Development board on Deal Extreme...useful for anything?

[smalltownguy]

I noticed this on DealExtreme today:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.47609



I wonder if it could be useful for anything arcade related?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Looks like a bootleg
http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/

[Howard_Casto]

Like the man said, a clone of a teensy.  Considering you are only saving about a buck and you'd have to wait 1000 years to get it shipped from China, it would be better to stick to the official model. 

As for what it's useful for...  it's an amtel avr with built in usb support.  Common uses would be a joystick pcb, keyboard encoder, led control module, joystick adaptor (nes 2 usb or whatever) or anything you can think of. 

No clue why it's in the ps3 section though unless it doubles as a mod chip or something.

[RayB]

DA's shipping is free and very fast. 2 weeks tops to get to all the way to Canadia.

That said, support the official board, not the knock-off.

[DaOld Man]

Very interesting. I just ordered one from the original's site (http://www.pjrc.com/).
Ordered the usb cable too.
Shipping is a little high, but the chip is not counterfeit, and that means a lot.
I will let you know how it works when I get it.

[MonMotha]

If that picture is accurate, the China clone also only has a 90USB162 on it whereas the "official" PJRC model has a mega32U4, so double the flash.  Fitting a fully featured USB stack in 16k can be a challenge (though it's perfectly doable - you can cram one into about 2k if you really want to), but 32k provides plenty of room.  Atmel AVRs, though not these models, at least that I'm aware of, have been subject to counterfeit recently, so hopefully the PJRC "official" one will have real chips.  Who knows with the China knockoff.

As for use, sure it's useful for arcade related stuff.  It's basically just a breakout board including oscillator and USB port for the chip contained on it.  For arcade related stuff, you'll probably be using it for inputs and light outputs.  AVRs are pretty powerful little MCUs.  You can use LUFA to do the USB side, or Atmel has about a bazillion different stacks in varying states of (dis)repair.  Be aware that you'll have to do some somewhat serious programming on this.  If you're not comfortable in C/C++, steer clear.

[DaOld Man]

WOW! Got the board today. Talk about fast shipping! 4 days with a holiday in the middle!
Very impressive.
Now I got to find the time to hook this thing up and play with it a bit.

[DaOld Man]

Very small board..
Heres a pic with a USA quarter for comparison..