Development kit
NuMaker-PFM-M2351
The NuMaker-PFM-M2351 is fantastic board powered by a microcontroller from the ARM Cortex-M23 family.
The board combines a secure memory, one WiFi module (ESP8266EX ESP03), one NAU88L25 audio codec with a 3.5mm Mid-Mount SMD headphone jack and one Micro-SD socket placed on the back side of the board.
The ESP03 module can be programmed from the M2351’s UART3.
Arduino UNO Shield compatibility is by default. The pin strips are installed.
The MCU’s pin are fanout to 2.54mm 128 pins placeholder. No pinstrips included.
It seems that Nuvoton built the board as a IoT Device Reference Design.
The combination of the Crypto Accelerator and the Secure Flash Memory brings the board in the Secure IoT class. Therefore, you can build Secure OTA upgradeable firmware.
I was surprised seeing that Segger offers emWin as library completely free for some Nuvoton chips including the M2351. It may be cheaper than using Synergy for some displays.
Only after I changed the VCP Com DIP Switch I saw the board’s MBED flash drive showing in My Computer. In addition, I’ve enabled it in the MBED Online Compiler.

The Break-Away Programmer seems to be the usual Nu-Link-Me but is called ICE V3.0 – anyway is a very good SWD Debug/Programming Interface.
The ETM1 Trace Connector is connected on the Embedded Trace Macrocell Trace pins of Port.E and also SWD.

Useful Links:
The Nuvoton CD Link: https://www.nuvoton.com/NuMicroDVD
NuMicroM23 Family: https://www.nuvoton.com/hq/products/microcontrollers/arm-cortex-m23-mcus/?__locale=en
The 1714 pages Technical Reference Manual: http://www.nuvoton.com/hq/products/microcontrollers/arm-cortex-m23-mcus/Technical-Reference-Manual/?__locale=en&resourcePage=Y
ARM Cortex-M23 Reference: https://developer.arm.com/ip-products/processors/cortex-m/cortex-m23
Free MDK version limited to Cortex-M0 and M23
Request here: http://www.keil.com/nuvoton
Nuvoton Direct – development kit discounts and two new ARM kits
Huge discounts on development kits by Nuvoton (https://www.nuvoton.com/) via Nuvoton Direct (https://direct.nuvoton.com).
The Nuc140V (connectivity series Cortex) board with LCD display, 9-pin UART and Voice Codec and has a 40% discount now https://direct.nuvoton.com/en/learning-board-of-nuc140-series

The 8051 based bundle offer at 50% (100pcs N76E003AT20 + devboard + Nu-link) is back again and you can find the Cortex-M4 bundle (100pcs M451MLG6AE + NuTiny-M451V + Nu-Link Pro ) https://direct.nuvoton.com/en/-m451-big-bundle- and that’s fabulous!
Under the IoT Solution > IoT Platform stays the Mbed Enabled Development Kit series which is expanded with two new boards, both with the detachable, upgraded and offline programming enabled Nu-Link2-Me interface:
- NuMaker-M031TB (on preorder) https://direct.nuvoton.com/en/numaker-m031tb-pre-order
- NuMaker-M032SE https://direct.nuvoton.com/en/numaker-m032se

Useful Links:
- Nu-Link-Me dual voltage settings (3v3 or 5v) – sure, you can add a switch or a solder-ball “case switch”: https://www.nuvoton.com/hq/support/faq/049b205d-2349-11e8-9221-4511a3410ebb/?__locale=en
- Nu-Link-Me virtual COM Port settings – the driver can be found in the NuMicro_ISP_Programming_Tool zip file: https://www.nuvoton.com/hq/support/faq/b5f2aeb6-4cb9-11e6-987b-4511a3410ebb/?__locale=en
- The COM Port switch also may lead to some code modifications, a good article here: http://www.nuvoton.com/hq/support/faq/73482dbb-f222-11e8-a156-4511a3410ebb/?__locale=en
KEIL and Nuvoton are also presenting a fantastic offer: Free MDK version limited to Cortex-M0 and M23
Request here: http://www.keil.com/nuvoton
Nuvoton NT-M0564V Development Board
Testing the Nuvoton NuTiny-SDK-M0564 – development tool for the M0564 series microcontroller.
The M0564VG4AE is a Cortex-M0 microcontroller which can run at up to 72MHz, features 85 I/O pins, 256 KB Flash, 20 KB SRAM, 4KB ISP ROM and 2 KB SPROM(Security Protection ROM).
The 161 pages datasheet can be downloaded from here: http://www.nuvoton.com/resource-files/DS_M0564_Series_EN_Rev1.00.pdf
The whole Development Package can be downloaded from http://nuvoton.com/NuMicroDVD/
The archive contains some useful AppNotes, drivers for Keil and IAR, CooCox BSP, Datasheets and some useful stand-alone programs like ClockConfigure Tool, NuMicro PLL Generator Tool.
The next steps are: install and configure Keil, add packs, CMSIS… etc.
