MonkeyBoard

MonkeyBUS - PIC18F14K50 Development Board

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Overview

 

board

The MonkeyBUS is an open source microcontroller development board designed for hobbyists and engineers to easily develop prototypes.  This board is based on the Microchip USB PIC18F14K50 with nanoWatt XLP Technology and is also compatible with the original Microchip Low Pin Count USB Development KIT DM164127; meaning most of the example code from the development kit will be able to run on this board.  

It has a USB V2.0 compliant (Full Speed 12Mb/s & Low Speed 1.5Mb/s) connector, 13 digital input/output pins in total, of which can be used as PWM, MSSP (SPI or I2C), EUSART (RS232 TTL), 10 bit ADC, comparators and SR latch.  It also features external power source, USB power source (5V or 3.3V selectable), direct HD44780 LCD module plugin, 4 LEDs, ICSP programming port and a 10K potentiometer.


Simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or an external power source (3.3V / 5V) to get started.  Microchip's USB bootloader is also preinstalled, user will be able to program the board directly using the USB cable.

 

Board Dimension

board with ruler
80 mm x 36 mm (identical size as a HD44780 16x2  LCD module)

 

What can you do with it?

  • Build HID devices for example customised mouse, keyboard, joystick
  • Interface your microcontroller to USB interface
  • Build your own protocol converter to translate between I2C, SPI or RS232 to USB
  • Build your own WinAMP LCD spectrum analyser
board with lcd
Example connecting a 16x2 HD44780 LCD module directly to the board.  (LCD module and connector shown are not included)

 

board with stackablepin
Example of stackable pin headers placed on the board.  (Pin headers shown are not included, can be purchased from Little Bird Electronics)

 

board with winamp


Example of LCD driver for LCD Smartie & WINAMP, download example C source code from USB Serial to HD44780 LCD Tutorial ,
WINAMP Plugin on http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net/winampplugin.html (LCD shown is not included)
 

Features Summary

board with description

 

Dimension 80 mm x 36 mm (identical size as a HD44780 16x2  LCD module)
Microcontroller PIC18F14K50
USB Bootloader Microchip USB bootloader installed
Operating Voltage 3.3VDC – 5.5VDC
USB V2.0 1
Total I/O

  • Analog to Digital Converter                                      
  • Master Synchronous Serial Port (MSSP)             
  • Pulse width modulation (PWM)                             
  • Comparators
  • HD44780 LCD Interface
  • LED
 13

10 bit resolution, 9 channels
SPI, I2C, RS232 TTL
1 source driving 1, 2, 3 or 4 pins
2
1
4
EEPROM 256 bytes
FLASH 16K
SRAM 768 bytes
ICSP Programming Port 1

 

Schematic & Getting Started

Schematic and user manual can be downloaded from http://www.monkeyboard.org/getting-started

 

Demo Software from MonkeyBoard

Open source demo software with C source code can be downloaded from github, refer to Tutorials on http://www.monkeyboard.org for details.

 

Microchip Demo Software

Microchip demo software with C source code can be downloaded from Microchip website, refer to Getting Started on http://www.monkeyboard.org for details.

 

Example screenshots from Microchip's demos

 

midi demo
MIDI Demo

 

usb serial demo
USB to Serial Demo

 

joystick demo
Joystick Demo

 

highbandwidthWinUSB demo
High Bandwidth WinUSB Demo


 

Packing List

  • 1 unit of MonkeyBUS PIC18F14K50 Development Board
  • 1 unit of 3x2 pin header
  • 1 unit of pin header jumper

 

Pre-installed Software

  • Microchip's USB bootloader (programming the board using a normal USB cable)
  • HID Mouse demo software (when connected to a PC, the mouse cursor will move in circle, press the push button to stop/start the mouse movement)