Premier Farnell, the Development Distributor, is now shipping the TI Robotics System Learning Kit (TI-RSLK), an affordable robotics kit and classroom curriculum, which provides students with a deeper understanding of how electronic system designs work.

Today’s students need to graduate from university with an understanding of engineering concepts across multiple disciplines and products, equipping them for an increasingly complex world. Robotics provides educators with the opportunity to teach interdisciplinary subjects and gives students a foundational understanding of electrical and computer engineering. The TI-RSLK is specifically designed to be used within the university setting to teach students the background knowledge necessary to understand the engineering concepts behind designing, testing and building a functioning robotic system through a 20-module curriculum developed with Professor Jon Valvano from the University of Texas at Austin.

Using robotics to teach hands-on systems-level thinking increases attraction and retention of students studying engineering and provides educators with the opportunity to teach interdisciplinary subjects. Robotics familiarizes students with systems design using industry tools, design flows and first-hand understanding of real-world applications. Students gain problem-solving experience, learning through trial and fixing errors with debugging hardware and software – all while gaining confidence through this combined knowledge and experience.

The TI-RSLK Maze Edition, has more than 60 electronic and mechanical components, including the industry-leading SimpleLink™ MSP432P401R microcontroller (MCU) LaunchPad™ Development Kit. TI’s SimpleLink MCU platform is the broadest portfolio of connected ARM® MCUs in a single software development environment, delivering flexible hardware, software and tool options for Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics applications. The TI-RSLK is designed to teach embedded systems and applications, but is also fully customizable, allowing faculty to choose how they integrate the TI-RSLK material and in which classes they implement it.

The TI-RSLK Maze Edition kit comes in three options for purchase:

• The TI-RSLK Basic kit teaches the foundations of an electronic system, which includes the SimpleLink ™ MSP432P401R MCU LaunchPad™ Development Kit
• The TI-RSLK Advanced kit builds on the concepts and components found in the basic kit, adding wireless communication concepts with the SimpleLink Bluetooth® low energy CC2650 module BoosterPack™ plug-in module and SimpleLink Wi-Fi^® CC3120 wireless network processor BoosterPack plug-in module that enable the robot to be competition-ready against other TI-RSLK robots
• The TI-RSLK Upgrade kit can be added to the basic kit to create the advanced kit

The TI-RSLK kits can be purchased from Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America and element14 in APAC. Further information about the TI-RSLK can found at www.element14.com/rslk

Premier Farnell, the Development Distributor, is supporting customers of the Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+™ MPSoC family with the launch of two Texas Instruments reference designs to ease the development of power solutions for customers developing innovative applications using these devices.

Each reference design, which provides customers with an easy way to prototype their designs before fully understanding their power needs, is a scalable power supply designed to provide power to the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ family of FPGA-based MPSoC devices. The designs receive power from a standard DC power supply and provide power to all rails of the Xilinx chipset and DDR memory through a well-defined Samtec socket-terminal strip connection.

The Integrated Power Supply Reference Design for Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ZU2CG−ZU5EV MPSoCs is scalable to support ZU2CG-ZU3EG devices. In addition, the Integrated Power Supply Reference Design for Xilinx Artix®-7 and Spartan®-7 FPGAs, and Zynq®-7000 SoCs is further scalable to support the most basic Spartan-7 FPGA device, a more complex Artix-7 FPGA with multigigabit transceivers, and up to the Zynq-7000 SoC with a dual-core Arm® Cortex®-A9 processor.

As the two reference designs share the same concept and prototype PCB, customers can use the same power design across the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ family and the Xilinx cost-optimized portfolio. Power solutions for devices of this type typically require custom power-management ICs or use many discrete power regulators to provide power to FPGA platforms. The new solution results in a scalable design which features a configurable PMIC and individually selected discrete components.

The solution size is optimized for each assembly variant, with power building blocks selected depending on the Xilinx product. In early prototyping, the Texas Instruments reference designs can be used for power-on scenarios. For the final design, the power solution can be implemented as the smallest solution size.

