These general-purpose programmable boards have been designed to offer a more flexible platform that is suitable for a range of levels of software development experience, ranging from beginners at school to professional design engineers.
Gadget Renesas is a project concept developed by Renesas and links ideas and electronics by providing boards that enable rapid prototyping and the sharing of ideas via its online community. It can be used to develop projects across a range of applications in industrial, consumer and office automation, as well as in robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The GR-SAKURA-II and GR-SAKURA-II-FULL development boards are based on the 32-bit RX63N microcontroller, specifically the R5F563NBDDFP in a 100-pin QFP package, with 1MB flash memory, 128KB RAM FPU and data flash of 32KB. The MCU operates at 3.3V and has a frequency of 96MHz (using an external 12MHz XO) with sub-clock speed of 32.768kHz.
The RX63N microcontrollers are also supported by development software including a compiler online via the Renesas website, as well as software for developing Android smartphone applications.
The GR-SAKURA platform offers an Arduino compatible board footprint with C++ template and libraries and has Arduino UNO compatible pin-headers ready for use with Arduino shields. The boards also offer 51 GPIO pins, six analogue input pins, micro-SD jacket, XBee wireless module header footprints, JTAG interface, +5V DC power jack, user and reset switches, an Arduino Shield interface, and a range of interfaces including JTAG, mini-B USB-host connector and Ethernet.
The GR-SAKURA-II standard version is part populated with interface connectors, whereas the GR-SAKURA-FULL is fully populated with connectors, including: shield headers, RJ-45 Ethernet LAN connector, JTAG header, +5V DC power supply jack socket and a micro-SD card slot.
