Tweaking the UCMOD-0 Microcontroller Module

It’s a short update today.

Today I tweaked the ATtiny1614 UCMOD design slightly. The main change was adding a jumper that allows the UPDI programmer’s power line to supply only the microcontroller, rather than powering the entire module and potentially any attached carrier board or other circuitry.

I also adjusted the three-pin UPDI socket to match the header layout used by the Adafruit UPDI Friend. The previous arrangement worked electrically, but hadn’t been laid out with the UPDI Friend’s physical header pin arrangement in mind.

Both changes were fairly minor — essentially some track rerouting and the addition of a 1x2 header footprint for the isolation jumper. They don’t affect compatibility with other UPDI programmers; they’re simply a quality-of-life improvement for anyone who wants to plug a UPDI Friend directly into the UCMOD module rather than using the three-pin JST-SH fly lead supplied with it.

I may send this revision out as part of a prototype run with a few other boards I have in the pipeline, or perhaps include it in a small batch for the website if there’s enough demand. I haven’t decided yet, though. The changes are minimal, and if the current boards work well it’s difficult to justify manufacturing another revision solely for these improvements.

If I don’t have a batch manufactured myself, I’ll of course make the schematic and PCB files available for download so that anyone interested can order the revised board themselves (assuming testing of the previous batch I ordered goes well!).