are confirmed by Low Voltage Equipment Directive (2006/95/EC) which is also a part of CE rules.

If you don't have a silkscreen in your design, of course you will not invest into it, just because of mikroBUS logo.
In case you want us to send you mikroBUS logo stickers, we are happy to do it. Just tell us how many you need.
It's simple as that. It's all a question of good will.

Best regards,
Aleksandar


P.S. If you must know, we also have IPC trained professionals working in our production facilities :)
Web Department Manager

Mince-n-Tatties
Posts: 2780
Joined: 25 Dec 2008 15:22
Location: Scotland

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#9 Post by Mince-n-Tatties » 16 Dec 2011 11:54

anikolic wrote:Hello Mince,

According to TÜV, mikroElektronika has ISO9001:2008 certificate of quality management system which covers
"Design, development, production, sales and distribution of hardware and software tools for work with microcontrollers" :)

Image Image
[click on image to enlarge]


Most of our products are CE confirmed by the General Rules section of the CE standard,
and some boards are confirmed by Low Voltage Equipment Directive (2006/95/EC) which is also a part of CE rules.

If you don't have a silkscreen in your design, of course you will not invest into it, just because of mikroBUS logo.
In case you want us to send you mikroBUS logo stickers, we are happy to do it. Just tell us how many you need.
It's simple as that. It's all a question of good will.

Best regards,
Aleksandar


P.S. If you must know, we also have IPC trained professionals working in our production facilities :)
excellent, thanks for the feedback.
Best Regards

Mince

User avatar
anikolic
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 1775
Joined: 17 Aug 2009 16:51
Location: Belgrade
Contact:

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#10 Post by anikolic » 16 Dec 2011 13:53

Eumel wrote:Hi,
one question: why do you call this standard pinout a bus?
My understanding of a bus diverges with your microBUS.

Greetings
Einhart
Dear Einhart,

Story begins when the idea came up a few years ago. Then, mikroBUS connector was imagined as a much larger set of pins (which could cover all microcontroller features).
Those connectors were supposed to be connected in parallel all on the same bus like PCI slots on PC mainboards. As idea matured, we realized that only 16 pins were covering 80% of the additional boards, and we decided to create the mikroBUS as you know it now.

With present mikroBUS connectors you can also have bus-like connections, where most pins of mikroBUS connectors are connected in parallel (I2C, SPI (without chip selects), UART, Power supply...)
It doesn't cover BUS-like routing in all cases, but if you want to connect for example 10 I2C boards in parallel, than it really becomes a sort of bus.

Best regards,
Aleksandar
Web Department Manager

Lord Lucan
Posts: 60
Joined: 09 Dec 2010 14:41

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#11 Post by Lord Lucan » 31 Dec 2011 10:08

This is an interesting conversation and I am no less surprised by ME's wish to retain recognition for the bus layout. However, it is not a new idea by a long stretch; back in the 1990's I worked with electronic jacquards (textile machines) which were required to communicate with weaving looms from numerous different manufacturers, each loom would have its own proprietary comms so we designed a standard 'bus' to accommodate all eventualities. At the time we had absolutely no compulsion to call it something exotic like LoomBUS or WeaveWire.

The 21st century has engendered a fetish for branding all manner of objects which don't necessarily warrant it; the iPod was a mild improvement on the digital door bell and so the flood started.

Pretty much everything in electronics has its roots in textile engineering, so if you think you've designed something new, chances are that it's been done before albeit in a mechanical or much simpler format. Textile machines were using punch cards as far back as the 16th century and that's where EPROMs come from.

As an engineer, I would be a good deal more proud of my design if it was adopted by ANSI and ISO, rather than sticking a fancy moniker on it. It's like calling your design an 'innovation' before your target market has decided whether it's a good idea or not.

All the same and regardless of my grumpy anachronism, it is a good layout and I hope that developers such as Mince will take it further than the bounds of MikroE products. I would be especially excited if manufacturers such as Tyco, Analog Devices, Lairdtech, etc, would adopt the format instead of producing hugely expensive evaluation boards which are the bane of my development budget.

ST.

st5
Posts: 192
Joined: 04 Jan 2011 14:14
Location: 3090 Belgium

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#12 Post by st5 » 31 Dec 2011 15:15

Could you please also develop a female mikroBus "connection" Board?
I could then connect it to my (old) development board, so use the new "Click" boards on ports B and C.

This way I can invest in the new format, using what I already have.

.
3x PicPlc16V6 1x EasypicV7

Going from programming on PC to embedded programming is like working in the dark with sunglasses on.

User avatar
filip
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 11874
Joined: 25 Jan 2008 09:56

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#13 Post by filip » 04 Jan 2012 10:55

Hi,

This is an interesting suggestion which I will pass to our hardware department.

Regards,
Filip.

neilman
Posts: 5
Joined: 21 Jan 2010 15:12
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#14 Post by neilman » 09 Feb 2012 12:36

Along the same lines - is there any plan to provide any unpopulated click protoboards (like the various regular EasyPIC protoboards) for homebrew designs?

Either something the same size as the click outline and/or something much larger but with a click footprint at one end.

As might be expected a homebrew design on a click protoboard might be taken up and built "properly" if it is really good.
Owner of a shiny new EasyPIC6,7 and PICPro7 - all good stuff

User avatar
filip
mikroElektronika team
Posts: 11874
Joined: 25 Jan 2008 09:56

Re: mikroBUS pinout standard specification

#15 Post by filip » 10 Feb 2012 09:57

Hi,

This is a fine suggestion which I will pass to our hardware developers to consider.
Thank you for your proposal.

Regards,
Filip.

Post Reply

Return to “Product Announcements”