The result is an elegant and scalable solution which enables designers using both the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ family and the Xilinx cost-optimised products (Artix-7, Spartan-7, and Zynq-7000) to create a reusable power platform. A typical application example would be a power solution for customers designing an industrial robot using a ZU+ as the central computer and multiple Spartan-7s for motor control of the axis. This solution powers both chipsets.

Simon Meadmore, Global Head of semiconductors and SBC at Premier Farnell said; “As the Development Distributor, Premier Farnell seek to provide customers with ways to speed up their design processes, saving time and money as they get their products to market. These new reference designs from Texas Instruments give customers a way to prototype their designs even before they understand their full power needs – and can be tailored to work across all Xilinx solutions from the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ family to Xilinx’s cost-optimised portfolio. We are able to bring these to our customers due to the strong relationships we have built with the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers – bringing together the best solutions available to deliver real benefits for our customers”.

To find out more about the PMIC reference designs from Texas Instruments, visit uk.farnell.com/fpga-power. To browse more TI power solutions for Xilinx FPGAs, visit ti.com/powerfpga.

Farnell element14, the Development Distributor, announces availability of the element14 development kit for the TI SimpleLink™ Sub-1 GHz Sensor to Cloud Linux® Gateway based on technology from Texas Instruments (TI). The kit provides an end-to-end tool to enable a Sub-1 GHz sensor network with an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway and cloud connectivity.

In the growing industrial IoT market, there is a need for connecting long-range low-power applications to the cloud. Developers face many challenges: they need a long-range low-power wireless protocol with regional regulatory compliance, and security is critical.

“Sub-1 GHz offers low-power and long-range wireless connectivity, but it doesn’t offer a native IP internet connectivity and is a fragmented band without a standard, making it complex to create a fully managed solution from the end nodes to the cloud.” says Simon Meadmore, Global Head of SEPO and SBC at Premier Farnell and Farnell element14: “Now, the element14 SimpleLink Sub-1GHz Sensor to Cloud Linux Industrial Gateway development kit, available exclusively from Farnell element14, allows developers to get to market faster with an out-of-the-box, end-to-end solution enabling an easy cloud connection for sending and receiving long-range sensor data while maintaining a robust link.”

The kit contains all the components needed to create a full sensor network, including a gateway design based on the BeagleBone® Black, the BeagleBone Wireless Connectivity Cape, and the TI SimpleLink dual-band CC1350 wireless MCU LaunchPad™ development kit acting as the MAC co-processor. The kit also includes an additional CC1350 wireless MCU LaunchPad kit acting as a long-range sensor node.

To provide a seamless out-of-the-box experience, the hardware comes pre-flashed with the SimpleLink CC13x0 software development kit (SDK), including the TI-15.4 stack for Sub-1 GHz star network connectivity and the TI Processor SDK Linux. It also provides a flexible IoT cloud interface giving the user the option to connect to a number of different cloud providers and addresses the challenges that developers face with building a long-range Sub-1 GHz network with cloud connectivity.

The SimpleLink sensor-to-cloud development kit is a robust, reliable, tool that is ready to be certified for regulatory compliance and has the necessary hardware and pre-integrated software to make it easy for users to being developing. The TI 15.4 stack provides a standards-based Sub-1 GHz network that is easy to use and alleviates the complexity of linking a user’s own Sub-1 GHz wireless network to the cloud.

The SimpleLink Sub-1 GHz Sensor to Cloud Linux kit is available to buy exclusively from Farnell element14 in Europe and Newark element14 in North America.

Newark element14, the Development Distributor, announces availability of the element14 development kit for the TI SimpleLink™ Sub-1 GHz Sensor to Cloud Linux® Gateway based on technology from Texas Instruments (TI). The kit provides an end-to-end tool to enable a Sub-1 GHz sensor network with an Internet of Things (IoT) gateway and cloud connectivity.

In the growing industrial IoT market, there is a need for connecting long-range low-power applications to the cloud. Developers face many challenges: they need a long-range low-power wireless protocol with regional regulatory compliance, and security is critical.

