EduBoard

EduBoard is a family of maker-friendly open-hardware teaching boards for learning microcontrollers from the silicon up.

The family is designed around three reference targets:

• EduBoard-AVR — ATmega1284P-PU
• EduBoard-8051 — classic 8051-compatible MCU (final reference part to be selected)
• EduBoard-RP — RP2040

All three boards should expose as close to the same pedagogical peripheral set and physical conventions as practical, so students can focus on architectural differences instead of relearning the trainer hardware.

Design goals

• Beginner-friendly and maker-friendly first; cost second.
• Open hardware suitable for fabrication by services such as PCBWay/JLCPCB and for local assembly.
• Two-layer PCB where practical.
• Through-hole parts where they materially improve learning, repairability, or hand assembly.
• Socketed DIP MCU where the target device permits it.
• Large, readable silkscreen labels and clearly grouped functional blocks.
• Test points for important power, clock, reset, serial, and bus signals.
• Common naming and connector conventions across AVR, 8051, and RP variants.
• Hardware should support the majority of GPIO, timer/PWM, interrupt, UART, SPI, I2C/TWI, ADC, display, and basic embedded-systems labs used by the associated courses.
• Arduino compatibility is desirable where it does not compromise the educational design.

Pedagogical hardware requirements

EduBoard is course infrastructure, not just a general-purpose development board. Peripheral and layout decisions should make the connection between software and physical hardware visible and teachable.

For EduBoard-AVR in particular, the hardware must support the EduAVR progression hardware → registers → assembly → C → generated assembly → physical result.

The board should therefore:

• make GPIO and important peripheral signals easy to identify, probe and disconnect;
• provide visible outputs and controllable inputs suitable for early assembly exercises;
• support labs that move cleanly from simulator to physical hardware;
• expose enough signals/test points for students to correlate register changes and instructions with electrical behaviour;
• avoid unnecessary abstraction that hides the MCU peripherals being taught;
• support direct register-level programming without requiring an Arduino framework;
• allow peripherals to be isolated where they would interfere with a lesson or measurement;
• favor pedagogical clarity over adding features that cannot be explained or observed.

Course requirements and board design should co-evolve: a peripheral belongs on the board primarily because it enables useful, illustrative labs.

Common teaching peripherals

The target common set is:

• 8 user LEDs
• 4 user pushbuttons
• configurable DIP switches
• one potentiometer / analog source where the MCU supports ADC
• piezo buzzer
• RGB LED
• 4-digit 7-segment display
• character LCD header
• UART header(s)
• SPI header
• I2C/TWI header
• general-purpose expansion GPIO
• programming/debug connector appropriate to the target MCU
• reset and target-specific boot/program controls
• small prototyping/expansion area where practical

Peripheral blocks should be disconnectable by jumper, solder bridge, or equivalent when they would otherwise consume pins needed for a lesson.

Course relationship

• EduAVR uses ATmega1284P-PU as its single primary MCU. EduAVR teaches assembly before C and deliberately uses SIM, BOARD and SIM → BOARD exercises. Other AVR devices belong in a porting/application appendix.
• Edu8051 will use one selected classic 8051-compatible MCU as its single primary MCU. Other derivatives belong in an appendix.
• EduRP is intended as a shorter transition course for students who already understand MCU fundamentals from EduAVR or Edu8051, using RP2040 as the primary MCU.

Licensing

EduBoard follows the Ploos-AS hardware licensing standard:

• hardware, PCB design files and HDL/gateware: CERN-OHL-P-2.0
• software, firmware, scripts and tooling: MIT
• course/documentation content may use CC BY-SA 4.0 where appropriate

Each component directory must clearly state the applicable license.

Status

M2 — EduBoard-AVR schematic/PCB implementation is in progress. M2.1a core CAD loads/renders in KiCad 9 but still requires ERC cleanup; M2.2 ISP/JTAG contract work has started in parallel.