Hi Mike,

Thanks for your detailed analysis of the pros and cons in using Eval boards.

I actually restrict the length of the FRC cables to 300mm. While keypads / LCDs / other memory chips work OK, I have been having serious problem with DS12887 rtc chip(s) that somehow refuses to read the time reliably. In fact the code I am using there used to work fine with a F020 DK in similar fashion but with the MCU running at about 3 MHz. Of course when I ported the code to F120 @ 49Mhz I did all the required changes like SFR page switching / add delays for stretching the clcok pulses and still the interface is not reliable. It reads the time OK for some time but return zero values most times.

Your road map to develop a final product made interesting reading. Yes a four layer does provide a solid ground plane but the ground realities in my place are different ;-) Unless I have a large number on order nobody will even make an offer to make it !

I really appreciate the suggestion to use a piggy back PCB - maybe this kind off will solve both my problem of size and FRC cables. Will do it for a start.

Regards

Raghu