There has been a recent trend in miniaturizing embedded platforms. [Jan] wrote in to tell us about his very tiny ARM based embedded platform, the Catweazle Mini. Who knew that an ARM based system could be so simple and so small?!?
With the success of the Trinket and Femtoduino (miniature Arduino compatible boards) and many other KickStarter campaigns, it is only natural for there to be a mini platform based on the ARM architecture. Built around the NXP LPC810 ARM Cortex M0+ MCU at 30MHz (which only costs slightly more than $1, by the way), this small embedded platform packs some pretty impressive processing power. The board contains a simple linear regulator, and can be programmed via UART. [Jan’s] development environment of choice is the mbed compiler, which is free and requires no installation. If you need some help getting started Adafruit has a nice guide for the LPC810.
Do you need some more processing power for your next wearable project? Be sure to use the Catweazle Mini.
ARM based systems have been this simple for years. The only new thing is the DIP8 package.
someone know similar/equivalent in SO8 or any other SMD little package???
P89LPC901FD SO8 said obsolete, are it compatible??
P89LPC901FD is not an ARM, but a 8051. If you want SOIC, there’s the LPC812M101JD20FP (20 pins, though). If you want physically small, there are several QFN packages.
DIP8 packages are huge. The SMD Members of the LPC800 family are actually much smaller, despite having more I/O.
I made this board a while ago, a LPC810 is shown as reference below:
http://i.imgur.com/n0rAemp.jpg
The chip is a TSSOP LPC812 with 4 time the memory of the LPC810. The entire break out board is probably not much larger than the one in the article above.
You can also get the LPC812 in TSSOP16, which is a bit smaller.
I reckon that a 3.3v version could be made even smaller. In fact, ditch the LED and it might even be possible to get it into a breadboard-friendly 0.1″ pitch DIP layout. (BF0PDL®)
I’m going to do it. I’ll put it on Kickstarter! I shall call it the Catpizzleduino3.3 and sell via my website as the World Record Holding Smallest Arm Development Platform (WRHSADP®). I shall be rich and famous!
by that point wouldnt you be better off just sticking the 810 directly into the breadboard?
nice! dip8 is great for protoboard, then i would replace my attiny85 with something in soic8 or qfn20 package, any qfn32 or more is greater than soic8…. best regards pescadito
even LPC812 in TSSOP16 is greater than so8
It’s smaller than a SOIC8 ATtiny85.
Why don’t you?
Its up to any one to do.
I don’t know if you woke up under your bed this morning but you are plain rude and probably old and grumpy.
I see the subtlety of English humour passed six667 and Kurtz Andrew by. If you ditch the regulator and LED then it *is* a LPC810.
I was implying that it takes more than attaching a LED to claim you’ve made a embedded platform that you hope to “as prebuilt boards on my website”. If the article had been titled “LPC810 is a small ARM microcontroller that requires no external components to run” it would be a little more realistic. It looks like a nice little chip that could suit many projects.
Yes – I am old and grumpy.
It takes more than sticking an ATtiny85 to a board to call it a Trinket :)
Atmel just launched the SAMD11, a Cortex-M0+ with Full-Speed USB, available in SOIC 14, or QFN24
“launched” is a bit of an exaggeration. They did not even publish manuals yet, just a few specs.
Could be vaporware to counter STs new USB-controllers.
Want the smallest. Try this ARM Cortex-M0+ that was just announced by Freescale. It’s smaller than a golf ball dimple. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1321173
I like that, but it’s so tiny, I would have no clue how to make that work.
I’m the one who built this.
The thing is not to be small. I built the Mini to gain knowledge how to program an embedded ARM MCU.
Making it Trinket style is just a side effect of the DIP8 package.
The goal is the LPC812 in an SO20 package and Arduino compatible headers.
It will also host a 2 or 16Mbyte SPI flash and a RTOS.
Since the ARM has a Von Neuman architecture it can run code from SRAM which is impossible for an AVR. That makes it possible to load pages from the huge flashmem into SRAM and run it.
I could have put a 2Mbyte flash on the Catweazle Mini but it kind of defeats the purpose.
It still has processing power that outruns any 8-bit AVR with almost no external components.
And the DIP8 package makes it easy for anyone to build an ARM board.
The TSSOP does not.
Nice explanation – perhaps you should use that (slightly modified) as the project intro on the project page.
>And the DIP8 package makes it easy for anyone to build an ARM board.
>The TSSOP does not.
I think the general fear of SMT is completely unfounded and unreasonable. The only argument may be that you need a custom PCB for SMT. But with services like OSH Park you can order a small break out board for $3 incl. shipping. Do you really want to stay with DIP?
The level of solder-fu increases considerably, IMO. A newbie that has trouble with DIP doesn’t stand a chance with SMT.
It’s not even necessary to have a custom breakout board made.
http://www.adafruit.com/index.php?main_page=adasearch&q=TSSOP
OSHPark offers several pre-baked board designs, but you have to use Google to search their site for them.
so, seem there are not be a easy arm replacemet for attiny85 so8, somes are larger, other are so new that nobody can get it at all
Ok, snarky project retort.
Wouldn’t converting the above to a set of discrete circuits that could be made out of pencil graphite (or doped conductive ink) and silk-screened on a patch of cloth have been more hack-a-day wearable circuitish?
Electrickery!