Kit simplifies development of battery-powered applications

Teaming the latest Arm Cortex-M4-based 48MHz Renesas Synergy S3A3 Group of microcontrollers with rich context sensing and the multi-protocol wireless subsystem proven in other ARIS-EDGE boards, the new ARIS-EDGE-S3 lets developers add extra sophistication to connected objects.

They can also connect a small-form-factor TFT-display, and take advantage of tools and software to create a graphical user interface for an extra level of user interactivity.

The on-board sensors include the Bosch Sensortec BNO055 9-degrees-of-freedom (9-DOF) application specific sensor node (ASSN) absolute orientation sensor, which contains a MEMS accelerometer and gyroscope, a geo-magnetic sensor, and a 32-bit microcontroller running Bosch Sensortec BSX3.0 FusionLib software.

This sensor is widely used in robotics, augmented and virtual reality, drones, gaming, and other industrial applications. Also on-board, the BME280 environmental sensor from Bosch Sensortec combines temperature, humidity and pressure sensing., while Aa separate MEMS microphone and an ambient light sensor further extend contextual awareness.

The radio module comes with built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4.1/4.2), Thread, and ZigBee stacks, giving easy access to the most popular connectivity standards for use cases such as home automation, smart meters, smart lighting, wearable electronics, medical monitors, industrial sensing, and others.

Arrow’s ARIS-EDGE concept, updated and upgraded with this latest and most powerful of the Edge boards, connects developers with the Renesas Synergy platform giving access to an optimised operating system, qualified stacks, consistent software libraries, and APIs that streamline IoT-device development and lower total cost of ownership.

Arrow works with Reloc to design the ARIS board family. The Italy-based Renesas design house has comprehensive expertise in designing and integrating consumer IoT and industrial machine-to- machine applications, specifically in distributed sensing, location solutions and radio identification. Customers can also contract Reloc to get their products designed quickly and first-time-right.

Furthermore, Arrow and Renesas jointly work with Draupner Graphics to add the highly efficient TouchGFX GUI-solution to the kit in the 2nd quarter of 2018.

TouchGFX is ideal for battery-operated, portable products, as it enables extremely stylish GUI whilst keeping resource requirements low enough to often use the S3A3 microcontroller in single-chip mode, which in turn keeps power consumption and cost very low.

Amir Sherman, Arrow’s Director of Engineering Solutions & Embedded Technology, EMEA, comments: “The new ARIS-EDGE-S3 is a great example of how Arrow gives customers a serious head-start. Great hardware, the massive Renesas Synergy Software package as well as Draupner Graphics’ amazing GUI solution empower our customers to get the job done faster and with better results.”