{"id":17082,"date":"2016-10-10T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T17:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=17082"},"modified":"2021-06-16T13:51:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T20:51:22","slug":"the-pcb-ruler-test-bed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/the-pcb-ruler-test-bed\/","title":{"rendered":"The PCB Ruler Test Bed"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ll admit that I didn’t quite “get” the PCB Ruler<\/a> at first. Sure it provided a convenient place to connect Pmods<\/a>, but the PCB design means any other connections would have to be soldered anyway, right? How exactly are we expected to use it?<\/p>\n

\"Digilent<\/p>\n

As I worked with it, however, I began to realize how it could be used as a much more versatile test bed for Pmods. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

\"You<\/p>\n

There have been plenty <\/a>of projects <\/a>already that use the P<\/a>CB<\/a> ruler<\/a>. I was not contesting it’s use in a complete product. I was more interested in how to take full advantage of the ruler’s cleverly designed Pmod connections, which allow you to connect Pmods\u00a0without<\/em> soldering. I wanted to use the ruler as a modular test bed, that would allow me to try out Pmods, without needing to solder connections, but also without needing a full breadboard.<\/p>\n

My idea came when I was looking to make a simple project using the ruler. We were shooting some video, and needed something\u00a0quick, that wasn’t complicated or expensive. I felt that the ruler’s built-in touch-pad style buttons would work well with the Pmod LED. To test it out, I plugged the LED in, wired a quick connection to a button, connected the ruler to a power source, and voila, I had a simple functioning circuit!<\/p>\n

\"PCB<\/p>\n

This got me thinking. If I expanded the circuit a little, and added some female headers, I could turn the ruler into the general test bed that I’d always wanted it to be! Finally everything clicked into place!<\/p>\n

\"PCB<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After about half an hour’s work, I was finished! A quick test showed that the ruler had exactly the functionality I needed, plus some additional features I was looking forward to using! Paired with my bread-boarded DP32<\/a>, I now have\u00a0a simple set of tools to let me quickly prototype and test a wide range of circuits!<\/p>\n

\"PCB<\/p>\n

But that’s not why the PCB Ruler works so well. My modification might be exactly what I need, and many of you may even decide to make one for yourself, but that’s just one of many ways you can use the PCB\u00a0Ruler! It’s a great base for\u00a0convenient, but ultimately open-ended features. How each feature fits in to your projects however, that will be entirely up to you.<\/p>\n

In addition to\u00a0that, it’s also a very nice ruler!<\/p>\n

0<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div>
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Jay illustrates some uses of the PCB Ruler!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":17084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322,1561],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[4472],"class_list":["post-17082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories","category-applications"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_7846.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4472,"user_id":21,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jayweeks","display_name":"Jay Weeks","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9032c373b20f91ecd2c2ebd3b378c3da3e5f6e50cf0d516941ba1dafaf29b73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":"","9":"","10":""}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17082"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=17082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}