ZIO Motherboard

Price: Rs. 2940.00
Code: ZIO-R1A

Description

ZIO is an IO framework for rapid product development. ZIO Motherboard is a USB device that provides access to IO interfaces like GPIO, Sensor, PWM, I2C and SPI. ZIO comes with an API that can be used to access the IO interfaces provided by the motherboard, from the PC.

Applications

Rapid embedded application prototyping
Hobby electronics
Teaching and learning electronics
Building robot prototypes
Development of PC based embedded systems
Low speed data acquisition
Testing and debugging boards, I2C, SPI peripherals, etc.

Features

The ZIO Motherboard offers the following features

Connects to PC through USB
Powered by TI's Stellaris LM3S3748 (ARM Cortex-M3 core)
Interfaces: GPIO, Sensor Input, PWM Output, I2C, SPI
Powered by Open Source software.
Host-side API for programming the ports
APIs available for Java and Python
API documentation for easy reference
Port interfacing guidelines for common scenarios
GUI based Control Panel to explore the board
On-field firmware upgrade through USB
OS Support: Windows XP/Vista, GNU/Linux - Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora

RJ12 Ports

All the IO interfaces are available on RJ12 ports. ZIO comes along with the following add-ons to simplify working with RJ12 ports.

RJ12 cables
RJ12 to Bread Board (Break-out)
RJ12 to Phoenix Connectors

Documentation

ZIO is backed by extensive documentation in the form of manuals, API reference and tutorials. The currently available documentation is listed below.

I/O Interfaces

The I/O interfaces supported by ZIO, and their usage is listed below.

GPIO

GPIOs can be used for wide variety of purposes

Controlling LEDs
Digitally controlling switches
Reading switch status
Creating simple sensors
Bit-banging other communication protocols
Constructing IR receivers

Sensor and PWM

Sensor module is an Analog to Digital Converter. Simple resistive sensors like LDRs, thermistors, can be easily connected to the Sensor port. It is also possible to connect powered sensors that generate a voltage output.

The PWM module can be used to generate PWM signals. PWM signals can be used for LED brightness control, DC motor speed control, servo motor control.

I2C and SPI

I2C is a bi-directional two-wire (data and clock) serial bus that provides a communication link between integrated circuits. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is an inexpensive chip interconnection bus, popular on circuit boards. Some common I2C and SPI devices are listed below.

OLED and LCD Displays
IO Expanders
Real-time Clocks
Hardware monitors
Sensors: temperature, pressure, touchscreens, ADCs
Memory: NVRAM, Flash, EEPROMs
Control Devices: Digital Potentiometers, DACs, PWM controllers

I2C and SPI usage in temp. sensor, RTC, EEPROM, Fan control, LCD

Open Source Software

ZIO is powered by Open source software. We provide source code for all the software components under the GNU LGPL. The various software components and their sources are listed below.

API Support

ZIO currently can be accessed from Java and Python. Moreover the protocol is completely documented and is available as part of the agent source code. So it should be pretty straight forward to implement APIs in other languages. We welcome ZIO users to contribute bindings to their favourite language.

ZIO Control Panel

ZIO comes along with a Control Panel application that allows, most of the functionality to be accessed from within the GUI. The application is written using Python and GTK+. The GUI application allows API discovery by displaying the Java and Python code, corresponding to the last performed operation.

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ZIO Software CD-ROM

Download ISO: ZIO Software CD 1.1
Browse CD-ROM Contents: ZIO Software 1.1