"Although we all like the development board with burst performance and rich functions, it also means that it is not cheap for this type of development board, especially for some student parties. It is really the so-called" you can only look from a distance and can't play ". However, for the old driver engineers who "cross the mountains and sea, and also cross the sea of people", the beauty of the development board is not the powerful performance and functions seen on the surface, but that it can achieve the same color effect with the smallest functional performance (cost) in the actual product application. By analogy, if a programmer realizes the same function, the smaller the code used, the better it can reflect its excellent logic and high level. Based on this idea, this paper has found several "petite and lovely" development boards that already exist or will be sold on the market. They are very "interesting". I hope you like them.
Tomu, only 1 / 4 the size of raspberry PI zero
Although tomu is small, it does use an arm based microcontroller and supports USB 2.0 FS. What's more surprising is that it uses a USB type-A interface to connect with the computer. It is a programmable computer suitable for USB port.
Tomu has two programmable buttons and two programmable LEDs, which can be used for DIY devices like USB dongle or u2f based security token products.
Tomu onboard resources:
CPU: core happy gecko MCU efm32hg309
Speed: 25 MHz arm Cortex-M0+
RAM：8KB
Storage: 64KB flash
Connectivity: USB2.0 FS
Button: 2
Led: 2 (red + green)
Components: the whole development board has only 12 devices, plus PCB
Tomu is easy to use without complex peripherals. The whole development board is open source design. You can even find the BOM list of the board. At the same time, tomu is very flexible. The two function keys on the board can be programmed as volume switch keys or as u2f security tokens, just like the account login of some websites requires double verification, Tomu is your ideal solution. For electronics enthusiasts or engineers looking for ultra-small arm based development boards, you may be very interested in tomu.
Fomu, I have FPGA & risc-v
Haha, yes, when you see the naming of this development board, you will be associated with a tomu. Indeed, they are not only named like, board like, but also by the same person.
However, there are obvious differences between fomu and tomu. Tomu is a microcontroller based on arm Cortex-M0 +, which can be said to be the arm camp, but what is fomu? It's FPGA and risc-v. at present, it's a more hot and interesting field.
From the appearance of PCB, fomu and tomu are of general size, and there is no difference（ Below, left: tomu; Right: fomu)
Fomu is also connected by USB type-A interface, with 4 buttons and 1 RGB LED on board. The core is an FPGA, which supports open source and can run risc-v core.
Fomu onboard resources
FPGA： Lattice ICE40UP5K
Speed: 48mhz external oscillator
Ram: 128KB ram for soft CPU
Storage: 1MB SPI flash
Connectivity: USB 2.0 fs (12mbps)
Buttons: 4
Led: 1 RGB
Why fomu? Fomu firmware discloses a USB boot loader running risc-v soft core, but users can load anything they want. The soft core can also be used for Lm32 and openrisc. Moreover, with 128KB ram and a large amount of storage, we can run Python on fomu and use Python related tools to realize the development of FPGA. The principle lies in various soft cores built on FPGA, such as risc-v soft core. Through it, users can practice adding instructions to CPU or adding new blocks, such as LED flashing mode or better captouch hardware module.
In addition, the development using fomu is very simple: you only need to load the code through USB. Whether you are writing risc-v code, Python code or HDL, you can upload it to fomu in the same way. Lattice's ice40up5k FPGA supports a fully open tool chain. Users can develop without creating an account and signing an NDA.
Superb, it's great to hear the name
This board is even more powerful. Looking at the naming, it is estimated that a large number of people can be laid down. What is superb?
Superb combines two popular hardware names - "bee" shape and esp32. The overall dimension of bee is derived from digi's XBee industrial Internet of things board. For a long time, this overall dimension has been used to add wireless connection to hardware. However, in the mature Internet goods market, there are two protocols that are necessary at present: Wi Fi and Bluetooth. As it happens, esp32 is available and easy to use, which can provide maximum flexibility for users' existing hardware, next-generation products, modular or scalable products.
Superb features and specifications
Open source hardware
XBee dimensions compatible (3.3 V level, UART, SPI and GPIO)
Based on Lexin esp32 SOC
Wi-Fi（802.11b/g/n）
Bluetooth (classic and ble)
It supports many tools for programming, including Arduino ide
OTA (air) update
Dual core processor up to 240 MHz
Integrated 4 MB flash memory and can be upgraded to 16MB
Sleep current less than 5 μ A
Fully certified with integrated antenna and software stack
One programmable LED
At the same time, superb provides two optional antenna modules, PCB on-board antenna and external antenna of u.fl interface.
