Electronics Deals Cyber Monday 2020

Cyber Monday electronics deals are here.  Many of the deals listed in my blog post on Black Friday are still available from Adafruit, Polulu, SparkFun, and Tindie.

1BitSquared has a 15% discount off any piece of hardware with the checkout code BLACKFRIDAY2020 through Midnight (US PST).  They have a few unique development boards and JTAG accessories.  They have hard to find JTAG adapters and cables that are useful for ARM processor debugging.  I have used the Black Magic 0.1in Pin Header JTAG cable for STM32 debugging.  They also have STM32 and FPGA development boards and the Black Magic Probe for ARM Cortex MCUs.

MikroE is having deals until Tuesday December 1st on many products.  This includes 25% off most Click Boards.  These are small accessory boards that use the microBUS socket available on many different development boards including the low cost Microchip Curiosity Development Boards.  MicroBus Click Boards are great for prototyping or general DIY projects.  You can add just about any sensor, analog or digital interface, or communications module you would need.

RobotShop is discounting specific products from 5% to 50% for it's Cyber Monday sale.  Of course this includes robot kits and parts, but you can also find Arduino boards, electronic learning kits, drones and Raspberry Pi development boards.

SparkFun A La Carte Custom Board Designer

SparkFun Electronics is offering a web based custom board design service called SparkFun A La Carte (ALC).  You can choose from a few different microcontrollers that can run Arduino programs.  You also have a choice of I/O, connectors and power options.  Communications options include RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth.  There is a one-time design fee for each board and a per unit cost calculated as you add the components.  You can get a 50% discount on the design fee until 12/31/2020 with the promocode ALCSPARKFUN50. For more information see this ALC post on the SparkFun Blog  

This YouTube video on the custom board designer goes over an example design.

Digi-Key Helps Electronics Makers to Market with Maker.io

Maker.io is a new site for makers from Digi-Key Electronics.  The site was created to guide makers through the steps required to get an electronic device from concept to production.  The site has links to articles and tools for every phase of development.  It also hosts some projects that feature products sold by Digi-Key.  Maker.io is still in Beta and currently has only 18 projects, a few are by makers and the rest feature Adafruit and Sparkfun projects.  There is also a Maker.io YouTube channel and Maker.io twitter account.  There are over a dozen videos on the YouTube channel, see the Welcome to Maker.io video below for more information.

Free 3D Design Software

Autodesk 123D allows you to design and create 3D objects with apps that run on a PC, iPad, or online.  The 123D family of products are aimed at the personal fabrication market. You may be familiar with Autodesk from it's popular AutoCAD products or from Instructables.com.

Another free 3D program is SketchUp. With SketchUp, it's possible to build 3D models of printed circuit boards using CadSoft Eagle files, using the EagleUp script and ImageMagick.  Google recently sold SketchUp to Trimble who plan on continuing to offer it for free.

Breadboard Oscilloscopes

Gabotronics, a developer of tools for electronics hobbyists, has released a new larger size oscilloscope display that can be mounted on a solderless breadboard.

The XMEGA Minilab is not just a mixed signal oscilloscope - it also has a meter mode, spectrum analyzer and arbitrary waveform generator with frequency sweep.  It has a micro USB connection but the interface is still under development.   The logic analyzer has 8 digital inputs and can decode UART, I2C and SPI.  The scope has 2 analog inputs with 200kHz bandwidth and 2MS/s maximum sample rate.  You can buy it direct for $69 US.  Gabotronics also sells the smaller XMEGA Protolab with similar features for $49.

UPDATE: Gabotronics has developed a few portable oscilloscopes and is developing an oscilloscope watch.

Breakout Boards for Electronics Debug and Prototypes

If you need to wire up a prototype, create a custom debug cable, or connect a logic analyzer to communications link, breakout boards are a real time saver. I have used SchmartBoards' JTAG board in the past, another supplier I came across is Winford Engineering.  They have breakout boards for USB, modular jacks, 0.1" headers and DB connectors.

