RoadTest: Tiva C Series TM4C1294 Connected LaunchPad
Author: gsgill112
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Independent Products
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: The newly Launched FRDM-K64F Board.
What were the biggest problems encountered?: Was not able to get Demo Application up and running over proxy servers. And needed some changes to get it working with the network setup I have.
Detailed Review:
Note:
First of all, Thanks Element14 for Giving me the opportunity of working with this kit. And my sincere apologies to RoadTest Group and all the Community Members for writing a late review. I would not have written the review late if I could have written it on time.
REVIEW:
After a lot of trouble and trial I have finally managed to get the board working. So, I have decided to write this review about 3 things the product itself, the problems I faced, and other alternatives. finally I will end with my comments about my kit. Before we begin, this kit is supposedly a Bang for Buck kit. and I wanted to share with you guys why , in spite of such awesomeness I gave the above rating to the board.
1. Product Performed to Expectations : well sure yes It did, or did it ? I started facing problems with the kit since I got the kit and with the sample "qs_iot" code pre-programmed with the kit. But as soon as i resolved the issue Yes IT DID. so 9/10
2. Specifications were sufficient to design with : No doubt about this, TI is the only vendor I know, which takes about even the minuscule details for us. 
TI ROCKS.
3. Demo Software was of good quality : No doubts about the quality, everything is neatly documented. Only reason for a 9 is that not everything is done it seams, they have few ToDo's inside the code !!! but at least we know what isn't there yet
4. Demo was easy to use : Well many people would disagree with me on this but, my answer is Hell NO. I have spent endless nights and hours getting this kit to get a CIK No from exosite and work with the exosite web.
5. Support materials were available : It's TI so not to worry in that department, plus we have Element14 Community
6. The price to performance ratio was good : Well personally I want to give it a 100/10 but that cant be done. Good is a bit of understatement it seams it is the best valued board money can buy for this price. Be warned if you go through the specs you may be tempted to buy 1000's of them .
Some formal Introduction to the Board :
OK, Lets get to business . This Board is a Golden Apple for Hobbyist's, Makers, IoT Enthusiasts, Embedded Developers, etc. This Board also opens opportunities for Students and Faculty for classroom training. Why ? Simply because of Support and training from TI (Please check the support Section ).
Well I am sure someone can get a uKernal running soon on this device 
. The best part is that it's only 20$ that is WoW damn cheep . Although Freescale has recently released it's much anticipated FRDM-K64F Platform Giving this Board a head to head competition. Lets compare these 2 top contestants 
| TI | FREESCALE(click here for details) |
|---|---|
| ARM Cortex M4F MCU @120Mhz, 150 DMIPS | ARM Cortex M4F MCU @120Mhz |
| 1MB Flash, 256KB SRAM + 6KB EEPROM | 1MB Flash, 256KB SRAM + 4KB EEPROM (Extra 128KB of FlexNVM) |
| 2x12bit ADC, USB,Timers, PWM, CAN, Security, I2C, SPI | 2x16bit ADC, 2x12bit DAC, Crystal-less USB, Timers, PWM, CAN, Security, I2C, SPI |
| Ethernet Interface | Ethernet interface, Accelerometer, Magnetometer, SDHC card slot, SLOT for JY-MCU Blurtooth Module and nRF24L01p Module |
| Abs Max of 74 GPIO's, 2xBooster Pack XL Pinout | Abs Max of 50GPIO's with 42GPIO's via Headers. 1xArduino R3 Shield compatible Pinout |
| TI's ICDI programming/debugging Interface | OpenSDAv2 reconfigurable and reprogrammable programming/debugging interface with OpenSource CMSIS-DAP Interface |
| $19.99/Unit | $29/Unit |
MORE COMMING SOON .. Please be Patient ..
