First PIC32-EMZ64 boards for Embedded World are now testing

PIC32-EMZ64

This board was made from the design idea to mass production in just few weeks 🙂

The PIC32 microcontroller model was choosen January 21st, so we had 1 week to design and PCB layout the board, 1 week to produce the blank PCB, make stencils, prepare software demo code and one week to setup the assembly line and run the PCBs for asssembly.

Today we got first batch of the assembled boards.

PIC32-EMZ64-2

For these who do not remember this board is using the new PIC32MZ2048EFH064 with 2MB of Flash, 512KB RAM, Ethernet, CAN and fast 18Msps 12bit ADC!

On the board you can see:

  • USB-OTG
  • USB Host
  • Ethernet 100Mb
  • Audio input
  • Audio output
  • OLED LCD 128×64 pixels
  • microSD card
  • CAN driver
  • 3x buttons
  • Reset
  • LEDs

all this in compact credit card size format.

At Embedded World in Nurenberg 23-25 of February we will give away these boards but only to registered/approved developers. If you want to take your board at the show please send us e-mail and write what projects you have done, so we can confirm that your board is reserved. Important: we will not give away boards to Embedded world visitors who have no reservation/approval from us in advance.

You can’t visit Embedded World? Do not worry you still have chance to receive free board – just send us e-mail and tell us what projects you have done with PIC or Olimex boards before. We can decide to send you by post one of these free of charge.

Embedded World giveaway board update! Processor will have 2MB Flash, 512KB RAM and 2x CAN

pic32

After our blogging about the Embedded World giveaway board, there was short discussion / comments after the post that it would be great the PIC32 on the board to have more RAM and CAN and do you know what?

Microchip is reading this blog too 🙂 as today we got message that they decided to upgrade the processor for this board to PIC32MZ2048EFH064-I/PT which is with 2MB of Flash, 512KB of RAM and dual CAN!

Now you should have got idea why this company is expanding and grow so fast – they are flexible and their managers obviously have freedom to take prompt decision!

It took them less than 24 hours to react and change the processor on board so you guys will benefit from PIC32 which beside Ethernet also have dual CAN and x4 times more RAM and FLASH than what originally was planned!

We give away 1000 boards worth EUR 25000 on Embedded World 2016 – 23-25 of February in Nuremberg Germany – the biggest event in Europe for development boards and tools

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Embedded World 2016 is as usually held in Nuremberg, Germany in February.

We are there exhibiting in hall 2, booth 2-651.

What we will show you there?

Our super duper new Internet of Things WiFi-PLUG, WiFi-SWITCH and WiFi-Dimmer, all of them based on ESP8266 and allowing easy to setup Home Automation. They work with mains power supply 85-240VAC 50/60Hz and are with small 40 x 35 x 12 mm so can fit inside existing power supply sockets.

Also we will show you our new BLE development boards and Bluetooth audio.

And of course there will be our Open Source DIY Laptop powered by A64-OLinuXino.

For these who remember several times we give away free boards on Embedded World.

This year will be no exeption. We are planning promotion together with Microchip and work on new board with their PIC32MZ0512EFE064-I/PT which will have these features:

– PIC32MZ running at 200 MHz/330 DMIPS, MIPS Warrior M-class core
– Flash 512KB
– RAM 128 KB
– 4x SPI 50Mbps, 4x I2C up to 1Mbps, I2S, 6x UARTS 25 Mbps
– temp sensor +-2C
– USB-OTG
– USB host HIGH Speed
– ADC 12bit, 24 channels, 18 Msps
– 9x PWM
– 10/100 Mb Ethernet
– OLED 128×64 pixels
– Analog input for microphone
– Analog output for headphones
– micro SD card
– industrial grade -25C+85C

This board will be add to our web shop after the show and will be priced at EUR 25.00 but note! On Embedded world we will give away free of charge 1000 of these worth EUR 25 000!

How you can get one?

Past experience show that people like to get freebies even if they have no use of them, small kids, 70 years old developers, all they came to our booth and ask for free boards, but we doubt they use the boards afterward which is pitty.

