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November 15, 2012November 15, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Microchip Announces MGC3130 3D Gesture Controller Featuring GestIC Technology

Microchip Technology has recently announced the MGC3130, the world’s first electrical-field (E-field)-based 3D gesture controller based on Microchip’s patented GestIC. This technology allows you to use hand gestures to control a computer with the accuracy of a mouse. The end result looks somewhat similar to what is done with the Leap Motion controller but the range is shorter as you need to be within 15cm of the surface with the electrodes. However, I would suspect this technology to be cheaper and consume less power. The picture above is the development kit with MGC3130 chipset at the top center of the board. With a power consumption as low as 150 microwatts in active sensing state, the MGC3130 enables always-on 3D gesture recognition (even for battery powered devices). The power consumption is up to 90% lower than camera-based gesture systems. Here are MGC3130 key features: 0 (touch) to 15 cm detection range […]

May 24, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

$3.45 Microchip PIC32 Development Platform Microstick II

MIPS and Microchip organize a promotion on a MIPS PIC32 MCU development Kit. The Microstick II delivers a development hardware platform for Microchips MIPS-based 32-bit microcontrollers. It’s USB-powered and includes an on-board debugger/programmer, a DUT socket for easy device swapping, a user LED and reset button. Key features: Integrated USB programmer / debugger – No external debugger required USB Powered – Ease of use, No external power required MPLAB support. DUT Socket – Flexible, Easy device replacement 0.025” Pin headers – Enables plug-in to Breadboard with room for jumper wires Easy access to all device signals for probing Small size – Smaller than a stick of gum at 20 x76mm – Easily Portable On board User LED and Reset Switch Free demo code Microstick II supports all 3.3V PIC24FJ, PIC24H, dsPIC33, and PIC32 SPDIP packaged devices which are included in the kit. Microkit II normally costs 34.95 USD, but is […]

March 22, 2012March 23, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Microchip Unveils Wi-Fi Comm Demo Board with 32-bit PIC32 MCU

After TI and Qualcomm, here’s another WiFi solution for MCU aimed at the internet of things (IoT). Yesterday, Microchip Technology announced the Wi-Fi Comm Demo Board, which combines a Microchip 32-bit PIC32 microcontroller (PIC32MX695F512H) with a low-power MRF24WB0MA embedded Wi-Fi radio transceiver module. This small (and cheap) demo board can be used to integrate with existing embedded designs and/or to evaluate Wi-Fi connectivity with a 32-bit MCU. Contrary to TI and Qualcomm, the IP network stack is not implemented in hardware, but Microchip provides a TCP/IP stack that can be freely downloaded at http://www.microchip.com/get/A3VP. This TCP/IP stack includes HTML, DHCP, DNS, IPv4/v6, SSL, etc… (See diagram below) The memory footprint is 28-34 KB depending on the modules used. I could not find details about power consumption, but the company claims their solution can also run with just 2 AAA batteries. Microchip explains that this solution can enable the rapid growth […]

February 17, 2012February 17, 2012 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Cymbet EnerChip Solid State Batteries and Energy Harvesting Evaluation Kits

Cymbet has developed rechargeable solid state batteries called EnerChip for Embedded Energy, Power Backup and Energy Harvesting. Applications include backing up Real Time Clocks (RTC), Micro-controllers (MCU) and SRAM devices. The company says “EnerChips are ideal for energy harvesting powered devices such as wireless sensors, medical devices, data loggers and remote location tracking equipment.” Those chipsets aim at replacing batteries such as CR2032 batteries that you can find in watches, calculators and other low power devices. The company emphasized three key benefits of such “batteries”: EnerChips are more than 10x smaller than non-rechargeable coin cell batteries EnerChips last 3x longer than conventional coin cell batteries EnerChips are less expensive to use than conventional coin cell batteries or super caps. The price starts at 20 US cents in volume quantities. You can watch the promotion video below for an overview of those chips. Cymbet shows a lot of mobile phones in their video, […]

August 18, 2011August 18, 2011 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Energy Harvesting Development Kit by Microchip Technology

The XLP 16-bit Energy Harvesting Development Kit is a development platform for realizing energy harvesting applications powered by Microchip nanoWatt XLP PIC MCUs which are suited for low power applications with sleep currents down to 20nA, active mode currents down to 50uA/MHz, code execution efficiency, and multiple wake-up sources. The power for the kit is supplied by Cymbet’s EVAL-08 Solar Energy Harvester which features a solar panel suitable for use with indoor or outdoor light. The XLP kit enables rapid prototyping of low power applications such as RF sensors, temperature/environmental sensors, utility meters, remote controls, security sensors and more. For software development and programming, the kit includes the PICkit 3 programmer/debugger for use with the Microchip’s free MPLAB™ Integrated Development Environment. Microchip also provides XLP 16-bit Energy Harvesting RF Demo Code in C language (The file is a Windows Executable, but it’s just an executable compressed file so it can […]