For Arduino Fans there is a NuMaker Uno Board based on NUC131 – another Cortex M0 ARM – https://direct.nuvoton.com/it/numaker-uno
The EFM32 Development Kit – Gecko, G890F128
EFM32 Development Kit
The EFM32 Development Kit features the EFM32G890F128 MCU (128 kB flash + 16 kB RAM) and is one of the best kits designed for low power device development.
The Advanced Energy Monitoring (AEM) system is practically a very good power monitor and logger, embedded in the Development Kit. Some other kits are doing this in the IDE, but to have it with a display onboard is awesome.
A large spectrum of techniques, from using different low power modes to switch-off peripherals can be tested directly and all with one kit.
The on-board Segger J-Link enables debugging.
The OOB configuration enables that the EFM32 can be programmed with many demo programs selected with the 320×240 TFT Display GUI and the power consumption can be monitored on the same TFT after programming.
Some features:
- Single ended and differential ADC inputs on BNC connectors
- Line-in and Line-out stereo audio amplifier with 3.5 jacks
- IrDA, RS232
- MicroSD card reader
- 4MB 70ns PSRAM+ 16MB 90ns NOR Flash + 2Kb I2C EEPROM
- Accelerometer and LDR
Links:
Product page: https://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/32-bit/Pages/efm32g-dk3550.aspx
Simplicity Studio Download: https://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/simplicity-studio.aspx
User Guide: https://www.silabs.com/Support%20Documents/TechnicalDocs/efm32g-dk3550-ug.pdf
A Silabs video on YouTube:
Wolverine in a FR5969LCD Bundle – Is this THE Wolverine?
It seems that finally TI’s Wolverine is in the wild:
http://www.ti.com/tool/msp-bndl-fr5969lcd
A new Launchpad with a 64k FRAM MSP430 – the MSP-EXP430FR5969 – bundled with a LCD BoosterPack featuring a nice Sharp 1.3″ 96×96 pixels Memory LCD.
Price: $29.99
.
TI Hercules RM42 Launchpad
Hot! Just arrived!
The Hercules RM42 Launchpad features a 100MHZ 32bit Dual ARM Cortex – R4 cores MCU designed for safety-critical applications.
The debugging part is a FT2322 + XC2C32A based XDS100V2 which provides a free CCS license.
Some ShortList Features:
- 384kB Flash with ECC, 32kB RAM with ECC, 16kB flash with ECC for EEPROM emulation
- 16ch 12-bit multi-buffered ADC
- 19 pin programmable High-End Timer (N2HET)
- Multi-buffered SPI, LIN/SCI (UART), eQEP – Enhanced Quadrature Encoder Pulse Module, GIO pins
One great tool is the HALCoGen, the driver generation tool for TI’s Hercules Microcontroller Family.
Here is an excerpt of a example file from HALCoGen RM42x using 1 ADC on GP and 1 UART for display:
[code language=”cpp”]
/** @example example_adcDisplay.c
* This is an example which describes the steps to create an example application which
* configures ADC to start conversion ona GIO trigger and display it over an uart .
* The digital value can be viewed on a pc terminal with the uart configures @ 9600
* no parity ,2 stop bits.
*
*
* @b Step @b 1:
*
* Create a new project.
*
* Navigate: -> File -> New -> Project
*
* @image html example_createProject.JPG "Figure: Create a new Project"
*
* @b Step @b 2:
*
* Configure driver code generation:
* – Enable GIO driver
* – Enable SCI driver
* – Enable ADC driver
* – Disable others
*
* Navigate: -> TMS570LSxx /RM4 -> Enable Drivers
*
* @image html adcDisplay_enabledriver.JPG "Figure: SCI Enable Driver"
*
*
* @b Step @b 3:
*
* Navigate: -> TMS570LSxx /RM4 -> ADC
*
* Configure ADC General :
*
* @image html adcDisplay1.JPG "Figure: ADC General Configuration"
*
*
* @b Step @b 4:
*
* Configure ADC Group1 :
*
* – Configure ADC Group 1 with "Hardware trigger" source as "GIOB0" at "Rising edge"
* – Enable ADC1 Group 1 channel selection Pin 0 and Pin 1
*
* @image html adcDisplay2.JPG "Figure: ADC Group Configuration"
*
* @b Step @b 5:
*
* Configure SCI:
* – Configure SCI baudrate as 9600
*
* Navigate: -> TMS570LSxx /RM4 -> ADC
*
* @image html sci_uart1.JPG "Figure: SCI Configuration"
*
* @b Step @b 6:
*
* Copy the source code below into your sys_main.c or replace sys_main.c with this file.
*
* The example file can also be found in the examples folder: ../HALCoGen/examples
*
* @note HALCoGen generates an empty main function in sys_main.c,
* please make sure that you link in the right main function or copy the source into the user code sections of this file.
