■ HARDWARE ■ SOFTWARE ■ GADGETS ■ TOOLS
ing, and undo/redo. The IDE can also be used to perform
field updates of the ZX-1281’s internal firmware, making it
simple to upgrade to
new firmware releases
as they become available.
For more information, contact:
Elba Corporation
Web: www.zbasic.net
NEW PROTOTYPING-FRIENDLY ZX
MICROCONTROLLERS
Oak Micros announces two new microcontrollers based on
the ZX microcontroller platform. The ZX-128e and ZX-1281e
are based on their namesake Atmel AVR ATmega128 and AT-
mega1281 devices and include a preprogrammed ZBasic Virtual Machine from Elba Corporation. These devices are suitable for
the hobbyist and professional alike and provide a powerful, easy
to use platform for scientific and industrial control applications.
The new ZX-128e/ZX1281e are similar to the successful
Oak Micros ZX-24e/ZX-24ae devices and have a prototyping
and breadboard friendly 40-pin dual in-line format that features 32 I/O pins, true voltage level RS-232 transceiver, slide
switch to choose between RS-232 and logic voltage levels for
serial channel one, LED monitoring on two I/O pins, and a five
volt regulator and power monitor LED.
By utilizing the base features of the AVR microcontrollers,
these new devices offer a second hardware serial port and four
additional PWM channels. Up to 60K bytes of ZBasic program
code can be stored in the AVR Flash
memory, which as a side benefit provides read protection of user programs
and is 20% faster than the previous
devices that used 32K bytes of EEPROM.
A RAM daughter card allows user programs to address over 63K of RAM for
program variables, task stacks, and heap
storage. This is an increase from the previous 3.5K bytes that was available for
the ZX-24ae device and permits these
new devices to be used in RAM intensive applications such as web servers
and data collection/management
engines. The single unit pricing of the
ZX-128e is $69.95 and the ZX-1281e is
$79.95. Volume pricing is available.
“These new ZBasic devices together with the ZX-1281 provide a wide
range of options and choices for customers” said Donald Kinzer, President
of Elba Corporation. “Oak Micros is a
strong partner and provides many useful
ideas and help to improve and extend
the ZBasic platform. A recent ZBasic
application note on RS-485 networking,
written by Oak Micros, utilizes the powerful multi-tasking capabilities of the
ZBasic platform to support master-slave
data transfers up to 460,800 baud.”
The ZX-128e and
ZX-1281e are also
programmed using
the ZBasic programming language.
For more information,
contact:
Oak Micros
Web: www.oakmicros.com
CRYSTAL EAR-PIECE
TRANSISTOR AMPLIFIER KIT
Anew amp from The Xtal Set Socity is designed specifically
to drive a crystal earphone, which is capacitive. Maximum
gain is set at 14x. The input is capacitively coupled and includes
a 100K pot, ideal as a load for a crystal set and as a volume control. All components mount on the 2 x 2-inch PCB, including
nine-volt battery holder and nine-volt clip with wires. Battery and
audio cables/connectors are not included. Interconnect wiring
can be soldered directly to the PCB pads. Assembly time is ~ 45
minutes. Price is $19.95. The XS-EAK Ear Piece Transistor Amplifier Kit is $19.95 plus $4.95 shipping/handling.
Orders may be placed via the website catalog.
For more information, contact:
The Xtal Set Society
PO Box 3636, Lawrence, KS 66046
Tel: 405-517-7347
Email: xtalset@sunflower.com
Web: www.midnightscience.com
May 2007 31
