Today is a special day for us - for the last several months we've been working on a new and growing ecosystem of products that customize the processor you want to use. Meet MicroMod, a modular interface ecosystem that connects a microcontroller “processor board” to various “carrier board” peripherals utilizing the M.2 standard.
As a modular ecosystem of interchangeable processors and carrier boards, MicroMod enables rapid prototyping and development that allows for dynamic project changes. There's no need to worry about soldering or finding the right length cable - just swap your processor and go! Whether you are an avid electronics enthusiast or a professional engineer, the MicroMod system works to make project and prototype upgrades as seamless as possible.
Now let's meet the boards!
Carrier Boards: These provide access to different peripherals and functionality.
Choose a carrier board to access different inputs and outputs based on your specific needs. Each carrier board is easily expandable by utilizing our Qwiic Connect System.
- SparkFun MicroMod ATP Carrier Board: Access all the pins (i.e. ATP) of the MicroMod processor boards with the SparkFun MicroMod ATP Carrier Board! This board breaks out the MicroMod processor board's pins on the M.2 connector to 0.1" spaced female headers and PTH pads on the edge of the board.
- SparkFun MicroMod Input and Display Carrier Board: This carrier board combines a 2.4" TFT display, six addressable LEDs, onboard voltage regulator, a 6-pin IO connector, and microSD slot with the M.2 pin connector slot, so it can be used with compatible processor boards in our MicroMod ecosystem.
- SparkFun MicroMod Data Logging Carrier Board: The SparkFun MicroMod Data Logging Board offers a highly customizable, low-power data logging platform using the MicroMod system, allowing you to choose your own processor to pair with the carrier board.
- SparkFun MicroMod Machine Learning Carrier Board:The MicroMod Machine Learning Carrier Board combines some of the features of our SparkFun Edge Board and SparkFun Artemis boards, but allows you the freedom to explore with any processor in the MicroMod lineup without the need for a central computer or web connection. Voice recognition, always-on voice commands, gesture, or image recognition are possible with TensorFlow applications.
Processor Boards: Mix and match processor boards and choose which one works best for you.
Pick processors from SparkFun's own Artemis to ESP32 or SAMD51 (and more to come). Mix, match, test and prototype different processors with little to no code changes!
- SparkFun MicroMod Artemis Processor: Leveraging the ultra powerful Artemis Module, the SparkFun MicroMod Artemis Processor is the brain board of your dreams. With a Cortex-M4F with BLE 5.0 running up to 96MHz, and with as low power as 6uA per MHz (less than 5mW), the M.2 MicroMod connector allows you to plug in a MicroMod carrier board with any number of peripherals.
- SparkFun MicroMod ESP32 Processor: The MicroMod ESP32 Processor Board combines Espressif's ESP32 with our M.2 connector interface to bring a processor board with reliable WiFi and Bluetooth capabilities into our MicroMod ecosystem.
- SparkFun MicroMod SAMD51 Processor: With a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F MCU, the SparkFun MicroMod SAMD51 Processor Board is one powerful microcontroller packaged on a small board! The provides you with an economical and easy-to-use development platform if you need more power with minimal working space.
Guides and Resources: Find the guide that's right for you.
Make your own MicroMod processor and carrier boards utilizing SparkFun’s Eagle libraries and guides. We have multiple open source carrier boards already designed so you can use them as a reference design and starting point. We can’t wait to see what you make.
Getting Started with MicroMod
October 21, 2020
Dive into the world of MicroMod - a compact interface to connect a microcontroller to various peripherals via the M.2 Connector!
Designing with MicroMod
October 21, 2020
This tutorial will walk you through the specs of the MicroMod processor and carrier board as well as the basics of incorporating the MicroMod form factor into your own PCB designs!
We are incredibly proud of this release, and we have plenty more ideas to grow MicroMod into a system of multiple processors and carriers that provide you with all the combinations of boards you can imagine. We'll look deeper into each board this Friday when Avra brings you a project showing the boards in action! See you then!
A screw terminal base board would be super awesome for this set for the micro mod processors,
I was glad I looked into it a bit further, as I found the SparkFun MicroMod DIY Carrier Kit (5 pack) which cut off the need to ask if the carrier was going to be available on the store front. ;-)
BTW, I'd suggest including it in the Friday New Product announcements.
Don't worry it will be!
Gotta say this - Sparkfun just hit it out of the park with the MicroMod. This would be an excellent basis to use for an embedded systems beginner class.
Sparkfun: you done good!
Thank you! Many people here appreciate hearing it.
Woah, didn't see this coming! Super exciting!
I agree with JordenLuke that a terminal block MicroMod board would be super awesome!
Suggestion : a Sparkfun MicroMod LoRa Carrier Board. Optimised for low power usage, with connector for external LoRa antenna, LiPo connector and charging circuit, pins for I2C, SPI, etc. MicroSD is not needed as it isn't low power.
cool
This thing looks absolutely amazing, but I'm failing to see just why it is useful / people are excited about it. As in, what is the use case? Is it because it has a reliable footprint and the processor can be chosen later, or because they can be hot-swapped? Is it that is essentially Arduino Uno-ing any processor you want for rapid prototyping? Trying to figure out, selfishly, how this can be useful for me, why I should be excited for it and how I could use it. Thanks!
Very interested to hear peoples' thoughts on Runningman's question.
I definately see this as an excellent tool for education purposes, and for first artical prototype boards. My team and I design many different prototype systems, and there's been a few times that as the project has progressed, we've needed to change the scope of our software. At times, this has caused us to move to a new board, which required updating system power budgets, updating system schematics and a ton of tech time. If we were able to simply swap our processor - would have saved us 10k's of dollars.
I don't see a use for this beyond the first few prototype phases, or one off builds - as once you work through and solidify the design more, you'd probably just spin your own low cost board or find a board cost optimized for the application. This is where I'm interested to hear from others.