Dr.Duino — which recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign — is a fully-equipped breakout board for testing all features of the Arduino platform. Created by Long Island-based Innovative Electronic Solutions LLC, the newly-launched device enables developers using the popular board to have a genuine fixture for testing their Atmel based designs. Think of it as a shield for your shields!
“Do you love Arduino development but dread testing your hardware because there is no easy way to attach things like your meter, oscilloscope or probes?” asks Guido Bonelli, President and Founder of Innovative Electronic Solutions.
Designed with the hobbyist and DIYer in mind, Dr.Duino features easy access to all pins including ground and source voltages, while a built-in siren with volume control easily identifies high- or low-voltage condition. The Dr.Duino also boasts four push-button switches, which can be be tied to active-high and active-low probes, and provides six 10K potentiometers fed directly into the analog input pins with jumper sockets that are easy to grab and are on standard 0.1-inch centers.
Bonelli says he invented Dr.Duino because there was nothing on the market like it available for purchase. “I was tired of disassembling my stacked Arduino boards every time I needed to test something which was in between layers.”
Now, users can simply position the Dr.Duino between their shields and utilize the jumper sockets to break the connection between both shields without needing to take apart their stack time and time again.
The “world’s first test fixture for the Arduino platform” delivers everything a developer needs to debug, troubleshoot and validate their projects quickly and easily. The new device brings every pin on the [Atmel powered] Arduino to a header, in addition to providing test points, an onboard RS232 interface, and a pass-through capability that allows test signals to pass to other Arduino board layers or to be intercepted and routed to one of the POTs, switches or LEDs.
The Dr.Duno’s reset switch offers quick, convenient board restarts. There are four ground points along with four 5.0V and 3.3V test points, all of which are extra-large and color-coded. The device also comes with RS-232 support in addition to Vref, Vin and extra I/O points.
“The Dr. Duino makes debugging your Arduino projects super fast,” a company rep writes. The unique design of Dr.Duino places all of its testing pins around an open middle which gives an unobstructed view of the board under it; resultantly, making probing of any and all signals easy.
At the moment, Dr.Duino only works with Arduino Uno (ATmega328) and other compatible boards. “Given all of the various vendors providing Arduino boards, there is no way possible to have tested each and every variant,” Bonelli explains.
“If you’ve ever been struck in the middle of the night by your next invention but didn’t have hardware on hand, you can use Dr.Duino and start writing your application code within milliseconds utilizing common hardware needed in almost any design. Just plug your Dr.Duino into an Arduino and start writing code!”
And today, we’ve received word that the Dr.Duino is now available for pre-order! Those interested in learning more can head on over to its official page here.
Atmel | Bits & Pieces 