Using boards like these, you can quickly build almost any prototype for development or debug purposes. For the processor and memory, you can use a development board from the processor manufacturer.  There are hundreds of development boards available for various processors.  For some examples, here is a list of low cost demo boards from Microchip, here are boards from Cypress, a list of Blackfin boards from Analog Devices and development kits and boards from Texas Instruments. I used a PICkit 2 28-Pin demo board with an RF module for a recent project.

If you can't find a development board configured correctly, SchmartBoards will support hand soldering many common chip formats, including SMT devices, and even BGAs.  If you aren't confident you can hand solder a component yourself, SchmartBoards will solder your IC for you for a $3.00 charge.

Consumer Electronics Conference Seeks Startup Prototypes

"Technologies and Applications for Connected Consumers" is the theme for the 34th IEEE Sarnoff Symposium being held May 2011 in Princeton, New Jersey. Free exhibition space is offered to startups and students that can demonstrate consumer prototypes and applications.  Cash prizes will be offered for the best exhibits.

STMicroelectronics Offers Low Cost ARM Cortex M3 Kit

The price war continues among microcontroller development kits with the STMicroelectronics STM32 Discovery Kit available worldwide from these major electronics distributors for about $10 US.  It features an ARM Cortex-M3 that is the basis of the STM32 Value line of processors.  It is programmable via USB and you can download development tools and example firmware projects.

See the STM32 Discovery Kit Press Release for more details.

My New DSP Blog

See a short review of the new features on the Beagleboard-xM on my new blog, Discourse on Embedded Signal Processing.

From the About page:

Discourse on Embedded Signal Processing is a blog about applying signal processing algorithms in embedded systems. The focus will be on implementing signal processing on general purpose DSPs, FPGAs, and microcontrollers. Topics include new processors and architectures, development tools, design flows, design techniques, and new applications.

I don't plan on any changes to EmbeddedCoding.com, I will still cover some DSP topics here as well.  I will post less frequently to Discourse on Embedded Signal Processing, but I plan on having more in-depth articles.

Renesas Offers Free Evaluation Kit For High-Performance MCU

For a limited time you can get the Renesas RX610 Stick Renesas Demo Kit (RDK) for free. Register to become eligible for the RX-Stick and you will also be registered for the RX62N RDK to be released later this year.
The RX610 Stick includes some unique features like a 14x10 LED array, a slide volume potentiometer, and a 4-direction joystick.  It has an on-board debugger and you can download demo projects for audio, DSP, FPU, and benchmarking. Renesas has also created the RenasasRulz.com online community with a developer's forum and more information about  the RX610 Stick.  You can see the kit in action in the RX-Stick Demo Youtube Video below.



The RX600 series is at the high-end of the RX family which is the successor to the H8SX, R32C and 32-bit Renesas MCUs.

BatchPCB offers low cost for prototypes

BatchPCB is a service of SparkFun Electronics that provides low cost PCBs in small quantities for electronics enthusiasts.  There are some limitations and a slow turn-around with this service, but the idea is to make it cheap by batching your design with other orders. Here is a blog post about alternatives to BatchPCB if you find it too slow or need more than a few prototypes.  Here is a comparison of BatchPCB and a few other PCB Pooling services including MakePCB, and Eurocircuits. If you are new to PCB design, this article from IEEE Spectrum covers an engineer's first PCB design using BatchPCB.

You can sell your design at BatchPCB as well.  For example, you can buy a Breakout Board for the Maxim MAX3421E USB host controller designed by Oleg Mazurov of Circuits@Home.  You can find some open-hardware for sale as well, which seems like it could cause problems. One open-hardware company, AdaFruit Industries, requested one of its designs removed from the BatchPCB marketplace.

TI $4.30 Microcontroller Development Kit Sold Out Fast

The Texas Instruments wiki for the MSP430 LaunchPad (MSP-EXP430G2) reports unprecedented demand for the LaunchPad development tool.  TI's servers were extra busy and stock was sold out within the first few days of availability.  For $4.30 plus shipping you get a development board with debug capability, a few MSP-430 devices to program and a mini-USB cable.

Open Circuits Wiki for Electronics Design

At OpenCircuits.com you can find PCB footprints, electronic circuit building blocks, tutorials and general electronics design links.  This is an evolving resource and the members are looking for help from the community to improve the site.  The information on the site is not all related to open source.  For example, you can find PCB footprints for commercial EDA packages and a list of low-cost oscilloscopes.