*
*
*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN (0) */
/* USER CODE END */
/* Include Files */
#include "sys_common.h"
#include "system.h"
/* USER CODE BEGIN (1) */
#include "esm.h"
#include "adc.h"
#include "sci.h"
#include "gio.h"
#define TSIZE1 12
uint8 TEXT1[TSIZE1]= {‘\r’,’\n’,’|’,’\t’,’C’,’H’,’.’,’I’,’D’,’=’,’0′,’x’};
#define TSIZE2 9
uint8 TEXT2[TSIZE2]= {‘\t’,’V’,’A’,’L’,’U’,’E’,’=’,’0′,’x’};
adcData_t adc_data[2];
void sciDisplayText(sciBASE_t *sci, uint8 *text, uint32 length);
void sciDisplayData(sciBASE_t *sci, uint8 *text,uint32 length);
void wait(uint32 time);
/* USER CODE END */
…………………………………………
[/code]
Some Hercules RM42 Launchpad useful links:
Project Zero software files: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Hercules_LaunchPad:_Project_0
Hercules LauncPad Wiki: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Hercules_LaunchPad
Eagle Schematic (well done!): http://processors.wiki.ti.com/images/b/b0/Hercules_LaunchPad_SchLayout.zip
PDF Schematic (embest): http://processors.wiki.ti.com/images/7/79/Hercules_LaunchPad_Sch.pdf
HALCoGen for Hercules RM42 Launchpad: http://www.ti.com/tool/halcogen
Code Composer Studio: http://www.ti.com/tool/ccstudio
ARM Cortex R4 Reference: http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.ddi0363e/index.html
Sabre Lite Board
Smart Application Blueprint for Rapid Engineering (SABRE) board built by Embest Technology Co. Ltd, a Premier Farnell – Element 14 Company
The board runs a Timesys Linux very good distribution on a powerful i.MX6 Quad Application Processor and is designed following the Freescale’s SABRE specification.
Hardware quality is excellent.
I’ve noticed some heating problems at 3D rendering but the quality is very good.
Still under evaluation!
Some Start-Up Links:
Element 14 SABRE Lite: http://www.element14.com/iMX6
Embest Tech: http://www.embest-tech.com/shop/product/sabre-lite-development-board.html
Boundary Devices Sabre Lite and Accesories: http://boundarydevices.com/products/sabre-lite-imx6-sbc/
Freescale i.MX6 Quad: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX6Q
Timesys Linux: http://www.timesys.com/
TLDP Timesys Howto by Trevor Harmon – 2005: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TimeSys-Linux-Install-HOWTO/
Freescale’s App Note AN4581 Secure Boot on i.MX50, i.MX53, and i.MX 6 Series using HABv4
…
TI TMDSHVMPPTKIT – Isolated Solar MPPT Development Kit
Some features:
- 200-300VDC Input up to 500Watts
- 400VDC Output
- 2 Phase DC/DC Boost for Maximum Power Point Tracking
- 1:1 Resonant LLC for isolation
- Onboard USB JTAG Emulation
- Single phase current mode inverter
- Supports 120-220V AC with grid-tie capabilities and anti-islanding
TI estore page: https://estore.ti.com/TMDSHVMPPTKIT-High-Voltage-Isolated-Solar-MPPT-Development-Kit-P2886.aspx
product page: http://www.ti.com/tool/tmdshvmpptkit
Development Tools: TI Control Suite which comes with all software examples needed.
A short excerpt from HV_Solar_DC_DC-Main.C about the included libraries …
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // FILE: Solar_DC_DC-Main.C // // Description: Solar MPPT DC-DC Stage // The file drives duty on PWM1A and PWM2A for DC-DC boost stage on the HV Solar // MPPT board. It also generates 50% duty with dead-band on PWM3A & PWM3B for // the LLC stage on the same board. // C28x ISR is triggered by the PWM 1 interrupt // // Version: 1.0 // // Target: TMS320F2803x(PiccoloB), // //---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Copyright Texas Instruments © 2004-2010 //...............................................some code......................................... // Following is the implementation using the solar lib function if(Run_MPPT==1) { // MPPT routine mppt_incc1.Ipv = IL_avg;//IpvRead_EMAVG; //IpvRead; mppt_incc1.Vpv = Vp_fb_Avg;//VpvRead_EMAVG; //VpvRead; mppt_incc_MACRO(mppt_incc1); VpvRef_MPPT = mppt_incc1.VmppOut; mppt_pno1.Ipv = IL_avg;//IpvRead_EMAVG; //IpvRead; mppt_pno1.Vpv = Vp_fb_Avg;//VpvRead_EMAVG; //VpvRead; mppt_pno_MACRO(mppt_pno1); //VpvRef_MPPT = mppt_pno1.VmppOut; if(VpvRef_MPPT<_IQ24(0.0)) { VpvRef_MPPT=_IQ24(0.0); } else if(VpvRef_MPPT>_IQ24(0.9)) { VpvRef_MPPT=_IQ24(0.9); } VpvRef=VpvRef_MPPT; Run_MPPT=0; }