AVR P4

Performance, Precision, Power, Pins

The P4 board serves as an introductory learning tool to get started with Atmel START, Atmel Studio, and all the great peripherals AVR microcontrollers offer. This board comes with 4 push buttons, 4 LEDs, and an LCD screen so users can immediately get started interacting with the analog world as well as the digital. Learn new skills like clock switching, pin toggling (using a single pin as input and output at the same time), and power and memory usage reduction. Whether you are new to AVR devices, 8-bit design, or even programming in general, this board is the perfect way to get started with the added components you need.

Maximizing the value of 20 AVR pins:

• 2 pins for VDD and GND
• 1 pin for Unified Programming and Debug Interface (UDPI)
• 2 pins for 32768 Hz crystal oscillator
• 4 pins for 4 LEDs and 4 push buttons
• 3 pins for interface to OLED display
• 1 pin for SET/RUN slide switch detection
• 6 pins for connector and I²C bus connection

Demonstrated techniques:

• How to use 1 pin for both driving a LED and detecting a push button
• How to switch between oscillators on-the-fly
  • Use 20 MHz internal oscillator when fast processing is required for driving display
  • Use 32768 Hz external crystal oscillator when precise timing is needed
  • Use 32 kHz internal Ultra Low Power (ULP) oscillator otherwise to minimize power consumption
• How to use only 3 pins to drive a 128 x 64 OLED display
• How to expand each display character on-the-fly to 12 x 16 pixels so it is easy to read but only uses 6 x 8 bits of Flash
• How to make a design where part of the circuit can be switched off to minimize power consumption (without accidentally resetting the MCU)