This board is quite good with industrial temperature specs, 18Msps ADCs, and fast UARTs, SPIs, I2Ss, so we really do not want these boards to go to someone who will have no use of them and just will let the board collect dust in the table corner, so if you want to get one of these boards send us to info@olimex.com email with link to web page with project you already have done with other Olimex boards.

Interesting projects and open source projects will have advantage, so please think twice before submitting your blink LED done with something :))).

We will confirm with email back that we have booked board for you which you can take on Embedded World.

If you have no ticket let us know we will generate free ticket for you as exhibitor we can do this, these tickets otherwise are expensive, so prepare yourself well 🙂

For these who do not have chance to come to Embedded World, but still have interesting project, if the project is interesting enough we can decide to cover shipping by post. The boards which will be shipped by post will be shipped after Embedded World i.e. about end of February.

The last date to send us link with your project is February 22nd.

FOSDEM 2016 is approaching and the schedule is now published – Free and Open Source Software and Hardware event

FOSDEM2016

FOSDEM the biggest and coolest Open Source event in Europe is at the last weekend in January.

If you don’t know what FOSDEM is or you never have been there you missed a lot of beer and fun 🙂

Thousands of people who love Libre Free Open Source technology come together once per year in Bruxelles and share what they did during the pass year.

The schedule is already complete and you can check at https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/tracks/

We have small talk about A64-OLinuXino in EDA room to share our experience with KiCAD during the PCB development.

We wanted to make free SMT soldering workshop like we did back in 2013 on FOSDEM, but the workshop was declined.

I do remember there were lot of hesitation for the workshop in 2013 as the Libre University of Bruxelles where FOSDEM take place didn’t want to allow soldering to be made in the University without some special permissions due to risk of fire etc.

So guys if you want to participate in our next free soldering workshop you have to come to TuxCon or OpenFest in Bulgaria 🙂

RMS says: We need Free Digital Designs!

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Back in 1999 Richard Stallman had interview commenting on “Free Hardware” for Linux Today, where he says “freedom to copy software is social imperative, but freedom to copy hardware is not so important as hardware is hard to copy”

SO even man with such visionary as RMS didn’t understand quite well why people would have motive to make Free Hardware Designs (also known as Open Source Hardware Designs).

Somewhere else he also have said something like: “We do not need imperatively free hardware, but well documented hardware” to may write proper software for it. Looking from Software point of view he is probably right, but he was missing something important: Free/Open Source Hardware is not done just to allow other to replicate it. It serves much deeper goals.

  • Spreading knowledge – when people have access to the design files they can learn how the original author created this hardware and study the design from inside.
  • Getting vital feed back and improving the design – the author who opens everything can get free expertise from many other people who works on same problem and thus to combine the knowledge of the community about this. In long run product which is collaboratively developed is with better specs and features than the one who is done in closed company.
  • When your hardware is with open specs this gives your customer additional value – they know everything about your hardware, they are not dependent from single source of manufacturing, they can modify and customize for their need. All else being equal OSHW design will be preffered and gives more value to the customer.
  • By opening the designs you give access to the technology to casual people who can innovate and no need to be big companies with lot of money. Just have look at what 3D printing and Arduino did.

This is why it was nice to see the evolution with RMS view on the Open Source / Free Hardware which he published in Wired yesterday named: Why we need free hardware designs?

In this article RMS says:

We need free digital hardware designs!
Free hardware designs offer practical advantages. Multiple companies can fabricate one, which reduces dependence on a single vendor.
Having circuit diagrams or HDL code makes it possible to study the design to look for errors or malicious functionalities (it is known that the NSA has procured malicious weaknesses in some computing hardware).

If you design hardware, please make your designs free.

 

Although naming “Free Hardware Design” what we know more popular as Open Source Hardware, RMS correctly spots the advantages vs closed non-free Hardware Designs.

