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freeSoC and freeSoC Mini

kickstarter.com

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Re: freeSoC and freeSoC Mini

#3

Post by tibbon »

To sum up the pain points that this is fixing:

- More pins, enabling more input/output. While there are some projects that only need a few pins, larger ones like big interactive light installations benefit from more

- Almost all pins are analog or digital compatible, with a few high current digital ones

- Compatible with Arduino header boards

- Better IDE

- Included ADC (two types, one can drive CD-quality audio), DACs, comparators, op-amps for bufferring, capacitive sensiving. These remove the need for a lot of external stuff to make simple and common things.

As someone who already has a stack of Arduinos, a PIC programmer, and a handful of Raspberry Pi's... this is still something that is unique and relevant. Pretty awesome and I hope it makes its funding goal.

Re: freeSoC and freeSoC Mini

#4

Post by tibbon »

jgrahamc wrote: post #2

Seems like a powerful device. Did I miss it or is there no information on power consumption?

You're right, I don't think that's been stated yet. The chip itself is fairly low power draw- but with those op-amps and other stuff onboard I'm guessing that stuff might be able to draw a good bit more.

Re: freeSoC and freeSoC Mini

#5

Post by joezydeco »

tibbon wrote: post #4
jgrahamc wrote: post #2

Seems like a powerful device. Did I miss it or is there no information on power consumption?

You're right, I don't think that's been stated yet. The chip itself is fairly low power draw- but with those op-amps and other stuff onboard I'm guessing that stuff might be able to draw a good bit more.

The PSoC is so highly configurable internally that power consumption will totally be up to how you set up the internal clocks and analog blocks. Cypress has a great set of technical notes about all of these aspects. This TN even includes a spreadsheet to help you estimate power draw and battery life:

http://www.cypress.com/?rID=64554

Re: freeSoC and freeSoC Mini

#7

Post by tibbon »

joezydeco wrote: post #5
tibbon wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, I don't think that's been stated yet. The chip itself is fairly low power draw- but with those op-amps and other stuff onboard I'm guessing that stuff might be able to draw a good bit more.

The PSoC is so highly configurable internally that power consumption will totally be up to how you set up the internal clocks and analog blocks. Cypress has a great set of technical notes about all of these aspects. This TN even includes a spreadsheet to help you estimate power draw and battery life: http://www.cypress.com/?rID=64554

That's essentially what I was thinking- its going to be low-ish power consumption, but its all going to be about how you set it up.

Re: freeSoC and freeSoC Mini

#8

Post by shadowmint »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #6

The best Microcontroller? Does it works on Linux or mac?. No. It that software opensource? No Why then I should choose this thing instead of more powerful and closed micros like this?: http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_P...

I think we can all agree that the arduino IDE is a terrible piece of software. It works... on most platforms. It's not bloated. It's kind of documented. That's about all the good you can say about it.

...but I have to agree, sounds like this is a neat platform, but if I can't write, compile and deploy code to it, what's the point?

Is it really that hard to provide a tool chain that lets you cross compile binaries for a platform, and a set of headers? I hate these 'integrated development environments'. It's just bloated rubbish-ware.

For all the lack of support the android NDK gets from google, at least they got that right. It's a compiler. That's all it does. You write code in whatever the heck you want, and just compile it.

I don't get why so many companies have such a hard time with understanding why this is desirable.

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