March 3, 2018
I found Daniel Gilbert’s Teensy 3.2 Breakout (Revision D) on Tindie during a web search while working on my Teensy Audio project. The breakout board was out of stock, so I put myself on the wait list immediately. As soon as they were available a few weeks later, I ordered two – one for prototyping and one for potential permanent install. The boards arrived fairly quickly and are of great quality and design.
I know that is it always a good idea to read instructions a couple of times, especially for somewhat specialized stuff like this. This was even more important in this case because I did not plan on using the board 100% exactly as originally proposed. I wanted to use longer pins to allow insertion into a Teensy audio board.
Like other users I had some confusion about the VIN VUSB cut that you need to make on the Teensy, but a quick email to Daniel got me on the right track (see photos below). My only real challenge with this build was the 14-pin double row header. While the instructions say to not worry about lining it up too much, this really does need to line up perfectly with the 5-pin header above it or the Teensy and Breakout wont sandwich together. Luckily, with some foresight I avoided a major issue by using a female header to hold everything in place. In the end I actually had more trouble from the A11,A10,AREF,VUSB header, but with a little gentle bending got everything together.
The 14-pin header soldering area is tight once the 5 pin header is installed. I have a variable soldering iron, but even the conservative setting I typically use was a bit high for working in this area. I had one problematic pin where some plastic melted causing the pin to slide all over the place. At one point I considered scrapping the whole header, but I was able to salvage it after taking a break.
Good light and a magnifying glass are *extremely* helpful here. This was my first time working with the 14-pin right angle header design that connects to pads and to conventional pins. Even for an experienced builder may grow impatient with this. Take breaks!
Altogether the build took me 2 hrs. That was after reading the instructions 3 times in separate sittings. When you consider the cost of this board ($12), the Teensy ($20) and your time, you don’t want to mess up. After I was done, all pins tested fine and I now have a great board that is perhaps too good to use for some projects! This breakout offers more functionality at your fingertips than most people would use in small projects.