Potential features - macchina M2
According to the designer's idea, superb was originally designed for another macchina product m2, which is an open source OBD2 connector and a development board for automobile hacker attacks. Superb is designed to avoid too many complex connections and make it more convenient for users to diagnose the vehicle.
If combined with macchina m2, you can obtain the completed kit, which is suitable for vehicle adjustment, diagnosis, full customization, safety, telematics or prototype design, and for any vehicle produced after 1996. Even excluding the macchina M2 module, superb will be a great prototype development module or embedded module for small projects requiring wireless communication.
Sensything, the best interpretation of the Internet of things
Sensything is an open source, high-resolution (24 bit), multi-sensor acquisition scheme supporting Wi Fi and Bluetooth. It is used to obtain and record multiple sensor readings. These readings can be viewed / sent through ordinary USB connection through Android application, Internet of things or analysis platform, or directly recorded to microSD.
The sensything master controller is also based on Lexin esp32 SOC, so we can also see how popular this eps32 SOC is, ads1220 24 bit ADC for on-board low-noise data acquisition. In addition, the additional extended GPIO pin of the development board and the support for sparkfun qwiic connector standard make the fusion and recording of sensor data extremely simple.
A. ESP32 SoC
B. Sparkfun qwiic connector standard extension interface
C. More sensor inputs and power supplies
D. RGB LED
E. Sensor power supply
F. Microusb interface
G. Extended GPIO port
H. 24 bit ADC
1. Analog input
In addition, the sensything development board can collect data in a variety of ways:
Simple acquisition via ble (pre programmed)
The sensything development board will preload the firmware that provides basic ble data acquisition. The program reads all four channels of ADC and sends data through ble. Users can obtain sensor data through Android application, which is also the simplest and out of the box way.
Wi Fi access point mode
If the user needs to view the sensor value or view the recorded sensor data at a given time, there is also a method to achieve it. There is no need to install any other software or application. Just program the device with specific firmware, and sensything can be displayed as a connectable Wi Fi access point. Then, you can connect mobile devices such as PC or mobile phone to the "sensything" Wi Fi network, enter the "sensything. Local" site in the web browser, and view the sensor data on the page. This does not require any Internet connection.
Developer mode
Moreover, users can use the on-board usb-uart converter, use the espressif esp-idf and programming tools to easily program the development board. They can not only use the program written for sensything by the extremely simple Arduino ide tool itself, but also write the program they want through Lexin esp-idf. In other words, as long as they have deep skills, Users can use sensything to achieve projects on Internet of things related applications.
Blyst nano, not the smallest, only smaller,
How small is the smallest development board you've seen? Blyst nano may break your world view again.
If you just blindly pursue small, it is not difficult. The essence of blyst nano is that "although the sparrow is small, it has all kinds of internal organs". On this module which is only 10x7x1.6mm and less than the size of your fingers, arm cortex-m4f is integrated with BT 5, BT mesh and 30 I / O expansion interfaces.
Designed based on Nordic nrf52832 SOC, blyst nano integrates a 64mhz arm cortex-m4f processor with low power consumption and high performance and a 2.4GHz radio in a single chip. Its main features are as follows:
Low power, small size, suitable for wearable and sensor applications
The 30 programmable I / O pins are versatile enough to accommodate any control and automation application
Through the hardware floating-point unit, the algorithm can be implemented directly on the device, so as to realize more real-time sensor fusion processing
As a complete development module, blyst nano has built-in all necessary components (crystal, coil, DC / DC, etc.), which is simple in design and will not occupy more PCB space.
The specific functions of blyst nano development board are as follows:
Built in ceramic antenna
Built in coil for low power DC / DC mode
Built in 32mhz and 32.768 MHz crystal oscillator for low power consumption
Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.6 mm
The application does not need to add other components in the development board or project
Expand all I / O pins of nrf52832
FCC and CE certification
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the designer also made a sensor board (after all, a single module such as blyst nano is not easy to evaluate), which can be used as an IOT product in conjunction with blyst nano and applied to the project.
The sensor board is a circular board with a diameter of 34mm, pre installed with blyst nano module. It carries a set of sensor system, including temperature, humidity, pressure, air quality and motion sensing. It has all components required to run an independent sensor node with data recording, so it is more suitable for users to directly use it for evaluation.
Summary
As the title says, these are five interesting boards worth pondering. This interest is not reflected in the innovation of hardware, but in the spirit of open source, maker and DIY, which realizes the functions achieved in many popular fields through simple hardware. It is worth pondering that when you carefully taste these development boards, you will suddenly look back and feel enlightened. Are these "petite and lovely" boards somewhat familiar? Who did you meet? How much do you know“
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