Topic: Panelolu 2 Upgrade?
The 2nd release of the Panelolu is coming with I2C to free up some pins. This would be great if I hadn't already purchased the first edition. Tony at Think3dPrint3d (http://blog.think3dprint3d.com/) is not currently working on a transitional breakout board that would upgrade my existing Panelolu and give me access to the extra pins so I tried using his design on perfboard to create one. The result is in the attached image. I have it working with no change to existing Panelolu Wiring. (see Attach#2). Everything but the encoder direction is working, I need to add more spaghetti.
The Marlin firmware modification is published (https://github.com/T3P3/Marlin); and I needed the library from Lincomatic (https://github.com/lincomatic/LiquidTWI2)
The Panelolu 2 consists of an adapter board to connect to the 3d Printer Controller board (and provide the ability to add 2 FETs for fans, etc.), a circuit board with all the functional components (Encoder, Contrast, Brightness, Reset, LEDs and SD card reader), and a LCD. There is no upgrade path.
This probably should go in Hacks/Mods but I started off to introduce the Panelolu 2 and see if there was much support for creating a breakout board. Tony wasn't going to make one unless there was some demand.