Jaluino Mainboard

What is Jaluino and why ?

Jaluino is prototyping board, inspired by Arduino. Arduino is defined (from authors themselves) as "an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board". So Jaluino is aimed to provide the same kind of features1.

While Arduino is based on Atmel microncontrollers, Jaluino is based on Microchip PIC microcontrollers. This is one of the main reason why Jaluino exists. Another reason is Jaluino uses jalv2, jallib and other Just Another Language related projects.

One important aspect is shields. Arduino boards provide a common hardware base, the main board. On top of this board, daughter boards, named "shields", can be plugged. This allows to share hardware designs easily, focusing only on new features, not on microcontroller basic setup (crystal speed, communication dedicated modules, etc...).

Jaluino claims to provide the same shield functionality. That's why it's an Arduino-like board. But... shields aren't the same, size is different, pin number and layout are different, pin functionalities are different. That's why it may not be considered as an Arduino clone...

What are the main goals for Jaluino

  • Jaluino is aimed to provide a nice prototyping platform for jalv2 enthousiasts
  • Jaluino is easy and fun to use
  • Jaluino is easy to build
  • Jaluino should be as cheap as possible
  • Jaluino is (aimed to be) well documented, including lots of tutorials

How Jaluino looks like ? How about specs ?

Enough talking, here's a photo showing how Jaluino looks like.

Figure 1. Jaluino Medium v1.3b

Jaluino comes in different flavors and sizes. That's at least our goal at Jaluino Group. For now, one version of Jaluino is available. This version, Jaluino Medium, provides the following:
  • runs a Microchip PIC 18F4550, with a 20MHz crystal, allowing speeds up to 48MHz. This PIC provides:
    • 32KB Flash memory (~16K words for programming), 2KB SRAM, 256B EEPROM
    • 35 I/O pins
    • 13 Analog-Digital channels, 10-bits resolution
    • 2 PWM channels
    • 4 Timers
    • USART, SPI and I²C (master and slave)
    • USB
  • Three power sources: Jack, USB, and serial module
  • Up to three available voltages on board: Vin (when using power source from jack, Vin is DC voltage on Jack minus VF of diode bridge, 1 to 1.1V), 5V and 3.3V.
  • USB connector
  • Serial connector, allowing user to plug his own serial module (MAX232 based, USB-to-serial converter, serial bluetooth module, ...)
  • Reset via RTS serial option, allowing to upload program without having to manually act on board
  • ICSP connector
  • I2C connector, acting either as a master or a slave
  • Five pin headers to expose PIC's pins, reset and power pins to daughter shields
  • Fuse protection
  • Reset Push button
1 For now, most energy is put on hardware design and libraries. Development environment will soon come.
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