Setting Out the Road Ahead#

I am now thinking more seriously about the roadmap ahead, and it looks like I am going to be busy over the next few weeks.

The aim is to build up a small library of practical, reusable boards that can support future prototypes, customer projects, and my own embedded systems work.

The RS485 + 48 V passthrough board has given me a much clearer direction for the next set of prototype building block boards I want to design, manufacture, and test. It has also highlighted one important lesson: not every useful function needs to be combined onto a single board.

The original RS485 + 48 V passthrough board was a useful experiment, but it has also made me think more carefully about separation of responsibilities. Keeping the communications side and the power distribution side as separate building blocks may make the boards easier to use, easier to test, and less risky in real-world applications.

The main boards currently on my production list are:

  • RS485 Communications Board
  • RS485 Isolated Communications Board
  • Digital I/O Expander Board
  • 8-Channel Low-Side Driver Board
  • 48 V Distribution Board
  • USB to Serial Communications Board

There are also a couple of possible follow-on ideas:

  • Possible respin of the USB-C + 3.3 V Breakout Board
  • Possible fibre optic communications board

Each of these boards either has, or is starting to develop, a clear purpose.

The RS485 Communications Board will focus purely on providing a robust RS485 interface for embedded systems and distributed control projects.

The RS485 Isolated Communications Board would take that idea a step further by adding galvanic isolation between the logic side and the RS485 bus side. That should make it more suitable for noisier environments, longer cable runs, or systems where different parts of the installation may not share a clean common ground.

The Digital I/O Expander Board will provide a simple way to add additional logic-level inputs and outputs to a controller, using shift registers and suitable output indicators.

The 8-Channel Low-Side Driver Board will sit slightly closer to the power/output side of things, providing a way to switch external DC loads such as relays, solenoids, lamps, indicators, and small motors from logic-level control signals.

The 48 V Distribution Board will handle the power distribution side separately, giving me a safer and more flexible way to route 48 V power where it is needed without tying it directly to the communications circuitry.

The USB to Serial Communications Board is intended to provide a simple and reusable way to connect projects to a computer for debugging, configuration, and development work.

The possible respin of the USB-C + 3.3 V Breakout Board would give me an opportunity to fold in any lessons learned from the first version, tidy up anything that could be improved, and produce a more mature revision of one of the most generally useful building block boards.

The fibre optic communications board is still only an idea at this stage, but it is an interesting one. A simple fibre-based communications prototype could be useful for experimenting with electrical isolation, noise immunity, and longer-distance signalling in harsh or electrically noisy environments.

I also have a few more ideas developing in the background, and some of those may make it onto the list once the current batch of boards has been designed, manufactured, and tested.

For the moment, though, I want to stay focused on getting these boards over the line.

The rough cadence I would like to maintain is:

  • One board being manufactured
  • One board being designed
  • One board being tested

That feels like a practical rhythm. It should allow me to keep making progress without trying to do everything at once.

Of course, that will depend on my schedule and other priorities, especially customer projects. The goal is not to rush boards out for the sake of it, but to keep building a useful catalogue of tested, documented, practical prototype boards.

This is still very much a learning and development process, but the direction is becoming clearer.

Rather than treating each board as a one-off experiment, I am starting to think in terms of a small ecosystem of reusable building blocks: power, communications, I/O, debugging, and control.

That is the direction I want to keep moving in.

I run Protoworks (NI) in Northern Ireland, helping small businesses design prototypes and build custom software. If you have a hardware or software idea you’d like to sketch out, feel free to get in touch.