A FLEX Daughter Board is a board with specialized features that can be inserted on top of a FLEX Base Board (piggybacking) or connected another Daughter Board, to obtain complex devices for all possible applications.

The development of custom, home-made daughter boards is made easy since the FLEX Base Board connectors use the standard 2.54 mm pitch. Therefore, the features of the FLEX platform can be extended with virtually no limits.

1 Thru Hole board

The board is targeted to the development of small, homemade, custom circuits that can be transparently interfaced with the FLEX Base Boards. The board makes several common pin holes available to the user, for connecting electronic components.

Patterns marked with “piggybacking” are pins which come from the piggy backed FLEX board. Each pin on the piggy backing rows is connected to a pin on the most wide board section. The remaining board surface is divided into the most common pin hole patterns, such as:
1. standard 2.54 mm pattern;
2. standard 2.54 mm pattern with alternate phases, useful for, i.e., RJ45 and RS232 connectors, etc.;
3. standard 1.27 mm pattern, useful for connecting typical SMD components;
4. standard 5.08 mm pattern, useful for, i.e., clamps;

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Multibus
The Multibus board has been developed with the goal of providing various communication possibilities to the FLEX boards. The main idea of the Multibus board is to provide a base board where different communication modules can be plugged in, to adapt the communication available on the board to the application requirements. The Multibus board provides the transceivers to the most common interfaces available on the dsPIC chip, like serials, SPI, CANI2C, as well as additional enhancements like the ethernet port.
The Multibus daughter board is composed bye a base board has to be plugged on top of a FLEX Light or a FLEX Full by using the connectors on the FLEX boards. The base board contains a set of jumpers which are needed to configure the different communication devices, as well as a set of “slots” for plug-in modules, and a set of clamps for the connection to the communication buses.

In the figure, numbers 1 and 2 are serial modules, 3 and 4 are CAN modules, 5 is left empty, 6 is an SPI module, 7 and 8 are the ethernet modules and connector. Please note that the Ethernet connector is typically not mounted on the Multibus base board.


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2.1 RS422 module
This module can be used to export the UART pins linked to the UART peripherals on the
dsPIC by using signals which are compatible with the RS422 specification. The module has three jumpers named JP1 to JP7 which can be used for the following purposes:
• JP2 and JP5 controls the termination of the two RS485 lines;
• (first RS485 line) JP3 in position 1-2 enables the reception (RX) from the signal TXEN of the microcontroller (0 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the reception; if open disables the RX.
• (first RS485 line) JP1 in position 1-2 enables the transmission (TX) from the signal TXEN of microcontroller (1 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the TX; if open disables the TX.
• (second RS485 line) JP3 in position 1-2 enables the reception (RX) from the signal TXEN of the microcontroller (0 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the reception; if open disables the RX.
• (second RS485 line) JP1 in position 1-2 enables the transmission (TX) from the signal TXEN of microcontroller (1 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the TX; if open disables the TX.


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2.2 RS232 module
This module can be used to export the UART pins linked to the UART peripherals on the dsPIC by using signals which are compatible with the RS232 standard.






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2.3 RS485 module
This module can be used to export the UART pins linked to the UART peripherals on the dsPIC by using signals which are compatible with the RS485 standard. The module has three jumpers named JP1, JP2, and JP3 which can be used for the following purposes:
• JP1 controls the termination of the RS485 line;
• JP2 in position 1-2 enables the reception (RX) from the signal TXEN of the microcontroller (0 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the reception; if open disables the RX.
• JP3 in position 1-2 enables the transmission (TX) from the signal TXEN of microcontroller (1 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the TX; if open disables the TX.


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2.4 CAN module
The module can be used to export the CAN peripheral pins which are available on the dsPIC using a CAN transceiver





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2.5 Ethernet module
The module can be used to export an ethernet connection through the RJ45 connector available on the Multibus base board. The ethernet chip used is the Microchip ENC28J60, which is connected to the dsPIC by using the SPI bus. Please note that this module is sold with the RJ45 connector which has to be solded to the Multibus base board. The multibus base board is typically sold without the RJ45 connector.


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2.6 SPI module
The module can be used to export one of the SPI peripheral pins which are available on the dsPIC. Moreover, the module has a set of components which are used to protect the microcontroller pins from input signals which are not compatible with the specifications. The module has four jumpers named JP1, JP2, JP3 and JP4 which can be used to put in high impedance respectively the digital output, clock, digital input and chip select signals.



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RS485 module
This module can be used to export the UART pins linked to the UART peripherals on the dsPIC by using signals which are compatible with the RS485 standard. The module has three jumpers named JP1, JP2, and JP3 which can be used for the following purposes:
• JP1 controls the termination of the RS485 line;
• JP2 in position 1-2 enables the reception (RX) from the signal TXEN of the microcontroller (0 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the reception; if open disables the RX.
• JP3 in position 1-2 enables the transmission (TX) from the signal TXEN of microcontroller (1 = ON); in position 2-3 enables the TX; if open disables the TX.

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