RepRap Free Desktop 3D Printer

RepRapWiki
RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

For more 3D printers like this see my post 3D Printers for the Masses.

Evaluation Board Useful for Developing and Testing USB Products

The Analog Devices iCoupler ADuM4160 USB Isolator Evaluation Board can be used as a breakout cable to test USB signals as well as its intended use to evaluate the ADUM4160 Full/Low Speed USB Digital Isolator. The board is available from Digi-Key, and other ADI distributors.

I have created my own cable for connecting a logic analyzer to USB signals in the past, but an isolation board like this would have been much easier to use and provided some protection to your prototype and development PC.  For example, I could have damaged my sole development prototype when I tested it with a cheap keyboard I purchased at Best Buy.  When things were not working, I assumed it was my hardware, but it turned out the keyboard's USB cable was not wired correctly.

I have a Zeroplus logic analyzer with USB decode that I would like to use with this type of adaptor board.  Zeroplus sells a USB bridge without isolation, but I haven't found a distributor yet.

UPDATE: FriedCircuits has a few USB tester boards that are low cost like the $12 USB Tester 2.0 shown below.

PIC18F Starter kit design competition

The PIC18F Starter kit design competition deadline is June 30th, 2010.  The winners do not receive cash or other prizes, but have the opportunity to showcase their coding skill and advertise their company.  The next version of the starter kit will include the winning designs as demos.

New Lattice XP2 FPGA kit available for $29

Press Release: New Low Cost Brevia Development Kit Accelerates Application Development for Popular LatticeXP2 FPGA Family

The LatticeXP2 Brevia Development Kit comes with all you need to start developing including a board, parallel JTAG cable, serial RS-232 cable, and AC adapter.

Update: This kit has been replaced by the $49 LatticeXP2 Brevia2 Board WITH LatticeXP2 FPGA: LFXP2-5E-6TN144C and on-board FTDI-based USB JTAG programmer.

3D Printers for the Masses

Fab@Home aims to change the way we live by allowing anyone to produce custom 3D objects with a 3D printer developed at Cornell University.  Shown below is Model 2 being developed in the Cornell Computational Synthesis Lab.

You can build your own personal fabricator by following the instructions on the Fab@Home wiki or buy one at the NextFab Store.  The video below shows one in action creating a gear.

 

Here's another video showing how it can mill foam and wood.

Update: MakerBot is another 3D printer that you can make yourself for less than $1000 (Update: latest model fully assembled is almost $2000).  It creates ABS plastic models using a heated extrusion process.  You can buy a kit and spools of various colors of plastic material to create with at the MakerBot Store.

Camera 2.0 Open-Source Digital Camera Project

As part of the Camera 2.0 project, researchers at Stanford have developed the Frankencamera shown here, "an open-source camera platform that runs Linux, is fully programmable (including its digital signal processor) and connected to the Internet, and accommodates SLR lenses and SLR-quality sensors. Our current prototype...is constructed from off-the-shelf parts, in some cases borrowed from dead cameras. It's also ugly - hence the name."

This open-source project is being developed to help researcher gain more control of camera processing. Another open-source camera project, the Canon Hack Development Kit, allows some control through a series of enhancements, but according to the Frankencamera FAQ: "you can't use them to reprogram the camera's pre-capture sequence (metering and focusing) or to replace its post-processing algorithms (demosaicing, denoising, sharpening, white balancing, tone mapping, etc). The Frankencamera fills this gap"

The brains of the Frankencamera include a TI OMAP3 processor, an Aptina MT9P031 image sensor and an Elphel 10338 sensor board.

If the popularity of the CHDK is any indication, the Frankencamera is sure to have a cult following.

Altera Starter Kit Available For New Low Cost FPGA Family

Altera Cyclone IV FPGAs are now shipping in volume and are claimed to be lowest in cost and power. The Cyclone IV starter kit can be purchased at the Altera online store for $395. It includes a Gigabit Ethernet and SMA connectors. You can find more specifications and ordering information here.