Home
Home
Even at this very early stage in the development of emSynth as a product line people have expressed interest in creating their own emSynth designs. This standards page exists to make sure that everyone creates compatible modules. If you see any errors or omissions or would just like to chime in, feel free to contact us here: emsynth@gmail.com .
Most emSynth boards have an 8-pin 90 degree angle pin-header for insertion into the breadboard. Pin 1 is defined to be Ground and pin 2 is defined to be VDD. These are marked, as all pins are on the reverse of the board with bottom silkscreen of the signal name for reference, and VDD is marked with the supply voltage range like this: VDD (3-15V). Use an 8-pin header even if you do not require all 8 pins. This is to reduce the parts stock required. To make use of unused pins, bring internal nodes out to the header for various purposes such as Inhibit, Reset, Monitor, and special configurations.
If you do schematic capture and layout of your board, use the Eagle CAD program. Eagle is essentially a defacto hobbyist standard because it is a well written, powerful electronics CAD package that is free for hobbyist purposes up to a half Eurocard size. I will be purchasing a copy of Eagle CAD since we use it for business purposes just as soon as profits permit me to do so. We are using a shared public library file: emSynth.lbr. If you add to this library file please email us a copy of your updated file.
The board should be as small as possible with all parts located on the top side and the bottom reserved for traces and descriptive silkscreen. In most cases the board can be 0.8" wide to match the header, or 1" to get two rows of chips horizontally. Use surface mount parts wherever practical and keep an eye to cost of components. Use thru-hole for cost or durability or availability reasons. Add two mounting holes spaced on a 0.2" grid, 0.07874016 inch diameter, octagonal.