Simple Stick - An Overview

Simple Stick - An Overview

Simple Stick

The Simple Stick is a USB stick format electronics prototyping board based on the Popular Arduino Leonardo board. It is based on the ATmega32u4 micro controller and can be programmed using Arduino IDE without any modification. The ATmega32u4 comes with build in USB communication and so the board works without a dedicated controller for USB communication. This also opens up the possibility of the board to become a HID device like a mouse, keyboard, etc (loads of fun experimentation! ;) ) The board comes with on-board peripherals that can introduce the beginner to the world of electronics and microcontroller programming and go on to building interesting projects - game controllers, media remotes, etc.

Heres an introduction video

Features

Microcontroller	ATmega32u4
Operating Voltage	5V
Input Voltage (recommended)	5V
Digital I/O Pins	20 [18 of this are brought out in the headers / 2 are dedicatedly allocated for the IR received and IR transmitter]
PWM Channels	7[only 6 are available for the user. the 7th one has been allocated for the IR led]
Analog Input Channels	10[2 of these again used by the IRs]
DC Current per I/O Pin	40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin	50 mA
Flash Memory	32 KB (ATmega32u4) of which 4 KB used by bootloader
SRAM	2.5 KB (ATmega32u4)
EEPROM	1 KB (ATmega32u4)
Clock Speed	16 MHz

Hardware on-board

The following is a list of hardware on-board with their respective pin numbers on the Simple Stick

LED 1 (red)    : Pin 5 (PWM)

LED 2 (blue)   : Pin 10 (PWM)

LED 3 (white)  : Pin 13 (PWM)

TACTILE SWITCH :  Pin 11

IR LED : Pin 9 (PWM)

TSOP   : Pin 8

LEDS

There are three LEDs on the Simple Stick (red, blue and white) connected to pins 5, 10 and 13 respectively. Every LED is connected to the micro-controller with a 470 ohm resistor in series, to limit the amount of current flowing through it. 

Tactile Switch

The tactile switch on Pin 11 is to be used in active-low mode[give a HIGH logic when not being pressed and a LOW logic when pressed]. The Internal Pull-up resistor of the micro-controller should be enabled to use the switche. To Enable the internal pullup resistor, use the pinMode(8,INPUT_PULLUP) function.

TSOP

The TSOP SM0038 is an IR receiver. The TSOP will help you to interface remotes with your Simple Stick and in the Process learn the basics of Wireless Communication. The TSOP is connected to pin digital 8.

IR LED

The IR LED is connected to pin 9. Using this, you can simulate remote control signals for various devices. [You can build universal remotes using the Simple Stick] You can also use this along with the TSOP and build a simple low-cost wireless communication system. An NPN transistor(IN2222A) switches the IR LED through a 10 ohm resistor.

External Hardware Interface
In Addition to the On-Board Hardware, The Simple Stick comes with interfaces for interfacing External Hardware. 

LCD Interface

The Simple Stick comes with a Simple Interface to Plug an LCD directly onto the Simple Stick. The LCD interface is designed to work with 4-bit mode only. This interface will work with most 16 bit LCDs using the following Pin Mapping. 

 A Fixed 1K resistor is used for Contrast.

LCD PIN MAPPING: (4-bit mode only)

RS  -> PIN 3

RW -> PIN 2

E    -> PIN 0

D4  -> PIN 1

D5  -> PIN 4

D6  -> PIN 12

D7  -> PIN 6

Downloads

You can download Libraries & Sample codes for the Simple Stick here -> Click Here to Download Simple Stick Sample Codes & Required Libraries[Right Click & use Save As]