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Blog Unboxing the Microchip Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit
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  • Author Author: dougw
  • Date Created: 5 Feb 2024 7:30 AM Date Created
  • Views 703 views
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  • Comments 3 comments
  • dougw
  • Upcycle IoT Design Challenge
  • Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit
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Unboxing the Microchip Curiosity Nano Evaluation Kit

dougw
dougw
5 Feb 2024

Intro

This is very late in the game to be doing an unboxing, but the design challenge kit only arrived a few days ago. There were problems with stock of the Click modules I asked for, and further problems with shipping. I ended up paying about $23 for delivery to UPS, even though I may not use the click modules after all.

Unfortunately the deadline for the challenge is only 4 days away so there is little likelihood of sticking to my original plan. I should be spending these last days writing my final blog, but I do want to try and get something built as well.

I have started building a Click card with display interface, keypad interface and Teletype serial port.

Image of the Curiosity Nano System with extra Click boards

image

The custom strip board Click card has an interface for a keypad, the LCD and the Aim65 serial port.

Unboxing Video

This video doesn't spend much time on unboxing since the kit arrived very late - I just want to show the main system components.

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Software

MPLAB is a new IDE for me, so it will involve quite a learning curve. I tried to download  MPLAB X IDE using Chrome, but it couldn't even display the download link. Eventually I switched to Firefox and had no problems seeing the link. After installing MPLAB X IDE, I tried running it, but it immediately indicated I needed to download a compiler separately. Chrome had no problem finding an appropriate compiler for this module, so I proceeded to install the compiler. I next downloaded the Curiosity Nano getting started demo zip file and tried to load it into MPLAB. It indicated there was a bunch of resources missing and offered to download them. That download took another 10 minutes. When I tried to open the Code Configurator it indicates local package versions are not compatible with the package versions in the project manifest. It then went into a very long, possibly endless loop, "initializing project", presumably because of the version incompatibility. I could not exit from the program with menus or clicking x. Even the Windows Task Manager couldn't shut it down. Clearly I have a long learning curve ahead of me.

Discussion

I think I will be able to get the hardware assembled properly. I have figured out the Teletype interface and how to connect it to a Click connector. I have figured out how to get the LCD to work with a 3.3V Curiosity Nano. The Curiosity Nano can be configured to work with 5V but the SD card cannot, so I will leave it at 3.3V. This can easily be made to work with the AIM65 which is a 5V system. The keypad is very simple, just switches with pullup resistors to 3.3V.

The software is another matter. I might be able to find compatible versions of everything or I might forget about the "getting started" demo and just try to talk to the peripherals I have.

I also have a link to an Arduino library for the Curiosity Nano - maybe I can get that working. I know there are Arduino libraries for the display and the SD card.

At this stage things are not looking promising, but I will try a few things in the next couple of days before I absolutely need to switch over and get what I have in shape to be published.

Links:

Upcycle The Beast - Blog 1

Serendipitous Salvage - Blog 2

What is on those old disks?

Mr. Pentium

PC based bench supply

Curiosity Nano Unboxing

 Curiosity Nano Programming 

 Super-cycle Design Challenge 

 Upcycle IoT Design Challenge 

Upcycle IoT Design Challenge Info

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Top Comments

  • shabaz
    shabaz over 1 year ago +1
    Hi Doug, There was an unrelated thread a few days ago, regarding 'MPLAB Xpress'. It's a cloud version that looks like a normal IDE, but just in a browser. I tried it for a few seconds and noticed a…
  • dougw
    dougw over 1 year ago in reply to shabaz

    Thanks shabaz . I'll take a look.

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  • shabaz
    shabaz over 1 year ago

    Hi Doug,

    There was an unrelated thread a few days ago, regarding 'MPLAB Xpress'. It's a cloud version that looks like a normal IDE, but just in a browser.

    I tried it for a few seconds and noticed a statement that it doesn't retain projects for very long at all; just three days. The user needs to either download their project locally, or to configure GitHub, so that the project can be stored there more permanently.

    Anyway, it could be an option, if the IDE has problems running locally.

    This is what it looked like when selecting the microcontroller:

    image

    Building code:

    image

    That's all I tried, I don't know anything about these microcontrollers, so I didn't try anything more interesting.

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  • JWx
    JWx over 1 year ago

    Nice update! I also have got my Curiosity Nano today and still waiting for modules... 

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