This is the Maple prototype, our first version of an Arduino-compatible board with an STM32 ARM Cortex-M3 processor. We’re chomping at the bits to release it as soon as we tie up a couple loose ends to make it what we think it should be. We’ve ported all the Arduino language and are modifying the Arduino environment so that everything works how it should. Notice that Maple does not have an FTDI chip, so serial communication works through a USB Virtual COM Port that’s implemented on the STM32, so it may even be slightly easier to setup than Arduino boards because FTDI drivers aren’t required, and the drivers for the Virtual COM Port are probably already on your Mac or Linux machine; for Windows, you’ll just use the driver that we include with the software download.
It’s been said the ADC in the Arduino is unsuitable for alot of applications, temperature logging among them, so “fat16lib” over on the Adafruit Forums has begun work on a datalogger using the Microchip MCP3424 4 channel and MCP3422 2 channel ADCs.
The MCP3424 is a four channel low-noise, high accuracy delta-sigma A/D converter with differential inputs and up to 18 bits of resolution. The on-board precision 2.048V reference voltage enables an input range of ±2.048V differentially. The device uses a two-wire I2C™ compatible serial interface and operates from a single power supply ranging from 2.7V to 5.5V. The MCP3424 device performs conversions at rates of 3.75, 15, 60 or 240 samples per second depending on user controllable configuration bit settings using the two-wire I2C™ compatible serial interface. The I2C™ address is user configurable with two address selection pins. This device has an onboard programmable gain amplifier (PGA). User can select the PGA gain of x1, x2, x4, or x8 before the analog-to-digital conversion takes place. This allows the MCP3424 device to convert a smaller input signal with high resolution. The device has two conversion modes: (a) Continuous mode and (b) One-Shot mode. In One-Shot mode, the device enters a low current standby mode automatically after one conversion. This reduces current consumption greatly during idle periods. The MCP3424 device can be used for various high accuracy analog-to-digital data conversion applications where ease of use, low power consumption and small footprint are major considerations.
The AD594/AD595 is a complete instrumentation amplifier and thermocouple cold junction compensator on a monolithic chip. It combines an ice point reference with a precalibrated amplifier to produce a high level (10mV / deg C) output directly from a thermocouple signal.
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Pachube… its a service whereby you can either upload live or old data, read data from others, graph it, massage it, and share it out to the world. It’s like Google Graphs, but with a realtime aspect to it. The introductory page has this to say about it;
Welcome to Pachube, a service that enables you to connect, tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices, buildings and environments around the world. The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.
It took me about an hour to get my Twittering Arduino Temperature Gizmo hooked up to it, and about 45 seconds to make this widget.
After I make the code pretty, I’ll be adding this to the Twittering Arduino Temperature Gizmo, maybe as added functionality, or a separate version, depending on how much space is left.
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Working late into the night, I added several enhancements to the Twittering Arduino Temperature Gizmo ™. Chief among them, a HTTP page so I can query it at any time and fiddle with the digital outputs, force a tweet, refresh the page to get new states/values, and just plain because!
