I don't like the term standard hardware. Maybe because I create tailored
hardware for a living.

I love Nuttx for the flexibility.

Please do not limit choice of hardware.

--
Hard- and Softwaredevelopment Consultant

Geschäftsführung: Simon Filgis
USt-IdNr.: DE305343278
ISO9001:2015 <https://activities.ingenieurbuero-filgis.de/certifications>

Nathan Hartman <hartman.nat...@gmail.com> schrieb am Di., 10. Juni 2025,
21:07:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a few suggestions::
>
> 1. I suggest to request INFRA to create a new repository for the design and
> implementation of hardware, which initially will contain the NuttX Standard
> Board hardware. I suggest the name nuttx-hardware.
>
> 2. Within the nuttx-hardware repository, I suggest to have a subdirectory
> for the main board, and subdirectories for each MCU board that can plug in.
> In the future, we might add other boards within the same repository.
>
> 3. I strongly recommend to use a free/open source electronics design
> package. (The only one I am familiar with is KiCad [1].) By using free/open
> source software, anyone will be able to participate without having to pay
> expensive licensing costs for a commercial electronics design software.
>
> Thanks to everyone for your efforts!
>
> Nathan
>
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 1:51 PM Alan C. Assis <acas...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Tomek,
> >
> > Thank you for those nice suggestions.
> >
> > 1) Yes, even some companies like Freescale (now NXP) used that idea in
> the
> > past, i.e. DEMOQE board:
> > https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-guide/DEMOQE128UM.pdf
> > The MCU module boards need to have a minimum size to fit the connector
> and
> > also we need to think that some MCUs have a "big" package like LQFP176
> for
> > example.
> > In this case we are going to use 2 100-pin connectors, the same used on
> > Raspberry Pi CM4. This connector is low cost and has many pins.
> >
> > 2) Yes, this is something we should have in the board to support sensors,
> > modem, etc. mikroBUS and Pmod will be used, but we can think about using
> > others as well.
> >
> > 3) The baseboard will have a USB/Serial interface to connect in the
> > computer, at the moment we didn't know about include a programmer on it
> to
> > avoid increasing boards, the idea is just using JTAG/SWD/ISP connectors.
> > Remember that this baseboard will be used not only for ARM, but also
> > RISC-V, AVR, etc.
> >
> > 4) The connector will be unique for all MCU modules, but we will have two
> > connectors: the first one is Required and will have all signals common
> > between almost all MCUs (UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, etc), the second will be
> > Optional and will include signal present on more "advanced" MCUs:
> Ethernet,
> > Parallel LCD, USB, I2S Audio, etc.
> >
> > I moved the project to: https://github.com/NuttX/nuttx_board_std but I
> > don't know if all people will see it or only those that are part of the
> > organization.
> >
> > BR,
> >
> > Alan
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 12:26 PM Tomek CEDRO <to...@cedro.info> wrote:
> >
> > > Aaah! NuttX BaseBoard is more self-exlpanatory thanks Alan! :-)
> > >
> > > I played like this in the 1990's with 8051 but instead having one
> > > single board I created separate modules that were attached with 2.54
> > > wires and f/m-connectors this allowed me to reuse different modules
> > > with different boards and applications. This is now called Arduino
> > > served with modules on breadboards :-P
> > >
> > > I have many MCU boards on a wall of medium size breadboards (SYB-118)
> > > connected over 16 port USB HUBs, some observations below that may give
> > > some hints on the BaseBoard:
> > >
> > > 1. Some boards are bigger and takes unnecessary space for just MCU
> > > testing, so tiny MCU boards are the best (like XIAO series). Several
> > > small MCU boards can fit on a single breadboard, while big boards
> > > (i.e. STM) needs to use two breadboards. Small increase in size of a
> > > breadboard is big increase in price, so I bought 100x SYB-118 as the
> > > compromise between size and price (these also have mounting holes).
> > >
> > > 2. We may want to have slots for different peripherals (i.e. several
> > > stdandars I2C slots for sensor boards). Peripherals switching is
> > > problematic and in perfect situation with my current environment I
> > > would like to be able remotely re-route MCU board to a specific
> > > peripheral that would allow testing. I know this is extremely
> > > problematic but I do not know any solution like this, except using
> > > digital mux, opto-isolators, or relays. Voltage levels are also
> > > problem (i.e. 5V vs 3.3V vs 1.8V). But using isolators may be a kind
> > > of "adrressing" solution too (i.e. #EN pin).. except those isolators
> > > are expensive.
> > >
> > > 3. Debug probes are best when these provide JTAG/SWD and UART over
> > > single USB connection. I found STLINK-V3MODS
