Renesas is offering a free development board to those willing to register and give up some information about a potential project. This time it’s the RX62N Demo Kit. The Renesas RX62N is a MCU with the following features: 32-bits, DMA, 9 DSP instructions, Connectable SDRam Interface, 10/100Mbps Ethernet Controller, USB 2.0 with OTG possible, CAN module, AD converter, DA converter, 100MHz max operating frequency, CRC Calculator, plus many more.
The demo board has a lot of interesting features to play with: Ethernet, USB Host/OTG, CAN, LCD, microphone, speakers/audio out, Micro SD, serial port, temperature sensor, and 3-axis accelerometer
To learn more or to register go to the Renesas Promotion Board webpage. The offer is limited to residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico and is good while supplies last.
This is the same board which we posted about in late 2010.
Baystray via the contact form.
Sounded wonderful – until I saw the words “The offer is limited to residents of the United States, Canada and Mexico…”
Oh well- there had to be a catch.
I was lucky enough to get one last time Renesas did this. (They liked Australian’s back then)
The board is a lot of fun to play with. The SPI Wifi add-on from Redpine Signals is definitely worthwhile getting.
Neat, I got one this time around. I’ll have to look for the Redpine Signals module. You wouldn’t happen to have a link, would you?
Also, if you get one of these demo kits, don’t forget to pick up a Companion board or 4 (It’s limit 4) from
Future Electronics.
Ah, found the Wifi thing.
http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/technologies/development-tools/rf-wireless/Pages/8009286-RS-RX62N-2201CC.aspx?IM=0
What’s the development tool-chain for this like? Crippled? Unaffordable?
You can use the ‘High-performance Embedded Workshop’ or ‘IAR Embedded Workbench for Renesas RX’. I prefer HEW for the demo board. HEW I got for free and I don’t know if it would cost anything under normal circumstances. The Renesas site is painful to navigate and I couldn’t find any information I needed. I also have a registered copy of IAR which is 99.00 USD
Links:
http://am.renesas.com/products/tools/ide/ide_hew/index.jsp
http://supp.iar.com/Download/SW/?item=EWRX-EVAL
The demo board is $99 for those who are interested in purchasing one.
http://am.renesas.com/products/tools/introductory_evaluation_tools/renesas_demo_kits/yrdkrx62n/index.jsp
The HEW IDE is in my opinion nothing special. There is nothing that WOWs me and there is nothing that I find disappointing.
I prefer NXP and Cypress over Renesas.
Cypress Creator is free and friendly. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to move up from small micro controllers.
Hi Kevin, Great reply – thanks. It looks like Dave of EEVBlog has reviewed this RX dev board already. The link to Dave’s video is on the RX dev board page you provided the link for.
Interesting you mention Cypress environments. I was looking at the PSoC Creator (for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5) and PSoC Designer (for PSoC 1) just the other day. These PSoC parts are very interesting, especially with what looks like an innovative tool-chain like PSoC Creator. I wonder why they get almost no air play in the hobbyist community?
hey Drone,
I wonder myself why Cypress gets little airtime. I suspect part of it is the actual IC’s are somewhat pricier than many of the other MCU’s around. I started using PSOC last year, and I never want to go back to other micros… To me, its just so cool to be able to design the system with a GUI interface. I think of it like a breadboard, can connect differently, route, change around etc. If need to test something with a clock of say 24 kHz, I just drag a clock on there and tell it 24 KHz, no need to even read the datasheet to find the obscure bit combination to load into some strangely named register. etc etc
I just wish there was a really low cost dev board.
A lot of suppliers seem to be going in the GUI auto code direction now.
Why turn down Cypress PSoC? Well, the Cypress FX3 covers the new Super Speed USB 3, and the FX2LP does 480Mbps High Speed. Taking something like PSoC and crippling it with a 12Mbps Full Speed connection means it will languish in a niche market.
At least this Renesas kit has a 100Mbps Ethernet – to compensate for the failure to specify USB connection speed.
I entered my information for one of their dev kits a while back and did not receive one. They may only have a handful and just want your information.
My friend and I have been waiting days to get approval. I guess this one isn’t instant approval like the other one.
The site appears to be broken. I entered information for a new account and the website gave an error message: No configuration is available for the site specified.
Oh well.
Google is reporting this as a suspected phishing site now.
no free PCB for you!
Ohhh ,
We will also need some for Denmark, Europe …..smile…
Did anybody receive a shipment notification for this? I requested this board and the smaller one that they are offering and got a shipment notification the next day for the latter. I thought I was receiving this dev board but to my dismay got the smaller first. Oh well… lol
yes it took a few days but I got notification
I still haven’t gotten approval. I am waiting for a reply to my email inquiry.
I can’t believe it! I got my shipping notification just a little bit ago. Anyone else get one?
It took a little over 2 weeks.
Looks like I got mine too. Took about two weeks as well.
I’m quite surprised and this actually makes me feel a bit better about my past experiences with their promos. This kit looks prety fun.
2 of 3 of my friends the ordered one got denied.
Renesas Americas is very stingy with their samples. They seem to only want to get your information and often deny requests of people who want to get experience with their products.
For a brand that is so popular in Asia, I cannot see how they will ever become popular overseas like this.
I was a big fan of some of their architectures years ago, but have been turned off by the number of times I’ve been rejected during their “promotions”. At least this time they are doing this through DigiKey (Samplecomponents). Previously, it was some marketing stooge at one of their US offices.
The Google phishing indicator is, to my knowledge, bogus. I’ve had at least two fulfilled SampleComponenets requests for ST Discovery boards.
We’ll see what happens. I applied for this a few weeks ago and haven’t heard back. I’ve been interested in this board and architecture since the previous promotion but cannot justify the $100 cost. I am a hobbyist with some projects in mind for this, but I probably don’t meet their target audience. But, frankly, a bit corporation would have no problem shelling out $100 for a target board so I am not exactly sure who they want to target in this “promotion”.