South Korea based Sigma Delta Technologies’ SDTxArm Pelion Kit is a modular development kit comprised of a baseboard, as well as CPU and interface modules that is specifically designed to work with Arm Pelion cloud based device management service and Mbed OS for wearables and IoT applications.
DAP (Debug Access Port) Station Ver.2 baseboard key features and specifications:
- USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port
- Expansion I/Os via rows of through-holes
- 3x UART Interfaces
- 4x SPI Interfaces
- 3x I²C Interfaces
- 7x GPIO
-
4x analog inputs
- Debugging / Programming
- 1x TC2050 tag connection designed to allow programming without purchasing additional Interface if the user already has an appropriate Interface Module from other companies. I assume this is related to Tag Connect TC2050-IDC.
- 1x SD-TAG with JTAG/SWD signals
- Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port
The DAP station takes an SDT Board (i.e. CPU board), as well as an interface board for example a UART to USB debug board. The board is said to be easy to use with only a few steps to get started:
- Connect PC to Interface using Micro B-Type USB.
- Supply power to SDT Board using DAP Station’s Micro B-Type USB Connector.
- Use the online compiler on the Arm Mbed homepage or CLI to program and compile
What’s very confusing about the systems are the various SDT and interfaces boards with cryptic names like SDT32625B or IN25. The video below shows the SDT board are not only for MCU boards, but also connectivity boards for WiFi or Bluetooth and are stackable. It also demonstrates how to use Arm Mbed online interface to quickly get started with the solution.
Two variants of SDT board are available with Serial B boards designed for development, while Serial M Modules are shielded boards designed for mass productions. Let’s go through the different SDT board to see what’s on offer:
- SDT32620B – Ultra-low power, high performance board with efficient power management for wearable devices based on Maxim MAX32620 Arm Cortex M4F microcontroller
- SDT32625B – Ultra-low power, high-performance, low-cost board for wearable devices based on Maxim MAX32625 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU
- SDT51822B – Low-power, low-cost, operating voltage selectable BLE 4.0 board for IoT featuring Nordic Semi nRF51822 Cortex-M0 WiSoC
- SDT52832B – Ultra-low power, high-performance, operating voltage selectable BLE 5.0 board for IoT with Nordic Semi nRF52832 Cortex-M4F WiSoC
- SDT64B – Low-power, high-performance, Ethernet board enabling direct firmware update powered by NXP Kinetis K64F Arm Cortex -M4F MCU
- SDT8195B – Upcoming low-cost, Wi-Fi board for IoT with should come with Realtek RTL8195AM wireless MCU.
The SDT module are basically named after the part number of the MCU used on the board, so it makes sense. But now each MCU have a different programming & debugging method, so that’s why different interface boards had to be designed:
- IN11 with a SWD/JTAG interface for Nordic Semi, Realtek, and Kinetis MCUs
- IN25 with a SWD interface for Maxim Integrated MCUs
- Upcoming IN32 interface board specific to Nordic Semi nRF51822 and nRF52832 SDT boards
Each board can be purchased separately, but the easiest way to get started is probably to purchase SDTxArm Pelion Kit for $128 excluding taxes and shipping withSDT64B Kinetis MCU module with Ethernet support, DAP station ver.2, IN11 interface board, SDT3976C WiFi module and SDT6378C SD card module both of which can be stacked on top of SDT64B board. An 8GB micro SD card completes the hardware part of the kit.
Beside the product page on Sigma Delta Technologies, you’ll find more much more technical details such as pinout diagrams, datasheets, and a detailed guide showing how to get started on Mbed OS website.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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