Nuts and Volts - March 2015

• FTDI-IFB contains the necessary current-limiting resistors for a software-inverted FTDI cable.

• Prolific-IFB includes the inverting circuitry we just developed.

• Stereo-IFB contains a female stereo connector and the standard PICAXE programming circuitry.

Each of the above adapter boards includes a 4x2 female header with the same pinout that we just implemented on the Prolific stripboard circuit, except that there are two rows of pins rather than one.

The female header mates with a

4x2 male header on the AxMate interface board that includes the circuitry I mentioned earlier. I chose to use two-row headers because I Similarly to the original AxMate boards, there are two versions of the new AxMate board: the AxMate-IFS, which can be inserted along the side of a standard small (300 hole) breadboard; and the AxMate-IFE, which can be inserted at one end of a standard small breadboard.

As I was writing this article, I realized that the AxMate-IFE board can also be used with a large (630- hole) breadboard (see Figure 10).

Of course, the AxMate-IFS doesn’t have the same flexibility because the holes in the power rails and the main portion of the breadboard are aligned differently the on small and large versions.

However, it would be easy to design an AxMate-IFS board for use

March 2015 15

■ FIGURE 10. AxMate-IFE and Prolific-IFB on large breadboard.

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