Monthly Archives: May 2012


Exploring the chipKIT Uno32 board

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The chipKIT Uno32 development board is based on the powerful PIC32MX320F128 microcontroller, which features a 32-bit MIPS processor core running at 80MHz, 128K of flash program memory, and 16K of SRAM data memory. The board can be powered via USB or an external power supply. The on-board USB-UART interface provides a communication path between the board and the MPIDE tool running on the PC. MPIDE stands for Multi-Platform Integrated Development Environment and is a complete tool for developing and downloading embedded applications into the chipKIT Uno32 board. Now let’s explore the chipKIT Uno32 board and its on-board features in more detail.

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A brief introduction to the chipKIT platform

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In order to understand the chipKIT platform, it is important to talk about Arduino first. Arduino is an easy-to-use and powerful open source environment for developing microcontroller based applications. It has gained huge amount of popularity in past few years, specially among hobbyists. Arduino has been a wonderful tool, introducing many people to the world of embedded electronics with little or no prior knowledge of electronics. The standard Arduino development boards are based on 8-bit Atmel AVR processors which are pre-programmed with a serial bootloader, and thus simplifies the uploading of user programs to the on-chip flash memory without the

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Tutorial series on chipKIT programming and interfacing

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chipKIT is an open source embedded development environment based on the popular Arduino platform. The major difference between the two platforms is the type of processor used in their hardware. The Arduino development boards are based on 8-bit Atmel microcontrollers which run at maximum clock speed of 16 MHz . On the other hand, the chipKIT hardware uses powerful 32-bit PIC processors running at 80 MHz clock, and thus provides improved performance over the traditional Arduino boards. I have started this new tutorial series on chipKIT, and I believe they will be helpful for beginners to start using this platform for

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VIA technologies introduces the $49 Android PC system

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Via Technologies on Tuesday unveiled the $49 APC Android PC system. Powered by a WonderMedia ARM processor that operates at 800MHz, APC integrates 512MB of DDR3 memory, 2GB NAND flash storage, and a full set of consumer I/O features in a small footprint Neo-ITX motherboard. The system also features a custom build of Android that has been optimized for keyboard and mouse input, and comes with a browser and a selection of preinstalled apps.

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Serial four digit 7-segment LED display module

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Seven segment LED displays are a very popular mean of displaying numerical information and finds application in front panel display boards of microwave ovens, washers and dryers, digital clocks, frequency counters, and many other gadgets. Compared to the LCD displays, the seven segment LED displays are brighter and provide a far viewing distance and a wide viewing angle. However, the downside is they are resource-hungry. It requires at least 12 I/O pins of a microcontroller to drive a standard 4-digit seven segment LED module. Consequently, their use with low pin-count microcontrollers (such as PIC12F series) is not practically feasible. Here’s

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