Homebuilt Development Platform
Project 1 is my development board platform. I needed a board that has a basic development board, a keypad, an LCD, and a breadboard area for special circuits. Boards such as these can be bought, but I had all the components to build my own, so that's what I did. See the photo below.
My Self Assembeled Development Board
Basically, I took a piece of unclad FR4 PC Board material, drilled appropriate holes in it to mount a polymer breadboarding socket (Hamfest), a 16 key keypad (BG Micro), A 16x2 LED backlit LCD (MPJA), and a prototyping board (Diversified Engineering QikStart 16), mounted those components, and I have a useful piece of hardware that can be used for virtually any project.
One slight modification (addition) to the prototyping board that I made is I added male header pins to the small breadboarding area on the board, and hardwred these pins to mirror the white sockets so I could use either wire or female connector pins. I try to use the female connector pins on things that I use often. This way I can just plug it in when I need to, and I don't have to worry about keeping my wires straight. I just plug it onto the header, and I have the port connected the way I want it connected to my peripheral unit.