Evening the score with obsolescence

The Problematic

Sometimes you are locked with an obsolete part in a design,Availability drops and price rise to a point where it's reaching extortion, you don't want to keep up with this situation forever.

I got into this situation because of the MC68HC908GP32CPE, this microcontroller was once pretty popular and now extinct and overpriced when found in very small quantities. It's brother the MC68HC908GP32CFB while being obsolete too offers everything the popular one had to offer while still being cheaper and easier to get in bigger quantities while costing at least 75% less than the first. Trouble is, the CPE had a DIP40 package while the CFB had a QFP44 package. A bit of adaption is required before the takeover!

CPE variant on top, CFB variant below

The Solution

To overcome this I designed an adapter board that allow to use the CFB in place of the CPE

CFB variant on the adapter PCB

I will be offering a bunch of those bare PCBs for sale (no MCU soldered to it), to order one please contact me at the e-mail adress in the signature below.