“Sub-1 GHz offers low-power and long-range wireless connectivity, but it doesn’t offer a native IP internet connectivity and is a fragmented band without a standard, making it complex to create a fully managed solution from the end nodes to the cloud.” says Simon Meadmore, Global Head of SEPO and SBC at Premier Farnell and Newark element14: “Now, the element14 SimpleLink Sub-1GHz Sensor to Cloud Linux Industrial Gateway development kit, available exclusively from Newark element14, allows developers to get to market faster with an out-of-the-box, end-to-end solution enabling an easy cloud connection for sending and receiving long-range sensor data while maintaining a robust link.”

The kit contains all the components needed to create a full sensor network, including a gateway design based on the BeagleBone® Black, the BeagleBone Wireless Connectivity Cape, and the TI SimpleLink dual-band CC1350 wireless MCU LaunchPad™ development kit acting as the MAC co-processor. The kit also includes an additional CC1350 wireless MCU LaunchPad kit acting as a long-range sensor node.

To provide a seamless out-of-the-box experience, the hardware comes pre-flashed with the SimpleLink CC13x0 software development kit (SDK), including the TI-15.4 stack for Sub-1 GHz star network connectivity and the TI Processor SDK Linux. It also provides a flexible IoT cloud interface giving the user the option to connect to a number of different cloud providers and addresses the challenges that developers face with building a long-range Sub-1 GHz network with cloud connectivity.

The SimpleLink sensor-to-cloud development kit is a robust, reliable, tool that is ready to be certified for regulatory compliance and has the necessary hardware and pre-integrated software to make it easy for users to being developing. The TI 15.4 stack provides a standards-based Sub-1 GHz network that is easy to use and alleviates the complexity of linking a user’s own Sub-1 GHz wireless network to the cloud.

The SimpleLink Sub-1 GHz Sensor to Cloud Linux kit is available to buy exclusively from Newark element14 in North America.

element14, the world’s largest electronic design community, has announced winners of it’s ‘Safe and Sound’ design challenge. Sponsored by Texas Instruments, element14 challenged 15 community members to conceive and build a ‘safe and sound’ wearable to steer the world close to our vision of improving personal protection.

The application areas for this challenge were endless, touching on all areas of work and life, from walking home by one’s self late at night or working within an industrial setting with potential personal safety risks. The goal of the element14 Safe and Sound challenge was to solve personal safety risks with wearable technology.

The Judges were highly impressed by the variety of projects submitted for the challenge. The top two entries were:

• Grand Prize Winner, Douglas Wong from Canada created an Invisible Hazardous Environmental Factors Monitoring System (image left). A clear winner, the judges were highly impressed with the quality of this prototype which they believe could save many lives. His project scans the immediate environment for dangerous levels of radiation, carbon monoxide, dangerous alcohol levels and other toxic gasses to protect the wearer from harm. Modules have clean and easy-to-use user interfaces, coupled with neat and tidy 3D printed cases. The quality of videos, photos, code, and blog content produced was also exemplary.

• Runner Up, Dale Winhold, also from Canada developed a Cold Weather Survival Suit addressing the theme of the challenge perfectly. This project is a great working design concept for a product that could save lives and Dale's use of weaved flexible carbon strips was a great design choice.

The challenge also inspired the development of Safety Jackets for the Tolling Industry, Wearable tracking devices for miners and a T-shirt for Monitoring Elderly and Physically Challenged Patients. 

Dianne Kibbey, Global Head of Content and Community, element14 said: “This was an important challenge for the community as our members were developing products that could save lives in real world situations – I am delighted to say that they rose to the challenge once again. There is a strong spirit in the community, something which will value immensely, and this design challenge has seen our member push themselves and each other further than ever before. We were particularly impressed with the quality of the prototype developed by our grand prize winner Douglas Wong – an entry that has real potential in the marketplace. ”

Jan Pape – Director of Distribution EMEA, at Texas Instruments said: “Through the latest “Safe&Sound challenge”, the element14 community is proving to me again the true value of our partnership with PremierFarnell/element14. Having the opportunity to expose really great innovative minds to those technologies, which we at TI believe will help to make the world a better and safer place, continues to be very exciting and valuable to us. I would like to congratulate all the participants for a great job done, as well as element14 for running another very stimulating and exciting design challenge with technologies and solutions from Texas Instruments.”

