Breakout Boards
In addition to ICs and sensors mounted on breakout boards and larger mbed baseboards with several connectors, there is a wide array of individual breakout boards commercially available to connect external devices that require a connector. Most of the breakout boards come with holes spaced by .1" for the connections to the pins. You can solder break away header pins like those seen below into the .1" spaced holes after breaking off a strip with the required number of pins.
The breakout board will then plug directly into a breadboard to make a prototype as shown below. The external device can then plug into the connector.
Individual Breakout boards are available with Ethernet, USB, CAN, PS/2, RS-232, microSD, audio, Smart Card, SIM, and VGA connectors. In some cases, the connector will need to be purchased separately and soldered to the board. The .1" breakaway header pin strips will typically need to be purchased separately.
They are available from a variety of vendors such as http://www.Sparkfun.com , http://www.SKPang.co.uk, and http://Coolcomponents.co.uk. In addition to direct sales, Sparkfun and Pololu also have a large number of distributors worldwide.
| Connector | Sparkfun | SKPang | Cool Components | Pololu | Other | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio | X | X X | PC stereo jack for speakers or microphone | |||
| BNC | X | |||||
| CAN | X | OBDII Cables | ||||
| Coin Cell Battery | X | 24.5mm Battery holder - Vbat for RTC | ||||
| Battery holder 6V 4AA | X | closed case & switch with leads - Vin for mbed standlone | ||||
| DB9 | X | X X | connector pins only | |||
| DB15 | X X | connector pins only | ||||
| DB25 | X X | connector pins only | ||||
| Dual row PCB | X | |||||
| Ethernet | X | X | X | Caution: They look the same, but different companies use different pinouts on Magjacks | ||
| Flex Cable | X X | 1mm 16, 24 and 30 pin | ||||
| Header Pins | X | X | X | X | X | Needed for many of the breakout boards |
| No solder header pins | X | |||||
| MIDI | X | |||||
| Micro SD | X | X | X | X | ||
| PS/2 | X | X | connector pins only | |||
| RCA Jack | X | X | connector pins only | |||
| Ribbon Cable IDE | X | 10, 14, 20, 34, and 40 pin | ||||
| Right Angle Header Pins | X | X | Works for R/C servo cables plugged into a breadboard or Phidgets analog sensor cables | |||
| RJ11 | X | connector pins only | ||||
| RS232 | X | X | X | X | All have level conversion & DB9 - Pololu has handshake lines, but no LEDs | |
| DB9 Null Modem | X | Often needed for above along with a M/M gender changer | ||||
| RS485 | X | |||||
| SD Card | X | X | X | |||
| SIM Card | X | |||||
| Smart Card | X | |||||
| USB A | X | X | Used to connect external USB Flash drives | |||
| USB B | X | X | X | |||
| USB micro B | X | |||||
| USB mini B | X | |||||
| VGA connector | X X | DB15 with digital out pins and RGB resistors only, no VGA controller | ||||
| VGA controller | X | X | Picasso VGA controller with DB15 - Serial interface see Cookbook uVGAII | |||
| X-long Header Pins | X | X | Great for R/C servo cables plugged into a breadboard or Phidgets analog sensor cables | |||
| Pushbutton | X X | X | X X X | SPST plugs directly into breadboard - single or eight see Pushbuttons |