1. Very cool, congratulations.

This is a cool and useful project, done well. Good win!

Posted at 11:56PM on Mar 2nd 2007 by David

2. http://www.create.ucsb.edu/~dano/CUI/

i don't get it....

Posted at 12:29AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by chupa

3. looks oddly the same hey?

Posted at 1:24AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Fleino

4. not that this isnt a well designed and built hack, but, come on, what differentiates this from any of the many other usb dev boards?

Posted at 1:44AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Wolf

5. this really is a let down.... how about putting all the entry's up and letting the users vote on it. like an exhibition match....

Posted at 1:59AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by chupa

6. It looks very like the other one hey?

Posted at 2:04AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Fleino

7. Firstly, a big thanks to Hackaday.

Mine and a lot of other USB PIC designs are based on the Microchip USB Bootloader, which requires two buttons for bootloading. The other one linked uses the 18F4550 40pin chip, which in SMD is much harder to solder, and for DIP would not really fit in the size requirements. It also does not provide schematics for the pictured board.

Mine leaves all of PORTB free for a byte sized I/O, whereas others need one or more PORTB pins for USB Bootloading. I don't see it being "oddly the same", they use different chips, laid out differently, have different I/O connections, different power connections, different software.

I also worked hard on the design to have NO vias, and single sided so it is easy for anyone to make at home. Others I have seen all have lots of jumpers/vias, or are double sided.

I have used it as a base for a number of projects. The Microchip C compiler makes it very easy to prototype things, the full PORTB I/O makes it easy to connect 'data line hungry' projects, and USB makes it easy to communicate with the PC.

I realise there are similar designs out there, but I have spent a lot of time designing mine from the ground up, with the features I have outlined above and on my website which I hope differentiates it from other designs. So I get quite offended by comments that it is "oddly the same" as other ones.

Posted at 2:55AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by nuxie1

8. personally i wish that something more innovative than a pic programmer would have won, since they're pretty much a dime-a-dozen these days.

either way, congrats.

Posted at 3:07AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Wonder Bread

9. we want voting!

--neg

Posted at 5:16AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by neggies

10. I have the same opinion as wonder bread.

Posted at 6:33AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by maros

11. Come on guys, compared to the rest its really a good project. Its useful, small, not too many parts and very well documented. Don't be so greedy!

Posted at 7:59AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by steve

12. well done, nuxie1, well done. What I suspect most people here do not understand is that it is the fine details that take up all the time in a project. As you said, minimizing vias or jumpers in a layout, clean design... these things all take thought and time. Whipping together a hack that fits on a card is the easy part. Making it clean is a much larger task.

I just did an 8-layer 5x7-index-card-sized design and I can assure everyone here... the schematic is the easy part. The layout was heavily dependent on parts placement, and manufacturability relies extensively on choosing parts with compatible footprints, attention to RoHS standards (at least for BGAs, I learned that you can't mix RoHS-compliant BGAs and non-compliant ones on the same side without extra costs), board density issues for proper reflow and probably a dozen other things. It's the attention to detail, as what nuxie1 has shown here, that makes a project great.

Yes, voting would be a nice feature, but I would prefer to have the final decision left to a panel of judges who takes the popular vote into account but can also take into account issues that the population is likely not even looking at. "Cool" factor only gets you so far, and it shouldn't get you top prize.

Posted at 9:03AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by akmixdown

13. congrats nuxie that looks like a really tidy board and I can see it having many uses and it doesn't look like a backyard project but a well finished professional product.
Well done !

Posted at 10:17AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by minimike

14. if they start selling kits of these, I'd buy one! Seems very helpful and fun to make.

Posted at 11:11AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by weirdguy

15. Well done Nuxie! You did work hard and it shows. It's a basic board that everyone needs. The requirements stated that it needed to be useful and it is. Congrats!

Posted at 11:14AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Jevy

16. There are several of these type of things out there - not to diminish the winner at all, as it is extremely well done.

If you want to buy one of these (very, very similar to the winner) you can go to SparkFun (www.sparkfun.com) and order one of my UBW boards (look under PIC development). They're $25. The nice thing is that it's pre-built (a kit version is coming very soon that will be less expensive) and the software that comes with it is super easy to use (i.e. you don't need to write any code to get it running). The code that I've written for it makes it appear as a virtual COM port on your computer, and you can send it many different commands to do lots of different things - like it can turn all 19 I/O pins into 19 separate RC servo outputs, etc.

Main UBW website is http://greta.dhs.org/UBW

*Brian (EmbeddeMan)

Posted at 11:43AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Brian Schmalz

17. Congratulations, nuxie1.

Perhaps you should note some of the qualifications you just posted about in the introduction page for your project. It is understandable, I think, for people not to immediately recognize all of the features. (especially neophytes such as myself)

I like your idea of capitalizing on the extra space to use it as a business card... a bit expensive for that purpose... but also maybe a good way to get the job. :)

Posted at 11:54AM on Mar 3rd 2007 by sackofcatfood

18. Oh, one other quick thing - I believe the USB spec says that you can have a max of 10uF bulk cap across +5 -> Gnd from the USB connector. I made the same mistake of 100uF on my design - SparkFun corrected it for me when they went to production.

*Brian

Posted at 2:20PM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Brian Schmalz

19. what exactly does it do?

Posted at 4:04PM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Tom huveners

20. to nuxie1: I doubt any of the commenters would deny that is an extrmely well done piece of hardware, being both functional, and within the average hobyists skill level. Personally I just would've prefered something more original.

excelent work in any case

Posted at 5:29PM on Mar 3rd 2007 by Wolf