December 2020 Hardware Roundup

Another month, another batch of boards! December certainly didn’t disappoint, with new hardware ranging from Get Launched campaigns on Crowd Supply to open source community projects. 

LittleBee

Weston Braun has created an open source magnetic field and current probe based on an anisotropic magneto-resistive (AMR) magnetic sensor. Dubbed LittleBee, the device directly senses magnetic fields and measures current using a current sensing attachment that consists of a gapped ferrite toroid with an air gap in which the sensor tip rests. The relationship between the current in the wire and the magnetic field in the air gap varies little as the wire moves around the center of the toroid, providing accurate current sensing despite variations in the test setup. The output of the AMR sensor is amplified by a low-noise, high-bandwidth amplifier to give the correct signal level for oscilloscopes. The amplifier is controlled by a PIC16 microcontroller, enabling automatic zeroing and offset adjustment as well as gain and bandwidth switching. The LittleBee is currently on Crowd Supply, priced at $149. 

PD Micro

Another Get Launched program participant, Ryan Ma, has taken to Crowd Supply with the first Arduino-compatible board featuring USB Type-C Power Delivery and PD3.0 PPS support. Packing the same pinout, footprint, and functionality as the Pro Micro, the PD Micro is equipped with an ATmega32U4 and a TPS62175 DC-DC converter for efficient 5-20V power delivery. Ma also wrote a custom USB-C PD library, which allows you to set output through the Arduino IDE. Specs wise, the board includes nine 10-bit ADC pins, 12 digital IOs, five ground pins, three VBUS pins connected to the USB Type-C power input, and a regulated 5V output via the TPS6217. The board has status LEDs for serial TX/RX activity, along with five for voltage level feedback and three for current levels. The PD Micro is live on Crowd Supply for $28. 

Ant2

Beast Devices is preparing to release the successor to their Ant USB-C LiPo charger. The aptly named Ant2 measures just 16x9mm in size, barely larger than the USB-C connector itself, and leverages the MCP73831charge controller in a DFN package to reduce the risk of thermal throttling. The unit can be implemented to add USB-C power and battery charging capabilities to a variety of space-constrained prototypes and projects, plus makes it easy to retrofit USB-C power into older builds. Despite its minute size, the Ant2 can be mounted using regular M3 or M2.5 screws. Those interested can sign up for notifications on Beast Devices’ pre-launch page, while files are available on GitHub.

Piunora

First spotted on Twitter, Timonsku has come up with a carrier board that brings the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 to the popular Arduino Uno form factor. The Piunora packs I/O headers, HDMI output, USB ports, an M.2 socket, some RGB LEDs, an MCP3008 10-bit ADC, a button, a camera connector, and Qwiic/STEMMA QT compatibility. Like what you see? Be sure to follow Timonsku as well as check out Hackster’s recent deep dive here. 

FortyTwo Systems MEGA

It’s a mean green Arduin machine! Although it may appear to be a Mega clone upon first glance, Dave Cutting’s board is much more courtesy of a SAM C21N. The FortyTwo Systems MEGA keeps the venerable ATmega2560 board’s shape, but breaks free from its size and processing power limitations with a 32-bit Cortex-M0+ core running at up to 48MHz, 32kB of static RAM (SRAM), 256kB flash, additional 8kB for EEPROM emulation, a hardware divide and square root accelerator (DIVAS), CAN FD, a peripheral touch controller, and 84 GPIO ports.

Megadesk

Wish your IKEA Bekant electric standing desk had memory buttons? You’re not alone. That’s why Greg Cormier decided to make an open source drop-in controller of his own. Driven by an ATmega328P, the board retains the core functionality of the OEM model, but allows you to store multiple positions in memory and recall those positions simply by clicking the ‘up’ button. If you’d like to upgrade your piece of office furniture, Cormier is selling the Megadesk on Tindie for $50. 

HAL 1284

If you ever dreamt of swapping out your smartphone for a portable BASIC computer, you’re in luck. Instructables member PlainOldAnders has built a handheld gadget, called HAL 1284, that offers similar functionality. As its name would suggest, HAL 1284 is based on an ATmega1284 running a modified version of TinyBasic Plus, along with a 4” LCD display and an ATmega328P-controlled QWERTY keyboard of tactile momentary buttons. Instructions on how to make your own can be found on Instructables. 

KOKO

Leonardo Leoni, who you may recall from his COBALT 3 pocket computer, has returned with another DIY gadget. Introducing KOKO, a credit card-sized retro gaming that can be assembled using just simple through-hole components. Designed around an ATtiny85, the Arduino-programmable KOKO sports an OLED display, a buzzer, three buttons, and comes preloaded with a Space Invaders-esque game. Get yours on Tindie today for $37.50. 

Frequency Probe

Detailed in a recent Technoblogy post, David Johnson-Davies’ Frequency Probe can help you debug your circuits by providing a visual indication of the frequency or voltage at the probe. The tiny tool — which features an ATtiny84A in an SOIC package, a 40mAh LiPo cell, a 128x32 OLED screen, and a dressmaking pin as the probe itself — gives a digital readout of frequencies between 1Hz to 5MHz with an accuracy better than 0.3%. 

Omni ROMulator 

Gavin Andrews’s Omni ROMulator is a replacement board for defective 5440 ROMs found in vintage 6502-based microprocessors, particularly original Commodore PET and their variants. It contains a single 256Kbit parallel EEPROM capable of holding sixteen 2K images. Using the onboard solder links, users can select which pages are addressable and configure the chip selects appropriately for the destination target socket. The Omni ROMulator can operate in 2K mode as per the original or be configured in 4K mode to replace two 6540s.RJ45 Cable Tester 

ATmega3208 Development Board

In search of hobbyist-oriented hardware for experimenting with AVR 0- and 1-series chips, LeoNerd chose to take matters into his own hands. Designed specifically for the ATmega3208, this $18 PCB grants access to all of the microcontroller’s IO pins. It adds power supply decoupling capacitors, a status LED, a reset button, and UPDI+ programming header to make a convenient, self-contained development board for small projects.  

Want to see more? Browse last month’s list here.