BOARD FEATURES:
We entered the Arduino/MAPLE field 5 years after the introductions of the design,
and this allowed us to see and skip most of the errors the Arduino inventors did :-)
We had the possibility to read current customer feedback and to implement what
they wanted to see in the original Arduino.
1. The original Arduino/Maple uses linear power supply, this limits the input
voltage range. We designed the power supply to accept power in the 9 to 30V DC
range thus making it possible to take virtually any power supply adapter on the
market; this also enables application which are in industrial power supply 24VDC.
2. We carefully selected all components to work reliable in the I NDUSTIRAL
temperature range -25+85C so the board can be used in INDUSTIRAL applications
while the original design is up to the commercial 0-70C operating temperature.
3. The original Arduino/MAPLE design is not good for portable applications
as consumes too much power with the linear voltage regulators, we put ULTRA
LOW POWER voltage regulators and the consumption is only few microamps,
which enables hand-held and battery powered applications.
4. We added Li-Ion rechargeable battery power supply option with BUILD-IN
on board charger, so when you attach battery it is automatically charged and kept
in this state until the other power source (USB or external adapter) is removed and
it will AUTOMATICALLY power the board - no jumpers, no switches!
5. Our board has UEXT connector which allows many existing modules like
RF, ZIGBEE, GSM, GPS to be connected.
6. Our board has SD-MMC card for data logging.
7. Our board has USB-OTG hardware.
8. Our design allows RTC - Real Time Clock.
9. We made our design noise immune.
10. Optionally if someone needs higher precision and temperature stability in
Analog reading we have provisioned the board with Aref precise source.
11. The LEDs and the BUTTONs are on the edge of the board so that there is
easy access even if the boards have shields mounted.
12. All components are LOWER than the connectors, so the shields do not interfere with them.
13. Mini USB connector is used which is common and used in most cell phones,
so you do not have to buy other cables.
14. Original Arduino design had flaw and the connectors were not spaced at
0.1" thus making the usage of proto boards impossible, to keep the compatibility we
have same spacing but we also added next to it a connector with 0.1" step which
customers can use with perforated boards.
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