User manual
Hardware Details
2015 Microchip Technology Inc. DS40001812A-page 35
A.1.10 PICtail
™
and PICtail Plus Expansion Connectors
The PICtail interface enables the Explorer 8 Development Board to be connected
directly to available PICtail daughter board cards. The following female headers are
available to support different PIC microcontroller connections to PICtail daughter cards
and for user access to MCU pins:
• 2x14 Socket (J3) – to support 8/14/18/20/28-pin devices
• 2x6 Socket (J11) – to support up to 44-pin devices
• 2x10 Socket (J5) – to support up to 68-pin devices
• 2x8 Socket (J28) – to support up to 80-pin devices
The PICtail Plus connectors (J19) are the card-edge modular connector found on the
right part of the board. It is based on a 120-pin connection divided into three sections
of 30 pins, 30 pins and 56 pins. Each 30-pin section provides connections to all of the
serial communication peripherals, as well as many I/O ports, external interrupts and
ADC channels. This provides enough signals to develop many different expansion
interfaces for different PICtail daughter cards.
For available PICtail daughter cards, visit the Microchip web site at
www.microchip.com.
A.1.11 mikroBUS
™
Connectors
Two MikroElektronika Click boards may be loaded into the sockets J32 or J35. Various
communication ports and interfaces are controlled by Jumpers J41 through J50. Power
and ground for the Click boards is supplied through the existing connections to the
sockets.
A.1.12 Pmod
™
Connectors
Two Digilent Pmod interfaces are available on the bottom middle of the Explorer 8
Development Board. Both sockets are the 12-pin version of the Digilent Pmod and
provide eight I/O signal pins, two power pins and two ground pins. The signals are
arranged so that they provide two of the 6-pin interfaces stacked.
A.1.13 Configurable In-line Connector
A 20-pin single in-line socket (J33) is provided for connection with expansion boards.
The socket is connected in parallel to the first line of a 2x20 female header (J25)
making it a configurable in-line connector. The second line of J25 has each of its pin
socket connected to the 3.3V supply while another 2x20 female header (J39) makes
each of its pin socket available with 5V.
A.1.14 LCD
An LCD with two lines, 16 characters each, is connected to the SPI I/O expander,
MCP23S17. The two control lines and eight data lines are connected to the I/O
expander. The I/O expander has an SPI interface that connects it to the microcontroller.
The LCD is disabled or enabled through jumper J61.
Note: Sample jumper configurations are provided in Ta b le 1 -1 .
Note: Sample jumper configurations are provided in Ta b le 1 -1 .