programming conector

[Massimo 1]

I'm doing some small boards with the 14 pin g2001 chip.

I grid to design the board using a standard 100 mils header but it's quite bulky with respect to the rest of the board.

Moreover the combination of the and micro and the headers brings a footprint similar to the dip chip.

I can reduce to 3 contacts (and get power independently) but the size reduction is limited.

I know there are the 50 mils headers used on some ti boards, but they look rather fragile. Am I wrong about that?

Moreover I wonder if there are other possible space saving alternatives..

Thanks in advance,

Massimo

[roadrunner84 466]

The 50 mil headers are not as fragile as they may look.

Have you noticed that you can drop the outer two pins on the 6 pin 50 mil header to drop uart support in favour of space usage?

Alternatively you could consider a TagConnect solution, as these fellows have done.

A small (6-pin) tagconnect is about the same size as 2 to 3 DIP pads.

This may not seem a big gain, but tagconnect does not require components on the target board, just board space.

You could place it on the backside and only require space for the three alignment holes though the board.

 

On this image, the tagconnect is the 6 small pads between the 3 small holes on the 6 o'clock on the board.

[Massimo 1]

Thanks for the insight and the suggestion!

In case I would use the 4 pin connector.

The board is very simple and the code can be debugged on the launchpad, so the bare minimum for programming is enough.

Massimo

[Massimo 1]

A little update:

I opted for the tag connect solution no leg (it's for programming only, no debug).

I used a Launchpad as a programmer and it works perfectly.

A very nice solution.

Thanks,

Massimo