CircuitGizmos

Electronic Products for Creative Minds

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U401 with 16 LEDs and RobotBASIC

This is a quick post showing a U401 (#CGU401) driving 16 LEDs. 12 of the LEDs are available here from CircuitGizmos. The square LEDs that are amber colored are just some extras that I had on hand.

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This hardware setup can be driven by the free output application that is available from USBmicro, or you can use C, VisualBasic, and other languages to connect to the U401/U421 and control it.

One exciting bit of news: I’m working with the authors of RobotBASIC for language support that makes interfacing to the U401/U421 really easy and inexpensive for everyone. RobotBASIC is a complete and easy-to-understand language based on BASIC. RobotBASIC not only allows for simulation of a robot on-screen, but can also interact and control hardware – the U401/U421 is very easy to control.

How easy? The preview version of RobotBASIC that I have can control the U401/U421 in only a few lines.

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U401 and Solderless Prototype Boards

If you use solderless prototype boards (solderless breadboards) for circuit testing, the USBmicro U401 (#CGU401) combined with a 30-pin header (#CGPINHEAD30) is a great way for you to connect a test circuit built on a solderless prototype board to your PC.

The one-tenth inch on center pin spacing of the U401 lends itself well to fit to a solderless prototype board that has the same contact spacing on its rows of pins:

Example of using a U401 with a prototype board.

All it takes is a little bit of soldering to attach the 30 pin header to the edge of the U401. From CircuitGizmos you can obtain both the U401 and the 30 pin header:

CircuitGizmos: #CGU401

CircuitGizmos: #CGPINHEAD30

Soldered in place, the U401 will plug into the solderless prototype board from positions 1 to 30, as shown below:

U401 inserted into a solderless prototype board and providing 5V from the USB connection to power three LEDs.

Note in this picture that pin 7 of the U401 is +5V from the USB connection and that pin 9 is ground. I have made the connections from these pins to the power and ground bus of the prototype board. The LEDs in this picture are just hooked up to power and ground to light constantly.

Now PC control of circuits in a solderless prototype board is as easy as this!