This product has been discontinued

The price of the MiniDRAGON+USB for students and schools is $109.00 after a $20.00 discount.

The price includes the MiniDragon+/FH-USB board, a solderless breadboard and a USB cable.
For customers in US and Canada, you will also receive a free switching power AC adapter.

The new MiniDragon+USB board is good for someone who would like to use it as a core module and add own external circuits for his project.  The 26-pin male header on the top of the PC board can be connected to a target circuit via a ribbon cable or a female receptacle connector. Also the wirewrap area can be used to construct some custom embedded circuits or snapped off to make the board even smaller (3.25" x 3.35") to fit into a smaller robot.  It does not include servo connectors and H-Bridges, but it's good to be used as a general trainer board and a general controller when small size is an important factor.  It can be used as a robot controller, but it's not specially designed for robot applications as our new DragonflyBot Board is. If a professor would like his or her students gain hand-on experience and design own hardware then the MiniDragon+USB is a good choice.

The new rev. H board also provides LCD connection and keypad interface. These features make the new  MiniDRAGON+USB bard a complete low cost trainer as well.

1. The speaker can be driven by timer (PT5) or PWM (PP5).  It defaults for PT5 to be compatible to the rev E board.
2. A header for connecting the TinyBee 3-axis Accelerometer module is provided.
3. When the two jumpers on the J1 (at up left corner) are placed in the "up" positions the 2-pos terminal block T1 can be used as a CAN port if the CAN interface chip is installed at the solder side.
When the two jumpers on the J1 (at up left corner) are placed in the "low" positions the 2-pos terminal block T1 provides VCC and GND for small external circuits.  This is the default setting at factory.
4. If Serial monitor is pre-installed for working with CodeWarrior, the serial monitor uses the left DIP switch of S7 to select RUN or LOAD mode.
5. The 2-pos terminal block T2 (above the DC jack) is used for connecting external 9V.
6. The IR receiver on the rev. E board is no longer available on the rev. G board.
 

Applications:

• Complete stand-alone HCS12 development board
• Micro trainer for students
• Advanced Robot controller
• Possible replacement of the legendary Handyboard designed by MIT's Fred Martin
• Possible replacement of  the legendary Botboard, Botboardplus designed by Marvin Green, Kevin Ross and Karl Lunt
• BDM pod for debugging and programming another development board
• Core module for OEM applications

MiniDragon+USB features:

• USB interface based on the flawless FT232RL for all Windows operating systems
• RGB piranha color LED
• Free 9V 1A switching power supply AC adapter for US and Canadian orders
   
• MC9S12DG256, 256K flash, 12K RAM and 4K EEPROM
• 16 MHz crystal, 8 MHz default bus speed and up to 25MHz bus speed via PLL
• Pre-installed with D-Bug12 monitor (for AsmIDE or EmbeddedGNU) or Serial Monitor ( for CodeWarrior).
• LED operating mode indication (E,J,P,B) on the 7-segment display during power-up, no need to remember jumper setting
• 3 digit diagnostic code on the 7-segment LED during power up to aid troubleshooting
• On-board BDM-in connector to be connected with a BDM from multiple venders for debugging
• On-board BDM-out connector for making this board as a HCS12/9S12 BDM POD programmer. No extra hardware needed.
• 7-segment LED display
• A 2-position DIP switch for selecting one of 4 operating modes in D-Bug12 monitor or RUN/LOAD mode in Serial Monitor. 
• A 2-position DIP switch equivalent jumper for auto-starting four different user application programs in the 256K flash memory
• 2 pushbutton switches
• On-board speaker driven by timer or PWM for alarm, voice and music applications
• On-board potentiometer trimmer pot for analog input
• Reset and program abort buttons
• Small prototyping wire wrap area
• MC9S12DG256 MCU includes the following on_chip peripherals:
  • 3 SPIs
  • 2 SCIs
  • 2 CANs
  • I²C interface
  • 8 16-bit timers
  • 8 PWMs
  • 16-channel 10-bit A/D converter
• All MC9S12DG256 signal pins are accessible on four header connectors and different header configurations available. The header connectors can be male or female.
• 112 Pins, up to 89 I/O-Pins
• Header connector of SCI1 for user's applications
• DC jack for AC adapter or a 2-position terminal block for external battery in robot applications
• 112 pin male headers or female receptacles for all MCU pins
• a 26-pin User Programmable Header for customizing your own interface to your external circuits
• Compatible with Freescal EVB9S12DP256 board
• Like Freescale EVB, supports C and Assembly language source level debugging using Code Warrior
• Support any C compilers and Debuggers, including Imagecraft ICC and NoICE debugger
• Four operating modes: EVB, Jump-to-EEPROM, POD and Boot loader
• A 2-position terminal block connector for CAN2.0 communication or for VCC and Ground 
• Many fully debugged 68HC12 sample programs including source code.
• Includes a test program that reads 4 switches to show their functions on the LED display while playing a song, it shows a number counting-up or counting-down, counting fast or counting slow on the 7-segment LED display, and also allows to change 7-segment LED brightness by adjusting the trimmer pot at the same time
• Fast bus speed up to 25 MHz
• Small PC board size 3.25" X 4.75" or 3.25" X 3.35"

Optional Features:

• LCD display
• 4x4 Keypad
• CAN port
• X-Y-Z accelerometer module for Mechatronic applications

The picture below was taken with the old MiniDragon+ board but the connections for all accessories are the same on the new board

The above picture shows how a MiniIO expansion card, keypad, LCD and the 3-axis TinyBee accelerometer are connected to the MiniDragon+ board.

For using in school classrooms, the MiniDRAGON+/FH-USB is highly recommended, because it provides four 14x2 female headers surrounding the MCU for an easy access to all MCU's I/O pins. Together with the solderless breadboard, it's a complete prototype system for learning HCS12 programming or working on your lab assignments. For $109.00, you will be able to get your hands-on experience on the Freescale's most advanced 16 bit microcontroller.