What’s Cooking @ e-Gizmo Episode 10: Introducing gizDuino Plus (gizDuino+)

In line with our current effort to expand our gizDuino line (Arduino compatible MCU platform), gizDuino mini was introduced about a month ago. These boards are preloaded with Arduino optiboot bootloader, has a breadboard friendly pin spacing, and has just the bare essentials on board for a complete ready-to-deploy microcontroller platform.

A few weeks later, we quietly added the gizDuino plus mini series (gizDuino+ mini). This board is inspired by the Sanguino project, an off-shoot of the Arduino project (or Wiring project, as some people may insists). It is also Arduino IDE compatible, meaning, you can use the same Arduino SDK and Libraries, plus the Sanguino libraries. Probably the most important difference is, it has more I/O than the gizDuino, an additional of 12 I/Os in fact.

But this blog is not just all about gizDuino+ minis…



Introducing, the gizDuino+  

The gizDuino+ minis may have been the spoiler, but just the same we are now happy to announce the latest addition to our gizDuino lines, the gizDuino+ series.

The gizDuino+ (gizDuino Plus) is another Arduino compatible board, based on Sanguino. It features more I/Os – a total of 32, including a second hardware UART port, compared to the 20 I/Os standard to Arduino and compatible board. Shields made for gizDuino (Arduino compatible) will work in this platform without hardware modification. But because of the different way the pin numbers are assigned by the Sanguino, a minor I/O remapping is required for the corresponding sketch (program) to work.

Leading the pack is the gizDuino+ board itself. The gizDuino+ is based on ATMEGA644P core, a more feature rich arduino compatible MCU, giving the gizDuino+ an additional hardware UART port (UART1), one more SPI port, and two more ADC input, 12 additional I/Os in all, all of which can be configured as general purpose digital I/O.

Memory is double that of our current gizDuino 328 (Arduino Uno compatible). Of course, if you think that is too much for your need, you can save a few bucks by ordering the gizDuino+ 344 or gizDuino+ 164, sporting 32K and 16K respectively, of program memory.

For a vast majority of applications, the 20 I/Os of a gizDuino is generally sufficient, but when your project grows and requires one or a few more I/O than the gizDuino can provide, you will instantly appreciate the additional 12 I/Os the gizDuino+ offers.

The gizDuino+ mini is just a tad larger than a 40-pin DIP IC. Pin spacing matches exactly that of a 40-pin DIP package.

An Arduino Mega alternative

For those who found themselves running out of I/O, there is the Arduino Mega for their taking. Its impressive 70 something I/Os, and 256K memory can easily make even seasoned geeks palpitate with joy just by looking at it. It leaves you no chance of wanting even more I/O. But this sudden switch from too little to too many I/O makes a lot of geek feel like they are being short changed of sort. Let us face it. Most of us hobbyists are unhappy over too many unused resources. Paying a lot more for extras we cannot fully utilize makes us sad.

The gizDuino+ series partly fill in the wide gap separating the gizDuino(Arduino) and Arduino Mega class of controllers. If your application does not need more than 12 additional I/Os, the gizDuino+ may present itself as a cost effective alternative. 

We are not quite done yet. Already in the works is another mid range Arduino compatible, with even more I/O than gizDuino+. It is not an Arduino Mega compatible, but a step closer. But that will be for another story.

Arduino Project: http://www.arduino.cc
Sanguino Project: http://www.sanguino.cc