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'AVRO' Single-Chip Stamp |
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Please note that certain aspects of the Experimenter are protected.
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Parts / Accessories |
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| Free Download of AVRO Loader | |||
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| Output Devices | |||
![]() Stepper Motor with Gear This a low power Epsom Unipolar (6 wire) Stepper that can be driven directly by any of the AVROs. As a direct drive it cannot develop sufficient torque to perform any task other than overcome friction. It is offered solely for learning purposes. A driver IC would need to be added to perform any work, and the supply voltage increased to several times 5v. All of which would multiply the cost, and detract from the simplicity of learning about one/two phase & half-stepping when using direct drive. The required resistors are supplied. There are several example programs on the CD, and they even include queuing a whole string of commands when using as a Co-Processor. Dual 7 Segment
Display Small Speaker |
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More Details on the Experimenter and CD |
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| Sharing between Students or Projects | |||
![]() No more tearing down one Project in order to build another. The core hardware can be moved between Projects or Students without disturbing any wiring. Breadboards cost less than $7each whereas Development Boards typically cost $60 to $100 each. In Education one set of Experimenter Boards can serve 'n' Classes, yet every Student has their own Personal Project on their own Breadboard. |
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(Available soon) |
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The full MicroGUI is included as a Demo |
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This Demo
has a 30 day time limit, but even beyond that, the cost is small. There are a
total of 20 Examples, with most of them for Learning.
For those new to this field MicroGUI separates the Software from the Hardware. Virtual Inputs and Outputs means no wiring errors, no components to damage, no power supply to overload - they only exists on the PC Screen. Plus the results are more satisfying and give a greater sense of achievement. For components like Shift Registers, 7 Segment Displays, and Stepper Motors, the user receives a much deeper understanding of their operation. The internal operation of those components are accurately animated with LEDs or in the case of the Stepper, the Rotor and its Magnetic Polarities. Add to that the Scope, and one has an excellent environment for learning, and quickly. For Learning: |
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As an Interface: |
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its use as a learning tool, MicroGUI has even more value as a practical PC
interface with Buttons, Sliders, Bars, Annunciators and more. Each device
has a set of Properties such as Colours, Scales, Text etc. which the user
can readily change.
Here is the MicroGUI.chm for full details. |
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| Custom Co-Processor Tools are Included |
CoPro Exerciser Just one Serial Cable connecting the AVRO to the PC allows fast loading of the User's Code, and interaction using other PC Tools supplied by Rhombus. They share the same Serial Link very easily and thereby create a very convenient development environment. Without additional PC Tools, the user would be developing code for the Host (our examples use a Parallax BS2), and the AVRO at the same time. During Debug, deciding which code was responsible for a problem could be very difficult. But by fully developing the Co-Processor using the PC as a temporary Host, the user can then establish full functionality before ever writing code for the intended final Host. That Separation creates two simple tasks from an otherwise complex task. For Example:
1) Example is a Serial Controller for an LCD, any size, and using an AVRO-T23 or M48 because of pins required.
2) Example is a Stepper Controller and using an AVRO-T13
3) Example is a Serial
Buffer on a Data Highway and using an AVRO-T13
All returned data is displayed in 3 lower textboxes. Only one is shown above, but by resizing there are 2 more. They display vertically aligned representations of each byte received, as Hexadecimal, Decimal, and ASCII characters to cover all situations. Copy and Paste Debugging the Co-Processor and Host code separately dramatically reduces the potential complexity - they become nothing more than two simple and separate programs. Extracted from the manual AVROs as Co-Processors |
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| RingTone Exerciser
In the above CoPro examples, it was easy for the user to enter the Row#, "Text", Steps etc. when testing. Here it would be far more difficult because the AVRO expects 3 parameters compressed into a single byte. Hence a tool specifically for RingTone data. A further advantage is that it helps with visualisation when modifying or composing. At the CP end there are two ready-to-run programs for most AVROs (this is a fun project). The 'RT-PC' programs just follow commands that the PC sends down the shared Serial Cable. This way the user gets to hear exactly how they will sound before loading them into the associated AVRO 'RT-Mem' program that plays directly from its own memory. How and when they are selected to play is up to the User. Using BASCOM's IR code makes a very neat solution for activating on demand using an IR Remote. Sensors for Light, Proximity, Switches, Temperature etc are equally suitable. Or using Background Receive to queue a whole sequence of Tunes is another alternative. |