Particles Info Page

The Principle

Within the Particle Computer System there are 4 classes of hardware boards (see devices section) coming in different configuration (and therefore have different names):

• Core or Communication Boards: Examples are Boards named Particles (low power RF communication), µPart (micro sender-only node), cPart (low-power RF), Part-c (low-power RF), Blueticle (Bluetooth), zPart (ZigBee)
• Additional Boards: Sensor Boards (named sensor, ssimp, µsens), Break- and Protoboards (named breakout, proto, miniproto, microproto, µproto), Actuator-Boards (named LCD)
• Interconnect Boards: Bridge Boards (named XBridge, USB Bridge), serial communication boards (name Serial Board)
• Development Boards: Programming Adapters (named programming adapter , ICU adapter, µ), Power Board (name power board) Test Board (named test board)

Core Boards contain the basic operation for a Particle (the program, operating functionality). To start a wireless network you only need two of these boards to let them communicate to each other. Input and output (altough some of the core boards contain basic input/output functionality) can be added by using one of the additional boards. Additional boards are stacked to the Particle using the Particle Connector (for the Particles, cPart, Part-c, Blueticle, zPart) or using the uPart connector (only for µPart, µSens, µproto). You can combine any core with any additional board you like (execpt for µ-type boards that can only combined with µ type boards).

For your application you may select one of Particle types based on the communication system or standard that fit you best and then select additional sensor and actuator boards needed for you application.

Other additional boards provide you with the ability to extend the hardware: Using either the breakout, proto, mini... protoboards (they are all similar, some come with more, others with less features, but all give you full access to the Particle Connector Bus) you can solder your own sensors/actuators/other circuits to the particle system and feed informtion to the particle core or get out information from the particle.

Interconnect Boards provide you with the ability receive information from particles and send information to particles from other networks or devices, e.g. the Internet/Ethernet (using a XBridge, USBBridge), your Laptop or PDA (using the USBBridge or the serial board). Except for the serial boards, interconnect boards come with pre-installed software and (in case of USB) with drivers as ready-to-run components (They can, of course, be programmed, but you don't need to).

Development boards are needed for all development that can not simply be done using the PC-tools and help you while soft- and hardware development for your Particles. Example are Flashing new OS versions or low-level programming and debugging(you need the programming adapter(s) for that). To test if you hardware still works you need a test adapter, for powering the particles without battery you may want to use the power adapter as a constant power supply.

The Matrix

Particle Core Boards

Note: AwareCon contains ConCom at the upper layers

What do I need for starting?

It depends.

A very minimum set could be

• One or more Core boards
• One USB or one XBridge
• One Programming Adapter (+ a ICD Adapter if you use the CCS-ICD and not a Programmer with DIL Interface) and one Test-Board
• A Flash-Programmer for PICS (if you don't have already one), e.g. Galep IV (Farnell order number 871011 (continental Europe), 874358 (UK); NewarkInOne (US) order number 69C0621. There are many other devices around. To be useful for Particle development they should support the Microprocessor-type used in your Particle (see the matrix above). This allows you to rewrite the Firmware of the Microcontroller in case wireless programming does not work anymore and to upgrade the Firmware.

This set allows you to send and receive packets. If you have a Core boards with integrated sensors you can use them to sense something and send out the information over the wireless network to other Particles or to your PC. If your Core comes with an integrated actuator you can react on event sent out by other Particles or your PC. You can also do things like ad-hoc routing networks etc. where you do not see/hear anything and where you do not need any input into the system.

A more interesting set for research on sensor input and context awareness could be this

• The minimum set as above
• One or more Sensor boards