Low-cost acquisition and development board. An open source hardware proposal

This paper presents the features of a 45mm × 45mm board based on an 8-bit AVR RISC Microcontroller (MCU) with direct Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. It can be assembled for only 12 dollars and aims to become an open source hardware project. The board has a 10-bit Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), with 8 multiplexed channels and can capture up to 15,000 Samples per second (Sps). Such properties can support the development of a wide range of instruments such as thermometers, electromyographs, electrocardiographs, spirometers, stethoscopes, &c. Its architecture allows signal processing by implementing digital filters and its USB direct interface minimizes the restrictions for proper communication with other devices. Some additional features are the 48-pin In/Out (I/O), the Universal Synchronous and Asynchronous Serial Receiver and Transmitter (UART), the 2-wire Serial Interface (TWI), the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) and the 16 touch channels, among others.

I. Introduction

During the design, development, implementation and testing of electronic prototyping, students and professionals have to get over through a series of logical difficulties of the profession, that are multiplied when there are not enough tools to develop the project. Within these tools it is possible to find the acquisition and development boards, among other things, in order to minimize the hardware assembly tasks for evaluation and initial tests, reducing the efforts to implement the code.