Makers, developers and electronic enthusiasts may be interested in a new powerful miniature development board in the form of the Grape-Express. Created by an electronics enthusiast Simon, based in Zurich, Switzerland the Grape-Express Mini has been launched by Kickstarter to raise the required funds it needs to make the jump into production.
Simon its creator explains a little more about the inspiration behind the development board and its companion smartphone application. “The cooperation between hardware and software is very important to me. That’s why I came up with the idea to develop the Grape-Express Mini. I wanted to have a board with a sleek design and a lot of power. It should be independent and equipped with the latest technology on the market. The board has to be user-friendly so beginners can easily start a project. “
“The Grape-Express Mini has a lithium-ion battery. The power management controls the charging and discharging of the battery. It is possible to load the board with a Micro USB, connecting or removing the USB will not cause any power interruption. The battery is charged in 20 minutes and supplies power to the board for up to 6 hours. The power management has status LEDs that indicate the state of charge of the battery as well as the mode in which the power management is working. “
Features of the Grape-Express Mini development board include :
– Configured using Simple ASCII Commands
– 32Bit CPU, 128KB RAM, 2MB ROM
– Supports Infrastructure and SoftAp Networking Modes
– Built-in Networking Applications: TCP, UDP, DHCP, DNS, ICMP, ARP, HTTP Client, and FTP Client
– External Antenna Connection
– Security: WEP-128, WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA2-PSK (AES)
– Ultra Low-Power Sleep Mode (4 uA)
– ASCII Command Interface API over UART
– 8051 at 16MHz, 32KB ROM, 24KB SRAM, 256KB flash
– On-Board Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Stack
– Beacon Private Service for Beacon Services
– UART Transparent Service for Serial Data Applications
– GAP, GATT, SM, L2CAP and Integrated Public Profiles
– Create up to Five Public and Four Private Services
Source: Kickstarter
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