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HCS12: MiniDRAGON+ Development Board

*****  New rev. F board is available now *****

The price of the MiniDRAGON+ for students and schools is $99.00 after a $20.00 discount.

The price includes what are shown on above picture, the MiniDragon+ board, a solderless breadboard, a re-tractable RS232 cable and a CD.
We will probably include two 6-pin IDC connectors in most orders if we have them in stock, so a user can make a 6-pin BDM cable in the future.  But this is not guaranteed, and if you really need a BDM cable for your application it can be bought for $3.00.

For customers in US and Canada, you will also receive a free 110V AC adapter.

The new MiniDragon+ 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 be snapped off so 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+ is a good choice.

The new rev F board provides a wirewrap area with a few SMD footprints beneath the breadboard. It allows a user to make custom embedded circuits.  If you would like to have on-board features such RF transceiver, Real Time Clock with battery backup, Temperature sensor, DPDT relay and H-Bridge motor driver, then you should consider the MiniDragon Plus2 board.

The new rev. F board also provides LCD connection and keypad interface. These features make the new  MiniDRAGON+ 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.2
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 not available on the rev. F board.
7. The phone jack on the new MiniDragon+ rev. F board is a standard 6P4C modular jack, not a 4P4C handset jack. So the new re-tractable cable is not compatible with the old one. You cannot plug the new cable into the old MiniDragon+ board.  If you plug an old cable to the new board, it won't make good connections.

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

Features:

• RJ11 modular jack and 6-foot re-tractable RS232 cable for connecting the SCI0 to a PC com port
• 110V AC adapter to power the board (US and Canada orders only)
• CD with example programs in source code
• 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 with a 6-in BDM cable (included in price) to convert this board into a 9S12 BDM or a 9S12 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
• Low cost and high performance
• 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
• RF transmitter module
• RF receiver module
• X-Y-Z accelerometer module for Mechatronic applications

There are two other compact development boards on the market now. One is the HCS12 T-board from Germany and another one is the Adapt9s12DP256 of Technological Arts from Canada.

They are all high quality boards and each of them has own unique features, but our board will give you another choice if your budget is small. All three boards have the same MCU, the same 16 MHz crystal, basically the same hardware circuits and use the same Freescale's D-bug12 monitor, so all software can run on these boards with the same results. Whoever has a more efficient way to manufacture the board will be able to offer a better price. Fortunately Wytec has been in business since 1987 and we can produce the board at the lowest cost possible.

For a product designed for university students, the cost is very important, but it does not mean that we will sacrifice the quality. Our mission is to make quality products at low cost and the quality is still our number one concern. For instance, the regular RS232 DB9 cable is too bulky and too stiff for our HCS12 MiniDragon+^tm. You move the DB9 cable a little bit, it moves your whole prototype chaotically. When debugging your robot application, a light weight cable can be moved along with your little robot, but the regular DB9 cable can't. We did not compromise for low cost and therefore selected a more expensive 6-foot light weight cable.  Only with a light weight RS232 cable, our board can be considered as a true compact development board.

The board is small, but we still managed to include some peripheral functions on it and you can create quite a bit of application programs without any extra hardware.

Pictured above:  A MiniDragon+/FH with breadboard removed.

Pictured above:  A MiniDragon+/FH next to a MiniIO expansion card, plus keypad, LCD and the 3-axis TinyBee accelerometer.

The price of the MiniDRAGON+ for students and schools is $99.00 after a $20.00 discount.

If you are a business, you should understand that the $119.00 is still a better value compared to other boards on the market today. The $99.00 is not much above our cost, when you pay $119.00 you actually support us to provide the discount for the educational purpose, a very good cause.

For students and school classrooms, the MiniDRAGON+/FH 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 only $99.00, you will be able to get your hands-on experience on the Freescale's most advanced 16 bit microcontroller.