*** Note! Updated Oct 19, 2019 ***

Azure Sphere OS 19.09 "major" release brings additional capabilities that are worth checking out.

• Azure Sphere 19.09 Release Overview
• Azure Sphere 19.09 Release Notes

Insights here on some of the new features you can take advantage of with your Starter Kit...

Enabled New Chip Features

ADC inputs and PWM output peripheral functions are now accessible from the high-level A7 user application. The Samples GitHub repository has been updated and now includes new applications that exercise these chip features.

Take a look at the following two examples:

• ADC_HighLevelApp
• PWM_HighLevelApp

Nine GPIOs with PWM functionality are accessible on the Avnet Starter Kit. See the table below.
eg. The utility and visual effectiveness of the five user-controlled LEDs (on GPIO4, GPIO5, GPIO8, GPIO9, GPIO10) can be enhanced by implementing PWM control of these GPIO outputs

Three GPIOs can be configured as ADC analog input pins on the Avnet Starter Kit:

ADC resolution is 12 bits. Maximum sample rate is 2 MHz.

Enhanced Wi-Fi capabilities

Good news is that the Wi-Fi capabilities have been enhanced in the 19.09 OS release to:

1. Enable connection to hidden Wi-Fi networks and
2. Provide better network discovery in congested Wi-Fi environments.

These features are supported both through the azsphere device wifi command and in the wificonfig API.

Notes!

• When configuring Wi-Fi settings from the 19.09 command line, the --key parameter (abbreviated as -k) is now replaced by --psk (abbreviated as -p),
  eg.   azsphere device wifi add --ssid MyHotSpot --psk 12345678

• To delete a Wi-Fi network from the stored Wi-Fi settings, the delete parameter has been replaced by forget
  eg. azsphere device wifi forget --id 0

• A really important new feature is the availability of the optional --targeted-scan parameter (abbreviated as -t)
  eg.   azsphere device wifi add --ssid MyHotSpot --psk 12345678 -t
  This will force connection to an SSID even if this not among the SSIDs reported by a Wi-Fi scan, or if located in a crowded wireless network environment
  (Make sure to forget instances of the target SSID from list of WiFi networks currently configured, before adding an SSID with the -t targeted-scan parameter)
  More detail on this topic is available here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure-sphere/network/wifi-including-ble#enable-targeted-scanning

API changes

The 19.09 Azure Sphere OS release includes several changes to the API set:

1. Promotion of I2C and SPI Beta APIs to LTS APIs (Long Term Support)
2. Changes to networking Beta APIs. Some previous Beta features have been replaced by new functionality. See Applibs networking.h for the networking API details.
3. Changes to wificonfig API. See Applibs wificonfig.h for details.
4. New event notification and event loops Beta APIs to monitor and dispatch events (High-level apps can use these APIs to request notification and defer updates)

SDK Changes

The 19.09 Azure Sphere SDK has also been updated, to work with the latest OS, - it now includes sysroots for four Target API Sets
In each Visual Studio project, the Target API Set (under Properties / Configuration / General) can now be set to 1, 2, 3 or 3+Beta1909

Beta APIs can change, so projects based on Beta APIs may need to be rebuilt  (with changed Target API Set) after an OS update

For help with command-line options or syntax, type-in the partially completed command followed by -? or --help to get context-relevant assistance

For verbose reporting in response to commands, add -v or --verbose to the end of the command entered

For documentation of the azsphere command-line tool go here

Further Tips to Max-Out Your Starter Kit!

Tips to max-out your Starter Kit hardware! (Part 1)

Tips to max-out your Starter Kit hardware! (Part 2)