Wiring connectors

[Kaellis991]

here are some ready made short lengths
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3295441 ... 4dC7d2h0tO

terminals -
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004 ... hfiCtCtzoB

tool - (but you may find one locally cheaper) - I think I paid about 10 quid for mine ?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003 ... ygD8K7UFXZ

you could buy a full selection for less than the price of a mega -
then change over to using all PICO

I just bought a Pico to play around with. They are better than the arduinos?

[Kaellis991]

Another question....Can the crimper I bought a year ago for the dupont pins also work with the JST pins?

[jph]

Most likely (on the crimper)

As for PICO v Arduino ? - it all depends in what context ?.

As a micro board it is on a different planet to any of the original Arduinos,

For use with AM ? - well...

Using the built in AM 'flash' you wont notice ANY difference as you are limited to the lowest common denominator of processor type and speed as 'one size fits all' It connects via HID as opposed to serial when flashed in AM which is far better. Serial is SLOW. It is 'acceptable', when used with loads and loads of boards as the limitations in bandwidth are hidden / masked by the shear number of micro boards (hence serial ports!) in use though. Large rusty sledge hammer and nut come to mind Like buying a new hard drive every time you want to add a program
Using it on messageport, it is FAR FAR superior in capabilities so you can have - say - 256 input and 256 outputs on universal home made daughterboards driven by a SINGLE modern micro for less than the price of a couple of megas. The ONLY processor in use will be a SINGLE 5 dollar PICO. The daughterboards should be capable of being built by anyone competent with a soldering poker (no premade pcbs needed)

Using a complete micro every time you want inputs or outputs is ok in a limited way and for small scale stuff it is acceptable but imho gets out of hand and pretty pointless and over complicated when you start on a very complex project like a full 737 / airbus or even some GA cockpits. It is far better to have dedicated I/O boards controlled from central processors. That was you can have proper connector option as opposed to some of the utter rat's nest we see and full protection on ALL input and output circuitry, you can also use ALL your output pins to capacity. !! The BIG limitation is likely to be the pre-set serial port speed programmed into AM, not the hardware in any way.
Take for example a 'mega' - loads of I/O pins. Yet can only source or sink an absolute maximum of 200mA per board. that means that if you want to drive LED's then you are limited to 10 or 20 led's on at the same time depending on current. Many read that a pin can source or sink 25mA - hence they wrongly believe that the device is capable of running 50+ led's at 20 to 25 mA .. it wont.
A normal 'high brightness' led nowadays uses up to 15mA.
You can assemble a nice board, at home, with 128 outputs, ALL capable of 15mA at the same time !! (unlike ANY arduino) , ALL fully hardware PWM controlled - individually - and all actually capable of being programmed as inputs, with programmable pullups even, and all for less than the price of one archaic mega. It is all still completely processor independent - meaning you can change the type of controlling micro processor as you need, and you only need ONE micro with around 20 to 25 pins
You want 256 fully protected fully protected, fully capable outputs that you can even chose to use as inputs ? - then add another board that you assemble yourself without any fancy soldering skills.

But we are getting off topic

Short answer for pico - if used with an AM flash then it's benefits are price and not using a usb serial connection, for any micro board of the same number of pins you will notice no difference - again because of the lowest common denominator.

But if it is used as a microprocessor board as a controller it is utterly freeking amazing.

[Kaellis991]

If i understand the Pico description, then rather than utilize the 4 different Arduinos I have for my cockpit, I could have used one Pico and a few diy breakout boards for the approximately 34 pins I am currently using?

[jph]

It is horses for courses mate.

With a limited number of I/Os then you could probably use a single mega instead of what you have.
I dont actually know why you have four arduinos ?

It is when it starts scaling up to complex projects requiring LOTS of I/Os that I believe people are looking at the solutions incorrectly.

[Kaellis991]

It is horses for courses mate.

With a limited number of I/Os then you could probably use a single mega instead of what you have.
I dont actually know why you have four arduinos ?

It is when it starts scaling up to complex projects requiring LOTS of I/Os that I believe people are looking at the solutions incorrectly.

With my limited knowledge starting out it seemed that I needed multiple arduinos for the 30 switches and 4 lights. It was the simplest way i understood how to do it.

[jph]

Ah, understood.
You could have used a single mega to control the lot, of course, you would still need the external protection and buffering like your Darlington driver arrays (ULNs)
The price of the mega is ridiculous though.
If I was doing your and wanted 50 pins or less and wanted to use built in AM functions (which I would advise as being the best for you until you get more into' programming and electronics) then the answer would be absolutely simple... 2 PICOs - job sorted.

If you get a 150 x 90 proto board, the ones with the holes all plated through - double sided, no strips, then you could build everything onto one board and add sockets for the picos and all your connectors and ULNs etc.

[Kaellis991]

How to do things better and simpler will always occur to you as experience is gained.
As the old adage goes, if i had to do it all over again....

[Kaellis991]

When I started this project my intention was to use the Mega, but I ran into the problem of the Realsimgear that i couldnt get around. So my simple brain told me I needed to use multiple different arduinos since there are only 10 or 11 useable digital pins on Nanos, UNOs, micros, and Leonardos. If I had understood about using the analog pins a year ago, maybe one arduino could have been eliminated. Having the info about Picos, It would have been a different build.

[jph]

Absolutely true Kirk,
Experience comes with age AND making mistakes. !
I have a lot of the 'first' and have made many of the 'second'.

I have at least 5 different methods here at the moment that I am experimenting with for I/O expansion and as is usually the case that the simplest is often the best - and the cheapest. Also, sod's law dictates that you ONLY find the best solution after completing what you think is the best solution

I have been at it 50 years so have made most mistakes that are possible to make. I think my sig has a little quote about 'experience' being the name men give to their mistakes...