chipKIT WF32 and WiFire
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Digilent has released two interesting boards aimed at the much touted Internet of Things: the chipKIT WF32 and the new chipKIT WiFire. These boards have much in common, so I'll review them together.
Both boards are based on PIC32 MCUs, feature a WiFi b/g radio and a microSD-card slot, a OTG USB with A and micro-AB connectors, 4 LEDs, 2 buttons and a potentiometer. The WiFi radio is based on the Microchip MRF24WG0MA with 802.11b/g capabilities. The difference resides on the PIC32 MCU used.
The later configuration is really impressive. |
Left, the chipKIT WF32; right, the chipKIT WiFire
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No surprise, the boards have the same form-factor as the Arduino Uno board, albeit being longer.
The boards include the same 43 GPIOs as the chipKIT Uno32. |
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From left t right: the OTG USB with A and micro-AB connectors, the 4 LEDs and potentiometer, the two user buttons and the microSD-card slot.
Two IDEs
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The programming IDE is exactly the same as for the Arduino, except it handles both AVR and PIC32-based environments through the selection of the board. It is called MPIDE for multi-platform IDE.
The IDE or integrated development environment is called MPIDE for Multiple Platform IDE and comes now in two versions:
As Processing-based Wiring-derived Arduino-like, both are platform-agnostic and run on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. Looking for more features, I designed embedXcode, a template I could use with Xcode. |
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Two Ethernet and WiFi Libraries
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There are two sets of libraries for Ethernet and WiFi, each aimed at a specific release of MPIDE, 0023 or 1.5.
The libraries pack the TCP/IP stack, manage the standard security protocols (WEP, WPA, WPA2) and are well designed with a contained memory footprint. They come with many examples: I recommend to start with the WiFiScan sketch, and continue with the WebServer example. All the examples ran successfully on both versions, 0023 and 1.5. In less than a minute, the WebServer application was deployed on my LAN and answered my requests! |
Left, libraries for MPIDE 0023; right, for MPIDE 1.5
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Conclusion
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I really like those two boards, with everything packed for an IoT application with OTG USB and microSD-card slot. No more need for a shield on top of the board!
Contrary to the Uno32 for which a specific configuration allows to debug with the chipKIT PGM programmer / debugger, there's no specific linking scripts for the WF32 and WiFire. The boards are listed at USD69 for the WF32 and USD79 for the WiFire. The extra USD10 are worth the price for 200 MHz, 2 MB of Flash and 512 kB of RAM the WiFire brings. For comparison, the Arduino Yún price tag is USD75. |
Left, chipKIT uC32 with WiFi shield; right, all-in-one chipKIT WF32
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Pros
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Cons
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Wrap-Up
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