5000 Free STM8S-Discovery Kits, this is the way STM is trying to get loud about the upcoming embedded world 2010 in Nuremberg.

The STM8S-Discovery is a quick-start evaluation board based on the STM8S105C6T6. It includes the embedded debugger ST-LINK and one touch-sensing button which help you to discover the STM8 features.

I find this a very attractive idea and it’s not about the value of a product(the STM8S-Discovery is under $10) but people coming to visit the embedded world and people in general are going to be happy to get something for free especially when that something is a dev board. I have a soft spot for dev boards, I like them and I wouldn’t mind getting one for free. Even though a certain board might not end up being used every day I will certainly power it up and try some code on it. That being said, I would love to register & visit the embedded world 2010 but I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to be there March 2 to 4.

you can read more about it here , there also a voucher code that you can use to get a free ticket.

We’ve added a new feature to Youritronics, an online shop. We are just starting so for now we only have one item in shop, that is the ATmega88 Development board designed and build by Outsolder Solutions which is a Youritronics partner.

The board features:

• Board can be powered from AC/DC power, 7.5V-18V/500mA.
• Firmware can be loaded via preprogrammed bootloader or 6 pin ISP connector.
• All on board connections made from MCU pins to additional components are made with solder
• jumpers for easy removal in case of reconfiguration.
• All MCU pins connected to pin header pins trough 100Ω resistor for short-circuit protection.
• 5VDC/350mA available on the pin headers, with voltage suppressor protection.
• Reset circuit and reset button.
• DB9 connector for serial connection, RS232 to TTL level converter.
• Potentiometer for ADC input.
• DC buzzer connected to PWM output.
• 10 segment led bar controlled by SPI.
• 2 push buttons for generating external interrupts or general purpose inputs.
• External crystal oscillator 14,76MHz(not connected, the MCU is set to internal RC 8MHz oscillator).

You can read more about the board at the shop page. (the shop is currently under construction, sorry for any inconvenience.)

I made the board using my photo etching technique, and as you can see the results are great. The dev board has 17 I/O lines that are connected to a 17 pin header. On the board there is a 2 color LED tied to PortC pin 1 and 2. On PortC pin 0 there is a PNP transistor that controls the output for a buzzer. So i always use pin 0 to connect the buzzer.

There is also an ISP connector on the board to be used for ISP programming, and an extra VCC pin so you can get power from it. I power my board with 2 AA batteries which provide enough current for testing purposes, but to ensure you’ve got enough power you should probably power it from 3 x AA batteries to get 4,5 V.

Here are a couple of source codes that i developed on this board:

This one makes a beep for 5 seconds than stops.

And this one blinks the two color LED.

I’ll be integrating these codes in a larger project. All codes are written in C and the board was designed in Eagle, here are the download links:

• Buzzer.c download link
• Blink.c download link
• Eagle files download link