 

Collection of 51 free e-books for Python programming

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Python now is what BASIC was in 1980s . With the broad range of modules for any purpose there is hard to find problem which can’t be solved with this easy to learn and use language.

OLinuXino OSHW Linux computers can be programmed with Python and you can have access to all GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UARTs etc resources using py modules.

Enjoy this free e-book collection with Python resources:

1. Learning to Program Using Python

Author: Cody Jackson, 2013

An introduction to computer programming, using the easy, yet powerful, Python programming language. Python, a cross-platform language, lets you work quickly and efficiently, allowing you to concentrate on your work rather than the language.

2. Introduction to Programming Using Python

Author: Brian Heinold

Publisher: Mount St. Mary’s University, 2013

Partly a tutorial and partly a reference book. I summarize information in tables and give a lot of short example programs. I also jump right into things and fill in background information as I go, rather than covering the background material first.

3. A Beginner’s Python Tutorial

Author: Steven Thurlow

Publisher: Wikibooks, 2013

Contents of Beginner’s Python Tutorial: Installing Python; Very Simple Programs; Variables, Scripts; Loops, Conditionals; Functions; Tuples, Lists, Dictionaries; for Loop; Classes; Importing Modules; File I/O; Exception Handling.

4. Python Cookbook

Author: David Beazley, Brian K. Jones

Publisher: O’Reilly Media, 2013

This cookbook is for experienced Python programmers who want to focus on modern tools and idioms. You’ll find complete recipes for more than a dozen topics, covering the core Python language as well as tasks common to a wide variety of applications.

5. Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python

Author: Al Sweigart, 2013

The book teaches complete beginners how to program in the Python programming language. The book features the source code to several ciphers and hacking programs for these ciphers. The programs include the Caesar cipher, transposition cipher, etc.

6. Effective Django

Author: Nathan Yergler

Publisher: PyCon, 2013

Effective Django development means building applications that are testable, maintainable, and scalable. After reading this book you should have an understanding of how Django’s pieces fit together and how to use them to engineer web applications.

7. Test-Driven Development with Python

Author: Harry Percival

Publisher: O’Reilly Media, 2013

Test-Driven Development with Python focuses on web development, with some coverage of JavaScript. This book uses a concrete example — the development of a website, from scratch — to teach the TDD methodology and how it applies to web programming.

8. PyQt4 Tutorial

Author: Jan Bodnar

Publisher: ZetCode, 2013

PyQt4 is a toolkit for creating GUI applications. It is a blending of Python language and the successful Qt library. This tutorial is suited for beginners and intermediate programmers. You will learn to program non trivial PyQt4 applications.

9. Python Programming

Author: Hannes Röst, et al.

Publisher: Wikibooks, 2013

This book describes Python, an open-source general-purpose interpreted programming language, available for all Platforms. Python is a high-level, structured programming language that can be used for a wide variety of programming tasks.

10. Python Scientific Lecture Notes

Author: EuroScipy tutorial team, 2012

Teaching material on the scientific Python ecosystem, a quick introduction to central tools and techniques. The different chapters each correspond to a 1 to 2 hours course with increasing level of expertise, from beginner to expert.

11. The Art and Craft of Programming: Python Edition

Author: John C. Lusth

Publisher: The University of Alabama, 2012

Contents: Starting Out; Literals; Combining Literals; Precedence and Associativity; Variables; Assignment; Conditionals; Functions; Python Programs and Using Files; Input and Output; More about Functions; Scope; Loops; Lists; Recursion; etc.

12. Porting to Python 3: An in-depth guide

Author: Lennart Regebro

Publisher: Colliberty 2011

Porting to Python 3 doesn’t have to be daunting. This book guides you through the process of porting your Python 2 code to Python 3. Using plenty of code examples is takes you cross the hurdles and shows you the new Python features.

13. Introduction to Python for Econometrics, Statistics and Numerical Analysis

Author: Kevin Sheppard, 2012

Python is a widely used general purpose programming language, which happens to be well suited to Econometrics and other more general purpose data analysis tasks. These notes provide an introduction to Python for a beginning programmer.

