Future Expansion Board suggestions

[jmarcelino]

The expansion board 2.0 is a great tool, however to me it's plagued by some inconsistencies which unnecessarily increase the cognitive load and hinders support.
I hope we'll see a version 3.0 at some point soon, not the least to remove the Pymakr logo :-)

Here's my list of my suggestions:

• Remove the Pymakr logo :-)

• Reconsider the Gxx pin number scheme. I understand that it may make sense for historical reasons but now it's just confusing to have two ways to talk about the same thing. Pick one scheme - the one used on the pinout diagram should match the expansion board.

• Clearly mark the Py board orientation.

• Clearly mark the INPUT only pins P13 - P18

• Label what's connected from the board to the pins like LED, Button, Batt voltage divider, FTDI (inc RTS/CTS)

• Consider using dip switches instead of shorting jumpers that fall off and get lost.

Feel free to add more below!

[berni]

After a week playing with my new LoPy modules and the expansion board, here is my list of suggestions:

• I found very confusing the difference in numbering between the LoPy pinout (Pxx, GPIOxx, pin numbers... and the expansion board (Gxx). @jmarcelino has mentioned this already.
• I don't really understand why the user button and the LED are mapped on the same pins used for I2C. Why not any pin on the right hand side not used for other functions P12-P22?
• It would be great to add a couple of Grove connectors mapped to the I2C pins and two other GPIO pins. They are pretty much the standard these days and there are plenty of sensor modules available.
• A solar charging circuit and connector would be awesome for so many projects. Using a solar panel on the USB is kind of risky and definitely not ideal.

[livius]

For me minimal changes in design should be

1. On the right 2x long connector - connected to GND and 3V3 (or not connected but simple we can use it connecting by wire)
2. on the left 3x short connector we can use it for e.g. connect it to i2c pins, pin with onewire ...

I do not redesign it fully to support all proposition in this topic but this is from usability point of view.

[livius]

@jmarcelino
also look at this topic
https://forum.pycom.io/topic/690/hardware-improvement-suggestions

PS. digged long to find it also with search feature ;-)