Running a Versalino load-board with a regular Arduino
So you would love to play with one of the upgrade boards for the Versalino, but you aren’t quite ready to take the plunge? No worries this guide will let you get things up and running in no time flat using your standard Arduino and some of our handy Male to Female cables.
Obviously, it is a lot more fun to just plug it into a Versalino and go, but for those of you that are feel more adventurous, or already have and Arduino, and just aren’t ready for the plunge I totally understand. This guide is mean’t to help you wire together a BUSA and a BUSB from an Arduino Uno (which by proxy is how you wire it to a Mega).
This is the way you would need to wire up BUSA.
Things you will need:
Versalino Loadboard 12 Male to Female Wires An Arduino/Arduino Compatible board
Things you should know first:
The pin-out below is a comparison between the standard Arduino Layout and the way that the pins are arranged on the Versalino Uno. The process of wiring your load board to a Standard Arduino can be really simple if you just use this table for reference during the wiring process.
| BUS | Arduino™ BUSA Equiv | Arduino™ BUSB Equiv |
|---|---|---|
| Gnd | GND | GND |
| A0 | A0 | A3 |
| A1 | A1 | A4 |
| A2 | A2 | A5 |
| D1 | 2 | 7 |
| P1 | 3 | 9 |
| D2 | 4 | 8 |
| P2 | 5 | 10 |
| D3 | 13 | 12 |
| P3 | 6 | 11 |
| Vdd | 5 V | 5 V |
| reserved | n/a | n/a |
| Vin | VIN | VIN |
Now, I know if you have everything in front of you already you are dying to get things wired up, but before you do there are a few important things you should know (mostly so you don’t end up wiring things backwards).
The image above is to help you identify where the VIN side of the load-board is using the missing pin on the BUS structure for reference (Versalino MotorMaster is used for this reference).
As you can see in the picture of the Versalino Sense & Move above, there is a missing pin on the BUS. That spot is an indicator to help keep you from putting a Versalino load-board backwards or upside down. If you however chose to wire things in reverse you would be putting the raw input voltage (VIN) on the ground of your load-board which at the very least would keep your board from working, and at the very worst could damage components on it or your Arduino. So be extra careful to wire your boards together correctly.
Putting it all together:
Now that you know a little more about the way the Versalino is put together it should be a snap to wire your Versalino loadboard up! All you need to do is wire put the female end of the wire into the BUS pins (I would start from VIN, just so you know you got that one right) and work your way down the table wiring the male end of your wires into the appropriate spots on the Arduino board.
This is the way you would need to wire up BUSA. The colors (for all but power and ground) are in the order that they come in with our bundles of ten Male to Female dupont cables.
Above is the wiring for BUSA
This is the way you would need to wire up BUSB. The colors (for all but power and ground) are in the order that they come in with our bundles of ten Male to Female dupont cables.
Above is the wiring for BUSB
Congratulations! Now you can run the same sketches used to run projects for the Versalino, and you can play with some of the cool things you can do with the Versalino BUS structure. I look forward to seeing what you can do with the Versalino, and I can’t wait to make more load-boards for you to play with.
Things you need to get started with the real Versalino:
Versalino Loadboard Versalino Uno Versalino FTDI
Restored from the josephdattilo.com archive — original publish date preserved. Lightly cleaned up for the modern site; the words are period-correct.
The hardware is open source
The Versalino loadboard template — the schematics and Gerbers referenced above — is being published as open hardware. Follow along (or fork it) at my GitHub (as the design files are recovered) — the generic Versalino loadboard template (schematic, board, and Gerbers) so anyone can design their own upgrade board for the Versalino BUS.
I'm Joseph Dattilo — engineer-founder in Lansing, Michigan, author of the FleetHarbor suite, and founder of Date Palm Media. More about me · More writing · Get in touch