> > > (https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stlink-v3mods.html) to be
> > > most versatile (it provides JTAG/SWD and UART but also additional
> > > interfaces like SPI/I2C/UART/CAN) cost ~$10 and is meant to be mounted
> > > as module on a target board (pin raster is 2.0mm not 2.54mm
> > > unfortunately). But its commercial and closed-source.
> > >
> > > 4. Pinouts and Adapters seems necessary as different MCUs will differ
> > > in size and pinouts to be attached to a single baseboard. Here I found
> > > different boards use male pins on top of the board, some use male pins
> > > on the bottom of the boards, some use female connectors, either 2.54mm
> > > or 2.0mm or even smaller raster. From my experience what is rapidly
> > > changing / easy to replace (i.e. cables, small boards) should use male
> > > pins, while rarely changes parts (modules, boards) should use female
> > > connectors. Female connectors usually go up, male goes down. Best
> > > raster is 2.54mm as most popular cheap and easy to handle. Its very
> > > nice when each pin have two holes for additional up/down conenctor
> > > (i.e. you want to attach arduino shield from top to female connector
> > > below, but also want to solder additional pins to then stick the board
> > > to breadboard below). I know this seems trivial but when you have
> > > different boards to physically manage sometimes its a problem :-)
> > >
> > > Have a good day :-)
> > > Tomek
> > >
> > > On Tue, Jun 10, 2025 at 4:02 PM Alan C. Assis <acas...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi Tomek,
> > > >
> > > > The idea is to have a baseboard that could be used with different MCU
> > > > modules, similar to Mikroe Fusion ARM:
> > > > https://www.mikroe.com/fusion-for-arm
> > > >
> > > > But in our case the MCU modules are not limited only to ARM. We could
> > use
> > > > any MCU currently supported by NuttX, because the common signals
> (UART,
> > > > SPI, I2C, etc) are exposed at the same position on that connector
> that
> > is
> > > > plugged in the baseboard.
> > > >
> > > > This way, instead of having a different process to test each board we
> > > will
> > > > test the baseboard in the same way, no matter what is the MCU module
> > > used.
> > > >
> > > > BR,
> > > >
> > > > Alan
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, Jun 9, 2025 at 6:22 PM Tomek CEDRO <to...@cedro.info> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Thanks Alan :-)
> > > > >
> > > > > It would be nice to have a template for new boards along with
> > > > > documentation, and maybe update existing boards when some standard
> is
> > > > > ready :-)
> > > > >
> > > > > https://github.com/acassis/nuttx_board_std - I get 404 here o_O
> > > > >
> > > > > I have question here, when looking at STM32 mcus/boards these seem
> to
> > > > > have lots of separate implementations, that are a bit inconsistent,
> > > > > and usually confusing to newcomers (and to me too). Some
> mcus/boards
> > > > > have support for peripherals that are present in other similar MCUs
> > > > > but not other mcus/boards, that ends up some mcus boards have
> > paertial
> > > > > support for some different peripherals or even the same peripherals
> > > > > but in a different way. I know that code duplication is by design
> not
> > > > > to crash many things at once, but maybe there is a way to re-use
> some
> > > > > code among mcus/boards and so improve coherence? :-)
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks :-)
> > > > > Tomek
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On Mon, Jun 9, 2025 at 10:43 PM Alan C. Assis <acas...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hi Everyone,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > To implement the item 11 of the actions to improve NuttX:
> > > > > > https://github.com/apache/nuttx/issues/16278 I requested ChatGPT
> > to
> > > list
> > > > > > the most common signals/interfaces existent on NuttX:
> > > > > > https://chatgpt.com/share/6841d483-5400-8012-ada6-b962d215f410
> > > > > >
> > > > > > So I created a project to Document and later implement this
> board:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > https://github.com/acassis/nuttx_board_std
> > > > > >
> > > > > > But before carrying on with the implementation I think it is
> > > important to
> > > > > > discuss with everybody here which features (peripherals) we need
> to
> > > have
> > > > > on
> > > > > > the baseboard. The MCU module is supposed to have only the MCU,
> > > > > capacitors,
> > > > > > crystal(s) and the connector to plug in the baseboard.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I created a channel on Discord called #nuttx_standard_board to
> > avoid
> > > > > > polluting this mailing list.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Best Regards,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Alan
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info
> > > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info
> > >
> >
>

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