Micropendous USB AVR Development Boards by Opendous Inc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Table of Contents:
(1) Introduction
(2) How do I get one?
(3) Archive Contents
(4) Initial Testing
(5) Support
(6) License
(1) Introduction
----------------
Description:
Micropendous (pronounced micro--pen-dus) boards are a set of Open Hardware
development boards for Atmel's USB AVR microcontrollers. They are general
purpose development boards designed for USB interfacing but can also be
used for general microcontroller development like other AVR-based boards.
A USB bootloader allows Micropendous boards to be programmed without the
need for an external programmer. Micropendous boards work with the
Open Source LUFA (http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php)
AVR USB firmware library. Tutorials, examples, and firmware can be found
online at www.Micropendous.org.
The Micropendous Firmware/Software/Design Distribution is available at
http://www.Micropendous.org/Distribution
Common Features:
-USB powered
-all I/O pins are accessible
-Vcc_Sel jumper selects 5V or 3.3V operation on 8MHz boards
-RESET and HWB buttons to enable firmware loading over USB
-HWB button can be used by user applications
-standard USB Mini-B connector
-Open Hardware - all design files available for Open Source KiCAD
General Advice:
-Read "USB in a Nutshell" to get a sense of writing USB software and
firmware: (http://www.beyondlogic.org/usbnutshell/usb-in-a-nutshell.pdf)
-http://www.fourwalledcubicle.com/LUFA.php for info on the firmware library
-http://libusb.sourceforge.net/doc for info on the libusb software library
(2) How do I get one?
---------------------
Visit www.Micropendous.com to purchase a fully built Micropendous board.
If you need larger quantities you may contact Opendous Inc. for quantity
discounts. Or, you can manufacture your own as all Micropendous boards are
Open Hardware designs with all design files available for Open Source KiCAD
(schematic/layout/gerbers/BillOfMaterials/assembly instructions).
(3) Initial Testing
-------------------
A fully built Micropendous comes pre-installed with Micropendous firmware.
Micropendous firmware enumerates as a compound USB device; a keyboard and a
USB Virtual Serial Port. Connecting any IO pins to GND will cause the pin's
name to be typed. For example, GND'ing B0 will type 'b0'.
*** Be careful NOT to connect GND and VCC/VBUS as this will short your board
and may damage it or your computer! ***
The USB Virtual Serial Port is designed to loop back any data sent to it.
Connect to your Micropendous using a serial terminal and typed characters
will appear. More info at www.Micropendous.org/Serial
The Micropendous firmware is based on LUFAduino which allows Arduino code to
run on a Micropendous board. More info at www.Micropendous.org/LUFAduino
Under Windows, the first time you plug in a board loaded with Micropendous
firmware Windows will ask for a driver installation file. This file is
available in /Micropendous/Firmware/Micropendous of the Micropendous
Distribution archive. It is based on LUFA's USBSerial driver install file
and simply tells Windows to install its own Virtual Serial Port driver.
If you get a USB device error, make sure that the Vcc_Sel jumper is in place.
Also, pressing RESET will usually fix any such errors.
(4) Archive Contents
--------------------
This archive is organized as follows:
\Design - KiCAD design files for the various Micropendous boards
\Firmware - firmware examples, for details visit Micropendous.org
\libs - copies of avrlib, LUFA, arduino, and other libraries
To keep the distribution size small, the more obscure designs and firmware
examples are kept in the Micropendous Subversion repository:
http://code.google.com/p/micropendous/source/checkout
Designs no longer supported are kept in Opendous Inc.'s SVN repository
along with other abandoned hardware designs:
http://code.google.com/p/opendous/source/browse/trunk/Abandoned_Designs
(5) Support
-----------
Visit www.Micropendous.org for the latest Tutorials, Guides, example firmware
and more. There are guides for setting up Windows and Linux systems for
Micropendous firmware development in C and software development in C and
Python. USBVirtualSerial firmware demos also allow using serial port
software and techniques to communicate with the boards. LUFAduino-based
firmware allows the use of Arduino code.
(6) License
-----------
The license for all Micropendous design files is the Creative Commons
Attribution License. All related software/firmware is licensed under
the same license as the LUFA firmware library, which is the MIT license.
Other libraries are licensed under their respective Open Source licenses.
The actual hardware design comes with the following added disclaimer:
The author(s) disclaim all warranties with regard to this
design, including all implied warranties of merchantability
and fitness for any purpose. In no event shall the author
be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages
or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or
profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other
tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or
performance of this hardware design and any associated software.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Opendous Inc.
www.Micropendous.org
www.opendous.org
October 2, 2009
Copyright Under the Creative Commons Attribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
