This is a 3.5" x 1" ATmega644 development board with a 65x42 pixel graphics LCD (1" display), microSD card socket, crystal, caps, reset filter, AREF and AVCC filter. The board includes a white LED driver / brightness control for the LCD. Both the LCD and microSD connect to the SPI pins. The boot flash is preprogrammed with my SDBootLoader. The board is powered from 3.3VDC and the two rows of header pins are on 0.9" centers so that it can be plugged in to an experimenter strip. I'll have a little library of functions to drive the LCD available soon. The library will include functions to load images for the LCD from the microSD card, fonts, lines, contrast control, backlight brightness, etc. I did the layout in Eagle - which I'm liking more and more. I'll post photos as soon as I get one built up and have some images on the LCD. The notch on the end of the board protect the the flex of the LCD module that wraps around to the FPC connector on the PCB bottom. The two yellew pads are plated-thru slots for the LED backlight. I'm also working on a version of the same board but with a Luminary Micro LM3S811 ARM® Cortex™-M3 processor. The price for either one will be between USD$40-50 with availability in 6-8 weeks.

Enjoy,
Tom

Keyboard, mouse, AND display sharing?

I've been using Synergy2 to share my keyboard and mouse between two computers (windows desktop and Eee PC) for a couple of weeks now. Before this, I used a commercial package to do the same thing. Move the mouse cursor off the edge of one computer;s monitor and it appears on the other computer's monitor - the keyboard input follows the mouse cursor. I always wondered why an application couldn't be written similar to this that would let you move a window from one computer's monitor to another computer's monitor. Anyone I talked to about this said it couldn't be done. Well, it's been done. You can find MaxiVista here. For someone with a couple of computers, each with its own monitor (or two) this has got to be the coolest thing since sliced bread.

My Favorite Little Computer

That would have to be the Asus Eee PC. I originally specified this as a field configuration laptop for an embedded device we are developing. Connect an Ethernet cable between the Eee PC and the embedded box, and bring up the Firefox browser to configure the device. Easy as pie and at a price of only $349. After spending a week with it, I've gone an ordered one for myself. This Google search page on the Asus Eee PC will provide links to all of the information you need. Be sure to check out the eee user wiki and forums.

Assembling the 10018 Dragon top board and the 10019 Dragon bottom boards

The 10018 Top board solders onto the Atmel Dragon, extending the JTAG, ISP, HV PROG, and VCC signals of your Atmel Dragon to a 42-pin header. One or more 10019 daughter boards may be hard-wired configured for the targtet AVR per the connection sheets as illustrated in the Dragon help file in AVR Studio. Solder a ZIF socket and some header pins on one daughter board and use jumpers to configure for any supported AVR. Hard-wire a few other daughter cards for your most often used AVRs. Sold as a set of bare PCBs, you supply the headers, sockets, and solder. A set includes (1) 10018 Top Board and (4) 10019 Daughter Boards. Here's how to assemble the boards and use them with the Atmel Dragon.

The 10019 daughter board is on the left and the 10018 top board is on the right.


(1) Install a 20 pin header in the HV_PROG position of the Atmel AVR Dragon as shown below.


(2) Install the 42-pin, 10-pin JTAG, and 6-pin ISP headers on the 10018 board.


(3) Position the 10018 board over the VCC, JTAG, ISP, and HV_PROG header pins of the Dragon so that the pins mate with and come up through the pads of the 10018 board. Solder two corner pins as shown and adjust so that the 10018 board is level with the Dragon.


(4) Once your sure the 10018 board is sitting level on the Dragon, solder the remaining header pins as shown.


(5) Insert the 42-pin header socket into the bottom of the 10019 board as shown.


(6) Flip the 10019 board over and solder the 42-pin header socket pins as shown.


(7) The 10019 Daughter Board may now be plugged into the 10018 Top Board as shown below.



The steps from here are up to you. I created a dedicated 10019 Daughter Board for parallel programming 28-pin DIP ATmega168's shown below using the SCKT3200A2 configuration illustrated in the AVR Dragon User Guide located in the help file of AVR Studio. You may want to create a couple of dedicated boards and one 10019 board with a 40-pin ZIF socket, header pins, and use f-f jumper leads to configure on the fly.



We have a 20001 Dragon connector kit available, ISP and JTAG cables, 40-pin ZIF sockets, as well as 15cm & 30cm female to female jumper sets. Enjoy and be productive!

Installing the 10017 AT90USBKEY Adapter Boards

The Atmel AT90USBKEY is a great little development board. The problem is that the pads for the 6 sets of port pins are almost too tiny to work with. Adapt these tiny 2x5 (0.1"x0.05") port-pin headers of Atmel's AT90USBKEY development board to standard 2x5 (0.1"x0.1") headers. Solder each adapter to the bottom side or top side of the AT90USBKEY using the 24GA wire we supply with each set. A set of 6 converts all of the port pins to standard 0.1" headers. Board dimensions are 0.275"x0.812". Let the prototyping begin! You provide the optional header pins. These are available from our online store for $5.95 for a set of 6.

To insure proper hole alignment, insert and solder four 1" lengths of the supplied 24GA wire through the four corner pads as shown. Be sure the adapter PCB is sitting flush against the AT90USBKEY before soldering. Solder the four pads on the top side of the adapter board.

Then turn the board over and solder the pads on the bottom side of the AT90USBKEY.

Insert and solder the remaining six wires. Repeat this process for all adapter boards.

Optionally solder male header pins onto the adapter boards for quick easy prototyping with our female to female jumper cables.

That's it, you're ready for prototyping. Be sure to check out the AVRFreaks community.