Every AVR programmer worth her weight in ATmegas knows about the AVR Butterfly--a ridiculously low cost ATmega169 demonstration and evaluation kit. Lamenting the lack of such a kit for the ATmega168 drove me to design my own demo/eval kit for the Arduino microcontroller family. This project became a compulsion that cost three complete redesigns, five destroyed ATmega168s, and hundreds of hours of point-to-point wiring. The result was Polyphemus--an ATmega168 demo kit that you can build from your own spare-parts box.
Named after the gorgeous giant silk moth with large, colorful "eyespots" on its hind wings (Antheraea polyphemus), as well as the gigantic Cyclops who tormented Odysseus, this Polyphemus sports several exciting features:
•ATmega 168 microcontroller (housed on a Freeduino board)
•color Nokia 6100 LCD
•two multi-state pushbuttons
•white LED
•phototransistor
•piezoelectric buzzer
•3.7V rechargeable lithium battery
•analog input connector
•FTDI USB programming connector
•compact 3x3-inch handheld form factor
By using a 3.7V battery to power Polyphemus, no additional power regulators are needed. Also, no DC-DC boost converter is needed for powering the Freeduino and white LED.
The user interface for Polyphemus is displayed on the color Nokia 6100 LCD. Using one pushbutton to move the menu and the other to "pick" a selection, you can choose from three built-in functions:
•Flashlight - turn ON/OFF the white LED
•Light sensor - sample ambient light readings in milliamp units
•Voltmeter - test power connections (< 5VDC)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment