The MikroBus.Net RAM Board Brings Six Sockets, 32MB of Flash to Embedded C# Developers
With six fully-functional mikroBUS sockets, 24 GPIO pins, a real-time clock, SD/MMC storage, and 32MB of flash, the RAM is impressive.
Embedded C# developer Christophe Gerbier has launched a crowdfunding campaign for the MikroBus.Net RAM, a amped-up successor to his earlier Quail development board design that increases the number of mikroBUS sockets to an impressive six.
"The MikroBus.Net RAM board is the worthy successor of our flagship board: The Quail. This board is running NETMF 4.4 on a STM32F4 MCU and is still alive," Gerbier writes of the project. "But despite its qualities, time has passed and it needed a complete renewal with the latest technologies available."
"Four mikroBUS sockets were sometimes not enough to prototype some projects. This time, we give you six sockets ! This should be enough for the most demanding projects. To drive such a huge number of sockets, we are now using an STM32H7 chip, powered by GHI TinyCLR 2.0 — a fast and secure OS that brings a subset of .Net Framework to the embedded world."
The board itself includes the aforementioned six mikroBUS sockets, each of which includes SPI, I2C, PWM, analog input, UART, and general-purpose input/output capabilities, USB and USB/Serial debugging compatible with Visual Studio, an SD/MMC card slot, built-in Ethernet networking, USB Host and Client functionality, a real-time clock (RTC) with CR2023 battery backup, CAN support, 24 GPIO pins with SPI, I2C, UART, and power, and 32MB of flash memory — the latter giving it its well-earned "RAM" moniker.
With the few bugs found in the initial prototype now resolved, Gerbier is looking to build the board in volume through a crowdfunding campaign: €160 gets a RAM board with screw headers, with delivery expected in January 2021.
More information can be found on the project's Kickstarter page.