14. Python Scripting for Computational Science

Author: Hans Petter Langtangen

Publisher: Springer, 2009

With a primary focus on examples and applications of relevance to computational scientists, this useful book shows computational scientists how to develop tailored, flexible, and human-efficient working environments built from small scripts.

15. The Programming Historian

Author: W.J. Turkel, A. Crymble, A. MacEachern

Publisher: NiCHE, 2010

This book is a tutorial-style introduction to programming in Python for practicing historians (and other humanists). We assume that you’re starting out with no prior programming experience and only a basic understanding of computers.

16. Programming Computer Vision with Python

Author: Jan Erik Solem

Publisher: O’Reilly Media, 2012

The idea behind this book is to give an easily accessible entry point to hands-on computer vision with enough understanding of the underlying theory and algorithms to be a foundation for students, researchers and enthusiasts.

17. Design Patterns In Python

Author: Rahul Verma, Chetan Giridhar

Publisher: Testing Perspective, 2011

This book is about learning design patterns with Python language. If you are new to design patterns, this text provides the first building blocks. If you are interested in design of test automation frameworks, this book will be very useful.

18. Making Games with Python and Pygame

Author: Al Sweigart, 2012

This is a programming book that covers the Pygame game library for the Python programming language. Each chapter gives you the complete source code for a new game and teaches the important programming concepts from these examples.

19. Learning to Program with Python

Author: Richard L. Halterman

Publisher: Southern Adventist University, 2011

The focus is on introducing programming techniques and developing good habits. Our approach avoids some more esoteric features of Python and concentrates on the programming basics that transfer directly to other imperative programming languages.

20. How to Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learning with Python

Author: Jeffrey Elkner, Allen B. Downey, Chris Meyers

Publisher: Green Tea Press, 2012

This book is an introduction to computer science using the Python programming language. It covers the basics of programming, including variables, functions, control flow, program debugging. Later chapters cover basic algorithms and data structures.

21. Natural Language Processing with Python

Author: Steven Bird, Ewan Klein, Edward Loper

Publisher: O’Reilly Media, 2009

This book offers a highly accessible introduction to natural language processing, the field that supports a variety of language technologies. With it, you’ll learn how to write Python programs that work with large collections of unstructured text.

22. Learn Python The Hard Way

Author: Zed A. Shaw, 2011

This is a very beginner book for people who want to learn to code. If you can already code then the book will probably drive you insane. It’s intended for people who have no coding chops to build up their skills before starting a more detailed book.

23. Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers

Author: Allen B. Downey

Publisher: Green Tea Press, 2011

Think Stats is an introduction to Probability and Statistics for Python programmers. This new book emphasizes simple techniques you can use to explore real data sets and answer interesting statistical questions. Basic skills in Python are assumed.

24. Python for Informatics: Exploring Information

Author: Charles Severance

Publisher: PythonLearn, 2010

The goal of this book is to provide an Informatics-oriented introduction to programming. The primary difference between a computer science approach and the Informatics approach taken in this book is a greater focus on using Python.

25. Start Here: Python Programming for Beginners

Author: Jody Scott Ginther

Publisher: toonzcat.com, 2010

This book is meant to help you begin learning the basics of Python programming version 3 or later. It is a brief introduction to Python. The author attempts to be as brief as possible to get the new programmer into programming as fast as possible.

26. Practical Programming in Python

Author: Jeffrey Elkner, at al., 2010

The goal of this book is twofold: to teach you how to program in Python; and to teach you to think like a computer scientist. This way of thinking combines some of the best features of mathematics, engineering, and natural science.

27. Introduction to Media Computation: A Multimedia Cookbook in Python

Author: Mark Guzdial

Publisher: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2002

Guzdial introduces programming as a way of creating and manipulating media — a context familiar to today’s readers. Starts readers with actual programming early on. Puts programming in a relevant context (Computing for Communications).

