Waterloo, Ontario, Canada June 14, 2004 -- Aeolus Development announces the availability of the AE0IS100 Serial In System Programming (ISP) adapter. This adapter provides a simple way to program microcontrollers while they are soldered to a production board.

Although serial ISP provides a convenient method for programming microcontrollers, the lack of an easily available standard adapter has meant that users have to build their own interfaces. This has left them with the options of absorbing the expense of a few PCBs for a quality adapter, hand building an adapter using point to point wiring techniques or building the adapter into the target board and adding the extra cost to the final product. The AE0IS100 provides an alternative. It provides the level translation between RS232 and the microcontrollers logic level signals and the control signals needed to place the microcontroller into program mode.

With the appropriate software the AE0IS100 will support a fully automated download to the microcontroller. The only addition to the production board that is needed is a small standard header and the appropriate interface circuitry between the header and the microcontroller (which generally consists of a few pull-ups).

The adapter has three modes (selectable using a rotary switch) that allow it to be used with a variety of software.

- An auto mode takes advantage of software that uses the RS232 control lines to control the microcontrollers reset and program lines.

- A program mode will work with software that expects the user to manually control the reset and program lines.

- A run mode provides a simple 3 wire serial interface so that the port can be used for simple debugging or error logging when not being programmed.

Aeolus Development is developing and maintaining a library of interface diagrams for use with the standard microcontroller header and the AE0IS100. Initially schematic diagrams are available for the LPC2104/LPC2105/LPC2106 and the LPC2119/LPC2129.


Key features of the AE0IS100 include
- Level translation circuitry eliminates the need for RS232 level translation circuitry on the target board.
- Works over a 3V-5V supply range to match the target board operating voltage.
- Compatible with the community developed ISP program header for the Philips LPC2000 family of microcontrollers.
- An isolated version is available.
- A manual mode and reset button allows the adapter to work with software not designed to support automatic downloads.
- A run mode allows the adapter to provide a standard 3-wire interface to a serial port providing a way for a terminal program to connect to the microcontrollers logic level pins.

Standard and isolated versions available now. A kit version is also available.

Full details available at http://www.aeolusdevelopment.com/Articles/InSystemProgramming.html
About Aeolus Development

Founded in November of 2003, Aeolus Development is dedicated to developing products to make the development and production of embedded products easier.




This article courtesy of http://www.thaiio.com.