In my March 24th blog post I talked about ordering an updated version of my PICkit 2 clone board from ITEAD studios back on March 13th. On March 18th I was emailed that they were shipped. By my blog post the boards were still in transit. They arrived today on the 28th so I can compare them to the originals from ExpressPCB. 10 days for shipping via air mail wasn't too bad.
I haven't built one up yet but I am impressed with the quality of the board. In the picture above you can see the ITEAD board on the left and the original ExpressPCB board on the right. First thing to notice is the shape. To get the low cost $85 for three prototype board service from ExpressPCB I had to order in a 2.5 x 3.8 panel. I ended up squeezing in another board design to use up the extra space but it all required me to cut out the board. The ITEAD board was routed out for me for $20 and I have 10 of them instead of three.
Next I looked at the silkscreen and the ITEAD is brighter and easier for my old eyes to read. The solder mask is a little brighter green as well but that really doesn't matter. The board is hot air solder leveled (HASL) on all the pads and they look real good and should be easy to solder.
I tested the mini B connector in the board and it fit fine. This was the major change to the board in addition to removing the power plane on top and replacing it with a 0.020" trace. So it looks like it will work but the real test will be when I solder it together and see if it can program a PIC. That will be the ultimate test. I'll update you on that in a future post.
I tested the mini B connector in the board and it fit fine. This was the major change to the board in addition to removing the power plane on top and replacing it with a 0.020" trace. So it looks like it will work but the real test will be when I solder it together and see if it can program a PIC. That will be the ultimate test. I'll update you on that in a future post.
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