Entries were judged on originality, innovation and technical merit by a panel of judges including experts from Texas Instruments and element14. The winners posted blogs and videos during the competition and you can find out more about their individual projects by visiting https://www.element14.com/safeandsound

Premier Farnell, The Development Distributor, is now shipping the Texas Instruments Sensors Booster Pack and Fuel Tank MKII Battery BoosterPack Plug-In Modules.

The BOOSTXL-SENSORS BoosterPack plug-in module is an easy way to add digital sensors to a LaunchPad development kit design. MCU LaunchPad developers can use this BoosterPack module to start developing sensor applications using the on-board gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, pressure, ambient temperature, humidity, ambient light and infrared temperature sensors.

The module includes a range of digital sensors to assist in mobile and tablet applications as well as home automation appliances, outdoor traffic and street lights, cameras, gas concentration and flame detection. Among these is a sensor that measures the intensity of visible light along with a fully-integrated microelectro-mechanical system (MEMS) thermopile sensor that measures the temperature of an object without direct contact. There is also a small, low power, low noise 16-bit inertial measurement unit designed for use in mobile applications like augmented reality or indoor navigation which require highly accurate, real-time sensor data as well as a low power and low noise 3-axis digital geomagnetic sensor that can be used in compass applications. The 12-pin wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) with a footprint of 1.56 x 1.56 mm² and 0.60 mm height provides the highest design flexibility to the developer of mobile devices. And finally, an integrated environmental sensor has been developed specifically for mobile applications where size and low power consumption are key design constraints.

The Fuel Tank MKII BoosterPack plug-in module is the next generation design of the original Fuel Tank BoosterPack module. This BoosterPack includes TI battery monitoring ICs and other new features to make it easier to use. The Fuel Tank MKII BoosterPack module allows TI LaunchPad development kits to be powered from the included rechargeable lithium polymer battery, further enabling mobile application development and evaluation.

The Fuel Tank MKII BoosterPack plug-in module includes an on-board battery charger and gas gauge that provide critical parameters of the battery, including temperature, charging state, capacity, and more. The bq24250 is a highly integrated single-cell Li-Ion battery charger and system power-path management device targeted for space-limited, portable applications with high-capacity batteries. The bq27441-G1 fuel gauge is a microcontroller peripheral that provides system-side fuel gauging for single-cell Li-Ion batteries. The device requires minimal user configuration and system microcontroller firmware development. The battery features of this BoosterPack module can work with any BoosterPack-compatible LaunchPad development kit. However, code examples for using the fuel gauge aspect of the kit to interrogate the battery status are only provided for specific LaunchPad kits.

The Fuel Tank MKII BoosterPack plug-in module has USB charging with and indicator LED and can be use in a variety of

portable applications including mobile and smart phones, MP3 players, media players, and digital cameras.

The BoosterPacks are available from Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America and element14

in APAC. Please visit the element14 Community for more information on the Texas Instruments Sensors Booster Pack Plug-In Module and the Texas Instruments Fuel Tank MKII Battery BoosterPack Plug-In Module.

Weidi Zhu, Regional Director of Greater China, element14, said, “element14 supports customers at every stage of the product lifecycle – ideation, design, supply chain and production. To fulfill this objective, we seek partnerships with suppliers from world’s leading brands to offer exclusive or leading-edge components or technologies for specific applications or customer groups. The selected reference designs from TI Designs will greatly simplify the system design for designers, able to meet their design needs in specific applications, particularly in the newly-emerging areas such as IoT and wearable.”

Highlighted TI Designs at Electronica China include:

• Field Transmitter With Bluetooth® Low Energy Connectivity Powered From 4- to 20-mA Current Loop Reference Design: It can measure humidity and temperature and broadcast the measured values with Bluetooth Low Energy. The design is loop powered and the current value on the loop is changed according to the humidity value.

