Aduino powered by PIC32

Finally! Arduino sure seems to be ruling the hobbyist embedded market and we're finally able to bring a compatible platform on the Microchip side of the fence. Not just that, these development platforms are based on the PIC32 microcontrollers, meaning that they have a true 32 bit core, and hence easily many, many times faster than your average Arduino board.

The ChipKit platform gives you all that's good about Arduino - hardware and software compatibility with "shields" (add-on boards) and the software libraries that make Arduino platforms easy to get started on - but with room to grow.

We'll be bringing you tutorials on how to use the platform and you'll be delighted to know that all the 3.3v Embedded Adventures modules will work with these platforms. It's very exciting to have a platform that will get you started easily into the wonderful world of embedded electronics - and one that it truly powerful, meaning you won't outgrow it in a hurry!

We're carrying the Uno32 and Max32 platforms and look forward to hearing about what you're doing at yours.

New alphanumeric LED display - DSP-0801

2 August 2011

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It took six PCB revisions and countless tweaks until we were happy with it - but finally we're are delighted to present our latest product, the DSP-0801, an 8 digit 14 segment alphanumeric display.

Powered by a PIC18F14K50 with two CAT4016 chips running the displays, this display is designed to make it easy to interface to. You can talk to it over TTL serial at 115,200 bps, or via synchronous (clocked) serial, also allowing you to daisy chain modules together to create even bigger displays. Of course the firmware supplied does all this out of the box, but there's nothing stopping you replacing the firmware for your own nefarious purposes! It could, for example, talk directly to a RTC / Temp sensor module, to display time and temperature - add a SoundOut module to make it a talking clock, or use all those digits to show the humidity with 24 bit accuracy. There's a BoostBloader bootloader in built, or you can use the ICSP port to reprogram it with a PicKit2.

The possibilities are endless! Available in red, blue and yellow, and shipping now.

24 bit MS5611 barometric pressure sensor / barometer back in stock

25 July 2011

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Our 24 bit MS5611 based barometric pressure sensor / barometer is back in stock.

Thanks to everyone who has waited for backorders to be filled, we ran out of the last run very quickly! We really appreciate your patience.

Need a sound module for your embedded project that can drive a speaker directly, has bucket loads of memory, and can play back audio samples on command? Do we have a product for you! After much hunting and haggling and designing and testing, we present the MOD-1007 SoundOut audio module.

Compatible with the SOMO-14D module (at least, it uses the same playback chip - the pinout is slightly different), this module allows you to start sample playback using press buttons or using a synchronous (clocked) serial connection to your microcontroller, using an easy protocol. Of course, the PicPack library already has sample code available if you need a hand.  The module plays back .AD4 files, which can be created from .MP3 or .WAV files using a utility provided.

Power up!

Need 3.3V or 5V for your breadboard experiment or next project? The MOD-1011 is just for you! Throw up to 30V at it and it'll give you a nice, regulated supply at up to 1A - we've used low ESR tantalum capacitors to ensure superior regulation to what you normally get with your average breadboard power supply.