28. Snake Wrangling for Kids

Author: Jason R Briggs

Publisher: Lulu.com, 2007

Snake Wrangling for Kids is a printable electronic book, for children 8 years and older, who would like to learn computer programming. It covers the very basics of programming, and uses the Python 3 programming language to teach the concepts.

29. The Definitive Guide to Django

Author: A. Holovaty, J. Kaplan-Moss

Publisher: Apress, 2007

Django is the Python–based equivalent to the Ruby on Rails web development framework. The authors show you how they use this framework to create award–winning web sites. This is the first edition of the Django Book which covers 0.96 version.

30. Python course in Bioinformatics

Author: Katja Schuerer, Catherine Letondal

Publisher: Pasteur Institute, 2008

This course is designed for biologists who already have some programming knowledge in other languages. The focus is on biological examples that are used throughout the course, as well as the suggested exercises drawn from the field of biology.

31. Python 201: (Slightly) Advanced Python Topics

Author: Dave Kuhlman, 2003

This document contains discussions of several advanced topics that are of interest to Python programmers: regular expressions, unit tests, extending and embedding Python, parsing, GUI applications, guidance on packages and modules.

32. Python 101: Introduction to Python

Author: Dave Kuhlman, 2008

This document is a syllabus for a first course in Python programming. It contains an introduction to the Python language, instruction in the important features of the language, and practical exercises in the use of those features.

33. Python for Fun

Author: Chris Meyers, 2004

This collection is a presentation of several small Python programs. They are aimed at intermediate programmers – people who have studied Python and are fairly comfortable with basic recursion and object oriented techniques.

34. The Python Imaging Library

Author: Fredrik Lundh, Matthew Ellis

Publisher: PythonWare, 2002

The Python Imaging Library adds image processing capabilities to your Python interpreter. This library provides extensive file format support, an efficient internal representation, and fairly powerful image processing capabilities.

35. Python Tutorial

Publisher: Python Software Foundation, 2008

This tutorial introduces the reader informally to the basic concepts of the Python language and system. It introduces many of Python’s most noteworthy features, and will give you a good idea of the language’s flavor and style.

36. Python Quick Reference collection

Author: Richard Gruet, 2007

This reference collections cover references for python version 1.52 to version 2.7. It covers invocation options, environment variables, lexical entities, basic types and their operations, advanced types, statements, iterators, generators, descriptors, decorators, built-in functions, built-in exceptions, and more.

37. How To Write Your Own Software Using Python

Author: Steven F. Lott, 2008

The book will help you build basic programming skills. It is organized in a way that builds up the language in layers from simple concepts to more advanced features. Programming exercises are provided to encourage further exploration of each layer.

38. The Python Language Reference Manual

Author: Guido Van Rossum

Publisher: Network Theory Ltd., 2003

The definitive language reference for Python. It describes the syntax of Python and its built-in datatypes. It covers advanced topics, and is suitable for readers who are familiar with the details and rules of the Python and its object system.

39. Data Structures and Algorithms with Object-Oriented Design Patterns in Python

Author: Bruno R. Preiss, 2004

The primary goal of this book is to promote object-oriented design using Python and to illustrate the use of the emerging object-oriented design patterns. The book shows how these patterns are used to create good software designs.

40. Think Python: An Introduction to Software Design

Author: Allen Downey

Publisher: Green Tea Press, 2008

A concise introduction to software design using Python. Intended for people with no programming experience, this book starts with the most basic concepts and gradually adds new material. The goal is to teach you to think like a computer scientist.

41. Learn to Program Using Python

Author: Alan Gauld

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2000

Book for hobbyists, self-starters, and all who want to learn the art of computer programming in Python. Data types and variables, debugging, and namespaces are covered. Also includes sample applications that illustrate ideas and techniques in action.

42. Introduction to Programming using Python

Author: K. Schuerer, et al.

Publisher: Pasteur Institute, 2008

This text teaches programming concepts to biologists. It is aimed at people who are not professional computer scientists, but who need a better control of computers for their own research. This course is part of a course in informatics for biology.