• Single-Chip, Loop-Powered 4- to 20-mA RTD Sensor Transmitter: This reference design is a single-chip solution perfect for a two-wire, 4- to 20-mA loop-powered system including a four-wire RTD analog front end. The built-in processor enables the use of compensation algorithms, which increases the system performance. The design is ideally suited for applications with space constraints and operates at high ambient temperatures with a low power performance.

• Turnkey IO-Link Sensor Transmitter: As the front-end design for RTD with IO-Link compliant sensor transmitter, it contains a totally validated IO-Link PHY and stack and also contains a form factor of 6 mm width (compatible with a standard M12 connector). With all three components, this design aims to jump-start IO-Link devices developments.

• Isolated Loop Powered Thermocouple Transmitter: a system solution providing precision K-type thermocouple measurements for 4 to 20-mA isolated current-loop applications. This design is intended as an evaluation module for users to fast prototype and develop end-products for process-control and factory-automation.

• Reference Design for Reinforced Isolation Three-Phase Inverter: This design provides a reference solution for a three phase inverter rated up to 10 kW, designed using reinforced isolated dual IGBT gate driver, 250kHz reinforced isolated amplifier, and MCU TMS320F28027. The inverter is designed to have protection against overload, short circuit, ground fault, DC bus undervoltage and overvoltage, and IGBT module over temperature.

• EMC Compliant Single-Chip Resolver-to-Digital Converter (RDC) Reference Design: This design provides a solution for EMC-compliant resolver-to-digital converter (RDC) with a single-chip PGA411-Q1 with a 12-bit angle resolution. The included PGA411-Q1's integrated boost converter and exciter amplifier can reduce system cost and board space compared to traditional RDC solutions.

• 48V 3-Phase Inverter Reference Design: This design can realize a 48V/10A 3-phase GaN inverter with precision in-line shunt-based phase current sensing for accurate control of precision drives such as servo drives. It also offers a TI BoosterPack compatible interface to connect to a C2000 MCU LaunchPad™ development kit for easy performance evaluation.

Visitors can pre-register at http://cn.element14.com/chinaelectronica2017-register or visit element14 booth at Stand 5431 in Hall E5 to get a RMB30 Starbucks voucher. Visitors to the stand will be taken on a journey through element14’s expert design & manufacturing services, and see first-hand all the latest technologies and solutions from TI.

Latest updates on the schedule of programmes can be accessed from

http://weibo.com/element14 and http://cn.element14.com.

Global electronics distributor element14 has added the fault protected CAN transceivers with flexible data-rate from Texas Instruments to its product portfolio. These CAN transceivers work with the TI CAN evaluation board to perform CAN (controlled area network) evaluation. This includes the load and termination settings required for electronic design engineers looking to evaluate CAN transceiver operation and performance in factory and building automation, smart grids, automotive infotainment and advanced driver assist systems, communications infrastructures and more.

The TCAN1042 CAN transceiver family meets the requirements of ISO11898-2 high speed CAN physical layer standard. It also has simple connections to the TCAN1042DEVM evaluation board, which is equipped with the necessary jumpers for flexible device pin and CAN bus configuration. All devices are designed for use in CAN FD networks up to 5 Mbps.

The transceiver comes equipped with a list of user features and advantages:

• Protection features: ESD protection of bus pins, under voltage protection on supply pins, thermal shutdown protection, TXD and RXD receiver with dominant time out
• Differentiators: High temperature +125 degrees Celsius, AEC-Q100 qualified, board space saving
• Advantages: Common mode choke not required (per OEM), wide VCC range (4.5V to 5.5V) for start and stop without boost, wide I/O voltage level adapting reduces external components, extended bus-fault protection supporting 48V systems, hot swap support with glitch-free bus I/O on power up and down, industry standard packaging (P2P compatible)

The TI fault protected CAN transceivers with flexible data-rate are available from element14 in Asia Pacific.

