Datasheet

MPLAB

STARTER KIT FOR

INTELLIGENT.INTEGRATED.ANALOG

USER’S GUIDE

 2013 Microchip Technology Inc. DS50002172A-page 13

Chapter 1. Introduction to the Starter Kit

Thank you for purchasing the MPLAB Starter Kit for Intelligent.Integrated.Analog.

This board is intended to introduce the PIC24FJ128GC010 family of advanced analog

microcontrollers and demonstrate its wide range of on-chip analog features.

This chapter introduces the Starter Kit and provides an overview of its features. Topics

covered include:

• Overview

• What’s in the Kit

• Hardware

• Installing Device Drivers for the Starter Kit

1.1 OVERVIEW

The Starter Kit board includes many analog features to showcase the capabilities of the

PIC24FJ128GC010 family. The included 100-pin microcontroller integrates the

following analog features:

• A high-speed (10 Msps), 12-bit A/D Converter with multiple input channels

• A high-accuracy, 16-bit Sigma-Delta A/D Converter with two input channels

• Dual 10-bit, voltage output Digital-to-Analog Converters (DACs)

• Two op amps and three comparators

• mTouch™ capacitive sensing

In addition, the Starter Kit board adds external analog and digital sensors, including:

• Ambient light sensor

• Digital temperature sensor

• Microphone

• Headphone/line amplifier (stereo)

• Precision, low-drift voltage reference

• Optional expansion area for a Microchip wireless radio module (MRF24J40A)

• Optional NTC thermistor

The board comes preprogrammed with a menu driven demonstration application that

highlights most of the functions on the board. The application can be overwritten with

your own software, using the PICkit On Board (PKOB) programmer; no external

programmer is needed.

The preprogrammed application operates on a stand-alone basis; other than power

from a USB connection, no computer or client-side software is required for the board

to operate.

The low operating current (7 mA) of the PIC24FJ128GC010 microcontroller means the

entire board can be powered from a USB connection or optionally, by battery. The

entire Starter Kit itself draws approximately 25 mA from the USB host when running the

demo application; the actual current varies slightly between different segments of the

application. In Reduced Power mode, the total current draw for the Starter Kit is 1.7 mA,

the majority of which is drawn by the LEDs, with about 150 µA for the microcontroller.