43. Text Processing in Python

Author: David Mertz

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2003

A hands-on tutorial that teaches how to accomplish numerous text processing tasks using Python. Filled with examples, the book provides efficient solutions to specific text processing problems and strategies for all text processing challenges.

44. A Byte of Python (for Python 3.0)

Author: Swaroop C H, 2008

This is a tutorial and a guide on Python programming for absolute beginners. If all you know about computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you. The book is updated for the upcoming Python 3.0 language.

45. Non-Programmers Tutorial For Python

Author: Josh Cogliati

Publisher: Wikibooks, 2005

This free tutorial is designed to be an introduction to the Python programming language. The guide is for someone with no programming experience. The author attempts to teach programming by reading code and writing code.

46. Building Skills in Python

Author: Steven F. Lott, 2008

This book is a complete presentation of the Python for professional programmers who need to learn the language. The author leads you from a tiny, easy to understand subset of statements to the entire Python language and all built-in data structures.

47. Python Standard Library

Author: Fredrik Lundh

Publisher: O’Reilly, 2001

A large collection of useful Python scripts, the best parts of comp.lang.python newsgroup messages, plus hundreds of new scripts. The text covers the standard library, the examples should work on most platforms and Python versions.

48. GUI Programming with Python: QT Edition

Author: Boudewijn Rempt

Publisher: OpenDocs, LLC, 2002

This book covers application development using the library extension PyQt, which forms the basis for GUI programming. First part explains concepts using small examples, in the second part the author develops a complete, complex application.

49. Dive Into Python

Author: Mark Pilgrim

Publisher: Apress, 2004

This is a book for experienced programmers, a hands-on guide to the Python language. Each chapter starts with a complete code sample, picks it apart and explains the pieces, and then puts it all back together in a summary at the end.

50. An Introduction to Python

Author: Guido van Rossum

Publisher: Network Theory Ltd., 2006

This book is an introduction to Python, an easy to learn, powerful programming language. The tutorial explains the basics of the Python, it does not cover every single feature of the language, but introduces the most noteworthy features.

51. Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

Author: Albert Sweigart

Publisher: Albert Sweigart, 2008

A programming book for kids interested in learning to program their own computer games with python, a serious computer language which is used by professional programmers also. The book explains programming principles from the source code examples.

Free online e-book: Build your own Lisp

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Quote from the book – “Mike Tyson – Your typical Lisp user” 🙂

If you’re looking to learn C, or you’ve ever wondered how to build your own programming language, this is the book for you.

FREE shipping on all orders to Bulgaria above EUR 30 :-)

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Many may have noticed this, but now is time to make some buzz 🙂

We quietly implemented FREE shipping option for all orders from Bulgaria which are with value above EUR 30.

When you enter in your basket items for more than EUR 30 on checkout page you will have one more shipping option: Free economy shipping (2 working days delivery) by Speedy which cost 0 BGN. Of course if you are in hurry you can still select the paid Speedy express shipping option (1 working day delivery), or to do local pickup from our office.

 

Friday Free Board Quiz – Week #75 prize is BB-A4983 motor driver

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BB-A4983 is stepper motor driver for 2A up to 35V motors.

You have chance to win the prize if you participate our Quiz.

To participate in the Quiz is enough to Re-tweet the Quiz announcement message.

To double your chances you have to answer the Quiz question :)

Today at 17.00 o’clock our local Bulgarian time (GMT+2) we will post on Twitter our questions.

You have one hour to reply to our tweet with the correct answer.

At 18.00 o’clock we will count the correct answers and ask random.org to generate random number in range then announce the winner and ship the board by airmail on Monday.

Free ebooks collection for programming and electronics

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http://www.freebookcentre.net/

Collection of Hundreds of free ebooks for: Computer Science, Languages, Java/Advanced Java, Unix/Linux, Web Technology, Database Systems, Networking, Electronics, Graphics Tools, Mobile Technology, Medical, Mathematics, Physics Books, Hardware Buses, Chemistry Books, Biology Books, Law Books, Electronics Engineering, Business and Finance, Fiction.

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