The kit contains a CAPTIVATE-FR2633 target MCU module, CAPTIVATE-PGMR eZ-FET with EnergyTrace™ technology and HID communication bridge, CAPTIVATE-ISO UART, I2C, and SBW isolation board, CAPTIVATE-BSWP self-capacitance demo (Out-of-Box Experience), CAPTIVATE-PHONE mutual capacitance demo with haptics and guard channel and CAPTIVATE-PROXIMITY proximity detection and gesturing demo.

The MSP430FR2633-based MCU board, a programmer/debugger board with EnergyTrace technology measures energy consumption with the TI’s Code Composer Studio™ integrated development environment (IDE), and sensor boards to evaluate self-capacitance, mutual capacitance, gesture and proximity sensing. Users can evaluate the MSP430FR2633 microcontroller with CapTIvate touch technology, which provides the highest resolution capacitive-touch solution in the market. MSP MCUs with CapTIvate technology are the industry’s lowest power capacitive touch MCUs with 10 V rms noise immunity and support for dirt-proof, glove-friendly designs.

Features and benefits of the development kit are:

Modular Design

• Different sensing panels can be attached through a common connector.
• The programming/debug logic has been split from the target MCU, unlike a typical LaunchPad which has both components on one PCB. This allows for an isolation module to be inserted between the two for testing/tuning, or for the programming/debug module to be used for in-system product development.
• The target MCU PCB features BoosterPack™ plug-in board headers, allowing it to be used as a BoosterPack for another LaunchPad™ development kit, such as the MSP-EXP432P401R LaunchPad kit.

Application Oriented

• The sensing panels included in the kit are designed to mimic real applications.
• Evaluating a new application simply involves laying out a basic 1 or 2 layer PCB with a footprint for the sensor connector, or simply laying out electrodes with copper tape and wiring them into the connector.

Easy Access to Data

• EnergyTrace technology power profiling enables capturing of power profiles without any measurement equipment.
• The HID-Bridge communications interface allows easy debug data transfer between the target and a PC over UART or I2C.

Get more details, downloads and participate in discussions on the element14 community.

The MSP CapTIvate MCU development kit is available from Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America, and element14 in Asia.

Premier Farnell is today launching the Texas Instruments AM437x Starter Kit for design engineers working in industrial, HMI and networking applications.

The AM437x Starter Kit is a low-cost development platform based on the ARM Cortex-A9 processor providing a stable and affordable platform to quickly start evaluation of Sitara™ ARM® Cortex®-A9 AM437x Processors (AM4376, AM4378).

The product is an ideal platform for developing applications that require a full featured user interface including touch screen capability and a broad array of connectivity options.

Powerful enough to drive a full graphical display for a user interface the kit includes a broad set of industrial communications protocols and interfaces (Dual Gigabit Ethernet, DDR3L, Camera and Capacitive Touch Screen LCD).

The integrated LCD and full featured hardware platform offers an array of onboard features which allows experienced and novice designers alike to focus on product differentiation such as advanced graphics and connectivity.

At speeds up to 1 GHz, the AM437x Starter Kit accelerates designs with a ready-for-production hardware and software platform.

Priced at $249, the TI AM437x is available from Farnell element14 in Europe, Newark element14 in North America and element14 in Asia Pacific.

Highlights of the element14 roadshow:

• exclusive demonstrations of new development boards and IoT(Internet of Things) add-ons from Freescale, Richtek and Texas Instruments
• the latest solutions from TE Connectivity, Honeywell and Keysight
• Raspberry Pi 2 and new accessories
• register to join in Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen

Designing for the Internet of Things (IoT), the theme at the element14 China roadshow, will kick off in October in Chengdu, followed by Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

Together with technology partners Freescale, Richtek, Texas Instruments, Keysight, Honeywell and TE Connectivity, among others, element14 will unveil a host of exclusive new solutions, including sensor technologies and wireless communication, all geared towards supporting the world’s largest M2M market and a global leader in the deployment of IoT. Based on current investment trends, the IoT market is forecasted to exceed RMB 1 trillion in 2015, and the market size is expected to reach around RMB 10 trillion by 2020.

