Canterbury Earthquake

This is a quick update to let you know what is happening with regard to this on-going event.

• We are all OK and so is our office. 
• The staff and families of our extended network of contractors and suppliers we have been able to contact so far (which is most of them) are also fine.   Power is still out to a lot of the city, so we have not been able to contact everyone yet.
• We have heard there is damage to our Contract Manufacturers buildings, and will be updated on that next week.  There will be delays for production, but we can’t say much beyond that right now.
• Couriers are not operating so we are unable to ship orders this week.  Our courier is operating so we can ship orders placed via the web site.
• We are still attending Embedded World in Germany next week. 

Picking and choosing: Getting the mix of features right when designing with the Topaz i.MX25 CPU Module

The Freescale i.MX25 is at the heart of the Topaz CPU Module. This chip multiplexes it’s many features to a much smaller number of pins, which can give you a headache when trying to get the right combination for a design.

While all the information you need is in the data sheet, Freescale have a tool which makes this task a lot easier!  The IOMux tool can be downloaded from the i.MX25 tools page on the Freescale web site.  Go here and search for “pin mux tool”.

Once you have this downloaded and running, download and open the Topaz file from here.  This defines all the pins used on the Topaz CPU module, so you know that any free signals are available for you to use.  The IOMux tool looks like this:

To use the tool, just select the features you need in your design.  The tool will show pins in use as yellow, and conflicts as orange.  With a bit of trial and error you should be able to come up with a combination that works for your product.

We have found this a useful tool when communicating with customers about their exact requirements and it is an easy way to document your design.

Embedded World 2011

It’s that time of the year again, and we will be at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany as part of the .NET Micro Framework Partners booth.

The trade show is open from Tuesday 1 March until Thursday 3 March.  Come by and visit us on booth 11-F119 (in the foyer near the food) or contact us to arrange a meeting time.

Keeping in touch

2010 was a busy year, and we didn’t always do a great job of keeping everyone up-to-date on the happenings at Device Solutions.  It’s a new year and as good a time as any to change that!  There are a lot of different ways to interact with companies these days, and we want your input on where we should focus our attention.  Vote away…

UPDATE: .NET Micro Framework on Topaz

While the blog may have been quiet, we have been working away on getting the .NET Micro Framework running on the Topaz CPU module and Development kit.  We have managed applications running with output on the LCD.  Download and debug is via serial for now.

Before we get this out to anyone there is some more testing to be done and a couple more drivers to add to make it useful.  This is our priority after returning from a short Christmas/Summer break!

If you would like to be added to the list to receive the alpha release, please contact us here.

Rich Media Extensions for MFW 4.1

Innobedded have updated their Rich Media Extensions component suite to support v4.1 of the .NET Micro Framework.

The graphics and touch performance has improved in this version.

A demo is available for download, and they have pricing for commercial and non-commercial projects.

Interview with Colin Miller

Scott Hanselman has posted an interview with Colin Miller, Product Unit Manager for the .NET Micro Framework.

Colin talks about the history of the Micro Framework from the beginnings as part of the SPOT watch project, through to the decision to make it  open source.

A bit of a shake up…

We are located very near to the Earthquake that struck Christchurch on Saturday morning local time. No-one was hurt, but things are a bit of a mess. Please excuse us if we take a little longer to get back to your enquiries.

Be more productive on the road (or the couch)

While this is not one of our products, it is “micro” and will make you more productive.  It is a new mouse designed for laptops, and comes from Swiftpoint, a startup company based in Christchurch, NZ.  I have had mine for a couple of weeks and I’m really impressed!   The video explains the features better than I can:



And no, I’m not an investor in this company – just a fan of the product!

New Windows CE release for Topaz

GuruCE have released an update for their Windows CE support on Topaz.

The new update includes a fully configurable GPIO driver and updated SDK libraries.  There is also access to CAN, SPI and GPT drivers from your application.

The update page includes an image you can flash into your Topaz (using the Topaz Flasher application), a getting started guide, and a binary Board Support Package (BSP) which you can use to create a custom Windows CE image.  GuruCE can also support the BSP in source form along with custom development services and support.  Pricing for these options is on the GuruCE Topaz web page.