Adafruit GEMMA v2 – Miniature wearable electronic platform

By on May 20, 2016
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Dedicated to wearable electronics, Adafruit presents the GEMMA V2 evolution, basically very simile to V1 but with an on/off switch and a different connector. Here are the details:

The Attiny85 is a fun processor because despite being so small, it has 8K of flash, and 5 I/O pins, including analog inputs and PWM ‘analog’ outputs. We designed a USB bootloader so you can plug it into any computer and reprogram it over a USB port just like an Arduino (it uses 2 of the 5 I/O pins, leaving you with 3). In fact we even made some simple modifications to the Arduino IDE so that it works like a mini-Flora. Perfect for small & simple projects the GEMMA will be your go-to wearable electronics platform.

Even though you can program GEMMA using the Arduino IDE, it’s not a fully 100% Arduino-compatible. There are some things you trade off for such a small and low cost microcontroller!

  • GEMMA does not have a Serial port connection for debugging so the serial port monitor will not be able to send/receive data
  • Some computers’ USB v3 ports don’t recognize the GEMMAs bootloader. Simply use a USB v2 port or a USB hub in between

Here are some useful specifications!

  • Super small, only 1.1″ / 28mm diameter and 0.28″ / 7mm thick.
  • Easy-to-sew or solder pads for embedding in your wearable project
  • Low cost enough, you can use one for every weekend project
  • ATtiny85 on-board, 8K of flash, 512 byte of SRAM, 512 bytes of EEPROM
  • Internal oscillator runs at 8MHz
  • Ultra low power, draws only 9 mA while running
  • USB bootloader with a nice LED indicator looks just like a USBtinyISP so you can program it with the Arduino IDE (with a few simple config modifications)
  • Micro-USB jack for power and/or USB uploading, you can put it in a box or tape it up and use any USB cable for when you want to reprogram.
  • We really worked hard on the bootloader process to make it rugged and foolproof
  • ~5.25K bytes available for use (2.75K taken for the bootloader)
  • On-board 3.3V power regulator with 150mA output capability and ultra-low dropout. Up to 16V input, reverse-polarity protection, thermal and current-limit protection.
  • Power with either USB or external output (such as a battery) – it’ll automatically switch over
  • On-board green power LED and red pin #1 LED
  • Reset button for entering the bootloader or restarting the program.
  • 3 GPIO – The 3 independent IO pins have 1 analog input and 2 PWM output as well.
  • Hardware I2C capability for breakout & sensor interfacing.

Source: Adafruit GEMMA v2

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