Zhu Weidi, Regional Sales Director, element14 China, said: “We welcome all engineers to join us to review the latest technology and products, and discuss directly with our suppliers. During this roadshow, element14 is pleased to present a broad range of IoT-enabling solutions for next-generation designs in wearables, smart home, manufacturing, transportation, energy and logistics.”

Participants can join the element14 roadshow to get hands-on demos and view the newest products from leading suppliers:

• a comprehensive range of Industrial HMI and Control Solutions for Human Machine Interface(HMI), Programmable Logic Controller(PLC), I/O Control and Process Control from Freescale. The broad portfolio offers industrial control and networking solutions for many wired and wireless industrial communications protocols and HMI.
• Richtek products for power management including DC/DC switching regulators and LDO voltage regulators
• Rapberry Pi 2 Model B, six times faster than the previous model with 1GB of RAM to run bigger and more powerful projects, and the 7” touchscreen display, to enable users to create all-in-one integrated projects, such as IoT devices with a visual display. Get started at http://www.element14.com/community/community/raspberry-pi
• basic board mount pressure sensors from Honeywell for industrial applications
• the ergonomically designed Keysight TruIR high-resolution thermal imager delivers four times more pixels with Fine Resolution capability; http://cn.element14.com/2423395
• TE Connectivity interconnect components to drive power in machinery and automation for HMI, robotics, PLC, servo motors and servo drives; http://cn.element14.com/reliable-power

In addition element14 offers a portfolio of over 30,000 PCB connectors; including High-Speed, High Power, Fine Pitch and Low Profile connectors for advanced applications in products for IoT, at http://cn.element14.com/pcb-connectors

Customers can contact cn-sales@element14.com to join the roadshow or register at http://cn.element14.com/chengdu-seminar-2015

element14 today announced the availability of the Texas Instruments C2000 Delfino F28377S LaunchPad development kit, the most powerful C2000 LaunchPad in Texas Instruments’ LaunchPad Ecosystem.

The C2000 Delfino F28377S LaunchPad delivers high-performance digital control for use in power conversion and motor control applications. This low-cost development board is based on the Delfino TMS320F28377S MCU, contains 1MB of on-board flash and includes highly differentiated peripherals such as 12bit ADCs, comparators, DACs, delta-sigma sinc filters, HRPWMs, eCAPs, eQEPs, CANs, and more.

The board also features an integrated isolated XDS100v2 JTAG emulator for easy programming and debugging, is compatible with controlSUITE and booster packs such as BOOSTXL-BUCKCONV and BOOSTXL-DRV8301, and includes a complimentary full license of the latest version of Code Composer Studio IDE.

The C2000 Delfino F28377 LaunchPad is available starting at $30.59 from Newark element14 in North America, Farnell element14 in Europe, and element14 in Asia Pacific.

Highlights of the element14 electronics roadshow:
- exclusive demonstrations of new development boards and IoT(Internet of Things) add-ons from Freescale and Texas Instruments
- the latest products from TE Connectivity, Panasonic and Weidmuller
- register now to join the roadshow in Pune, 6 August

element14 will unveil a host of exclusive new technologies and solutions from technology partners Freescale, Texas Instruments(TI), Panasonic, TE Connectivity and Weidmuller, at the element14 7th annual electronics roadshow in Pune.

element14 offers the largest range of development kits available globally from one single source, and participants at the roadshow will get to view some of the latest products, plus the newest ranges from TE Connectivity, Littelfuse, Panasonic and Weidmuller.

Freescale, a global leader in embedded processing solutions, will present the broadest portfolio of MCU for applications in auto, industrial, networking and consumer electronics. Highlights include the industry’s most scalable ultra-low-power, mixed-signal Kinetis MCU and i.MX6 series ARM Cortex-A9, plus the new Freescale’s FRDM-STBC-AGM01, a 9-Axis sensor solution that allows users to implement orientation awareness and motion sensing into their designs.

Texas Instruments MSP-EXP430FR6989 LaunchPad Development Kit is an easy-to-use Evaluation Module(EVM); it includes on-board emulation for programming, debugging and energy measurements as well as a 320-segment LCD. Its SimpleLink™ multi-standard CC2650 development kit, includes all the hardware required to evaluate the SimpleLink ultra-low-power wireless MCU platform.

