TEN-TEC launched a new QRP transceiver based upon a *completely different *platform than any other rigs they have in production: a QRP radio, built on the chipKIT Uno32™ (Arduino-based software) to be known as the Model 506 Rebel.

The TEN-TEC Rebel model 506 transceiver is designed with the purpose of providing Ham Radio operators a platform for developing and writing code using the open-source Arduino programming environment. It is a factory

Overview

This post is intended to demonstrate compatibility of the chipKIT Pi with certain existing Arduino shields. In the second part of this post, we will also demonstrate how to communicate with the chipKIT Pi over a simple I/O line on the Raspberry Pi®, from a terminal window, to control the Arduino™ shield connected to the chipKIT Pi.

Hardware/Software Needed

• Raspberry Pi: http://www.raspberrypi.org/
• chipKIT Pi:  http://www.element14.com/community/community/knode/dev_platforms_kits/element14_dev_kits/microchip-chipkit/chipkit_pi
• Arduino Motor Control Shield or other: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoMotorShieldR3

Watch while Marc McComb of Microchip Technology provides an overview of the new chipKIT Pi Expansion Board for the Raspberry Pi®. The board was co-developed by element14 and Microchip to enable anyone to easily create 3V Arduino™ compatible applications for their Raspberry Pi, using a 32-bit, high-performance PIC32 MCU in a prototyping-friendly package. Marc, an admin of this site, manages the academic and chipKIT Embedded Platform programs for Microchip.

Overview:

In this tutorial, the standard "Hello World" program (blinking LED) is used to help familiarize you with the chipKIT DP32 board and how it will interface with  the Multi-Platform Integrated Development Environment (MPIDE) and basic language functions.  

Reference:

During the course of this tutorial, various terms will be referenced including:

• Sketch
• Function
• Variable
• HIGH and LOW
• INPUT and OUTPUT

We recommend that you read the following sections on the Arduino™ homepage to get a better understanding of these terms:

• sketch: http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Sketch
• Digital I/O: http://playground.arduino.cc//CourseWare/DigitalIO

Congratulations to all the talented students who participated in the 2014 Digilent Design Contest Worldwide Finals, held in Shanghai this past August. The first prize was awarded to Eugene Babkin, Bijan Bayat Mokhtari, and Angjelo Kuka of the New York City College of Technology for their tele-operated bi-manual augmented system (TOBiAS), a humanoid robot based on the chipKIT embedded platform. Read more about the finals in this blog post by Alex Wong of Digilent.