A universal breakout board for ESP32, Arduino, STM32 or Raspberry PI’s

New parts are on order for fabrication soon.

Seeing the logic state of different buttons, switches, and data lines are beneficial. With the TinyLedSwitch Breakout Board, it is easy to identify the source of a problem, whether it be a bad switch, wire, or code.

Description

The TinyLedSwitch Breakout Board eliminates the need to cram in additional resistors, LEDs, and flimsy switches on your breadboard. Instead, four colorful red, yellow, green, and blue diodes indicate the GPIO state. Use the Panasonic light touch switches to pull down a microcontroller input. The board works with any modern microcontroller or the Raspberry PI. The optionally 90 degrees pin-headers allow mounting it either horizontally or vertically.

Usage

To use any four-color LEDs, you only connect the GND on the board and any LED to the device pins. To use the switches as a pull-down signal, use Arduino’s pinMode command, for example. If there is no such command for the device, connect VCC to the breakout boards, the pin marked 3-5V, to pull up the voltage via a ten kOhm resistor.

Features

The TinyLedSwitch - A universal breakout board is available fully assembled in two header pin variants but can be ordered without soldered header pins.

• Four different colors (red, yellow, green, and blue) LEDs for easy identification.
• Includes two Pansonic light touch switches with a low operational force of 1.6N.
• Use it for both 3.3V and 5V logic devices.
• Operate it horizontally or vertically, i.e., the board variant with one 90-degree header pin.
• The breadboard leaves room for cables on each side, i.e., the standard variant without a 90-degree pin.
• All pins are available on both sides for easy access.
• Visible labels on both sides to simplify identification.

Arduino LedTask Library

The Arduino library LedTask shows the power of non-preemptive multitasking. LedTask shows an elementary example with four LEDs, which run close to independently. Use the board to run the sketch. In addition, one example uses the two switches to detect a short or long keypress, which can be very useful when creating a menu in code.

Install the LedTask library with Library Manager in Arduino IDE.

Specification for the breakout board v1.1

• Operating voltage (optionally for the pull-down switches): 3.3-5V.
• The board size is 20.8 x 31.0 mm (0.82"x1.22") and fabricated as a two-layer board.
• Board thickness: 1.6 mm (63 mils).
• Color: Purple
• Weight: 3 grams (0.11 ounce).
• Height: 15 mm (0.59").

FAQ

Q: When do I need to apply the VCC pull-up voltage for the switches' pull-down operation? A: If your device does not have a way to set the input pin, use internal pull-up resistors. For example, Arduino has two variants for the pinMode-command: pinMode(pin, INPUT_PULLUP), and pinMode(pin, INPUT).

In the latter case, apply VCC to the board to use the onboard external ten kOhm resistor. See the Arduino library LedTask examples for more information about the usage.