The latest ranges of TE Connectivity interconnect components to drive power in machinery and automation for HMI, Robotics, PLC, Servo Motors and Servo Drives – at http://in.element14.com/reliable-power - including Dynamic series, M8/M12 connectors, heavy duty connectors, Universal Mate-N-Lok and more.

Littelfuse has the broadest and deepest portfolio of circuit protection products, for applications in consumer electronics and industrial. It offers the broadest portfolio of TVS diodes and will present the industry’s first TVS diode array simulator. Littelfuse 470 series NANO² sub-miniature fuse is ideally suited for space constrained applications.

Panasonic will present its Power Solutions, Noise Solutions including four types of polymer capacitors, Thermal Solutions highlighting the PGS Graphite Sheet and Sensor Solutions; introducing the Grid-EYE infrared array sensor.

Weidmuller is a leading provider of products for power, signal and data in industrial environments, and over 1800 products are available at element14 - http://in.element14.com/weidmuller

Customers can contact in-sales@element14.com to join the roadshow or register at http://in.element14.com/roadshow-2015

Farnell element14 has introduced the Texas Instruments SimpleLink™ multi-standard CC2650 development kit, including all the hardware required to evaluate the SimpleLink ultra-low-power wireless MCU platform, to its industry leading development kit range in Europe.

Priced at £225, the CC2650DK device can be used to evaluate the SimpleLink Bluetooth Smart CC2640 wireless MCU and the ZigBee/6LoWPAN CC2630 wireless MCU, as well as the multi-standard CC2650 wireless MCU.

The kit includes two SmartRF06 evaluation boards, two CC2650 evaluation modules, two micro-USB cables and a getting started guide, which is available with free next day delivery. The CC2650 evaluation module contains the wireless MCU and shows a variant of the RF layout using the 7x7 package, internal bias and differential RF output (variant 7ID).

The board is equipped with a high performance PCB antenna, although an SMA connector can also be attached to connect the radio to external test equipment.

The SmartRF06 evaluation board is specifically designed for running radio performance tests and for developing software.

The kit is equipped with a 128x64 pixels LCD screen, five pushbuttons, four LEDs, an SD card holder, a 3-axis digital accelerometer, an analogue ambient light sensor, break-out pins and an integrated XDS100v3 debugger.

The CC2650DK comes pre-programmed with a packet error rate test, which can be used to test the practical range of the radio, whether in Bluetooth low energy mode or in IEEE 802.15.4 mode.

Farnell element14 is launching the Texas Instruments LDC1041 inductance-to-digital converter for contactless, short-range sensing that enables high-resolution and low-cost position sensing of conductive targets, even in harsh environments.

Next day delivery is available for this family of devices which enables system designers to choose different resolution options depending on their application and system requirements, using a coil or spring as a sensor.  

Available with price breaks for higher volumes the LDC1041 pins are compatible with the LDC1000 (16-bit Rp/24-bit L) and the LDC1051 (8-bit Rp). It is available as a 5mm x 4mm WSON-16 package, while device programming via SPI allows for easy configuration using a microcontroller.

Contactless operation means the LDC1041 range is highly durable and they are shipped in moisture sensitive packaging to protect the products.  Remote sensor placement means the LDC can be decoupled from harsh environments. 

The LDC1041EVM Evaluation Module can be used in conjunction with the LDC1041 range to demonstrate the use of inductive sensing technology to sense and measure the presence, position or composition of a conductive target object. The module includes an example of a PCB sensor coil. An MSP430 microcontroller is used to interface the LDC to a host computer. This module is designed to provide the user with maximum flexibility for system prototyping.

It is perforated at two locations to experiment with custom sensor coils and to connect the LDC1041 to a different microcontroller.  There is also an on-board LED indicator for basic conductor detection. An accompanying GUI allows for maximum flexibility and experimentation. 

The LDC1041EVM Evaluation Module is priced at £20.92 and the LDC1041 range is priced from £4.46, both are available from www.farnell.com.