Wemos "tripler" base - design flaw "gotcha"

I love Wemos products. I still do despite this discovery. I have been using their "doubler" bases for a while and they make life very easy. As my IOT project expanded towards completion, I needed to connect several sub-assemblies.

To my great joy, Wemos announced the "tripler" and I ordered three from an ebay seller. They are solid and well-made (as I'd expect from Wemos) and are just what I needed.



Well, almost...

I was 90% of the way through soldering header pins to the first when I realised problem no. 1:

The spacing between the 3 layouts is NOT breadboard-friendly! Between 1 and 3 it is, and there is a common GND/5v/3v rail between all three layouts, so it's not a major disaster, but certainly worthy of note. After a little de-soldering and I was soon back on track, till I met problem no 2.

Each of the "boxed" and silkscreened sets of pins are connected. The left-hand side tracks are clearly visible and each right-hand layout has the corresponding tracks in the underside of the board.

EXCEPT ONE PAIR ON ONE OF THEM!!!

The "inner" 5v pin on layout 1 is open-circuit. Every other 5v pin is connected to every other 5v pin, except this one, which is connected to...nothing. You will need to "jumper" it!


And yes, dear friends, that kept me scratching my head for quite a while before I found it. A simple continuity test with the meter confirmed that it wasn't just my failing eyesight...

"Experimentation always beats assumption". Don't bother searching for that quote, I just made it up.

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