Explore M3 is an ARM Cortex M3 development board powered by a micro USB port, with plenty of I/Os, Arduino compatible, and the developers have also written many tutorials to help people getting started as fast and easily as possible. A starter kit with cables and sensors is also available with the board.
Specifications:
- MCU – NXP LPC1768 ARM Cortex M3 @ up to 100MHz with 512KB flash, 64KB RAM,
- USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG port for programming and power
- Expansion Headers – 2x 20-pin male headers + 8-pin unpopulated header with 38x GPIOs, 4x UARTs, 2x CAN, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, 6x PWM, 5x ADC, 1x DAC, 2x interrupt pins, I2S audio, and power signal
- Debugging – JTAG/SWD Debug connector
- Misc – USB boot and reset buttons
- Dimensions – 55mm x 25mm
The hardware is somewhat similar to mbed LPC1768 board but with a few more I/Os. The breadboard friendly board can be programmed with the Arduino IDE, but you can also go “bare metal” using ARM-GCC and Ellipse, or other tool chains like Keil or Co-IDE. Alternatively, the board also support FreeRTOS real-time OS. You can find close to 50 tutorials for all three programming options on ExplorerEmbedded Wiki, and some source code is also available on Github.
Explorer M3 developers are now raising funds via CrowdSupply to help reducing price for mass production. A $19 pledge should get your the board, but for bare metal programming you may want to add $20 for SODA SWD debug adapter, if you don’t already have your own programmer, and the starter kit goes for $49 with various other accessories. Shipping is free, and delivery is planned for mid November.
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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