ATSAM4L-EK Board

Embedded Development Boards, Kits, Programmers
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Created by Alex Aldag, last modified on Jun 05, 2014

Available

ATSAM4L-EK at Digi-Key

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Features and Benefits per Atmel

Based on the powerful ARM® Cortex™-M4 processor and Atmel® picoPower® technology, the Atmel SAM4L family redefines the power benchmark, delivering the industry’s most efficient MCU:

  • Lowest power in active mode: 90µA/MHz
  • Lowest power in sleep mode: 1.5µA with full RAM retention
  • Lowest power in backup mode: 700 nA
  • Shortest wake-up time: down to 1.5µs from deep-sleep mode
  • Up to 28 CoreMark/mA efficiency rating
  • Operating voltage: 1.68V-3.6V
  • Cortex-M4 microcontroller at 48MHz
  • Lowest power consumption in active and sleep modes
  • 128KB to 256KB embedded Flash
  • Hardware capacitive touch module supported by Atmel QTouch technology
  • Up to 4x40-segment LCD controller

Here are the key features of the ATSAM4L-EK:

  • ATSAM4LC4C Cortex-M4 device
  • Board monitor with OLED color display, power measurement stage for ATSAM4LC4C power, joystick and five LEDS
  • Segger J-Link OB Module (embedded debugger)
  • QTouch slider and button
  • Segment LCD (4x40)
  • USB host and device
  • Wireless 10-pin interface
  • SPI serial Flash (AT25DF641A)
  • Sensor Xplained support
  • Light sensor
  • Reset push button
  • Audio jack connector
  • User input push button
  • RS485 connector

Software

Atmel Studio 6.2 (build 1153) (latest version)

Atmel Studio 6.1 (build 2674) - This link goes to the archived version of Atmel Studio.

Features of ATSAM4L-EK

  • Atmel ATSAM4LC4C Microcontroller (256KB Flash, 32KB RAM)
  • Clocks
    • 12MHz Crystal
    • 32.768KHz crystal
  • Embedded debugger (EDBG)
    • USB interface
    • Programming and debugging on board SAM D20 through Serial Wire Debug (SWD)
    • Programming and debugging external targets through Serial Wire Debug (SWD)
  • Board Monitor
    • A dedicated microcontroller (ATSAM3N4A) for power measuremnt of the SAM4L
    • OLED display (128x64)
    • A USART connected to the SAM4L
    • A TWI connected to the SAM4L
  • Segment LCD (4x40) connected to the SAM4L LCD interface
  • AT25DF641A Serial flash
  • Multiple user interfaces for the SAM4L
    • A QTouch button
    • A QTouch slider
    • A RESET button
    • A push button
    • A LED
    • A light sensor
  • Three possible power sources
    • 5VDC from the SAM4L USB connector
    • 5VDC from the Segger J-Link USB
    • 5VDC from a 2-pin header

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Examples

The examples that I’m going to discuss, at least on this page, can be found on the Atmel ASF page for the SAM4L-EK. By clicking on an application and going to the documentation, you can get a synopsis of what it does.

Getting Started on SAM4L-EK

Of all the start up projects that are available, the most common one tends to be a blinking LED. If you seen my page on the ATSAMD20 Xplained Pro board or Justin’s NXP LPC11XX board, you can see variations on blinking a LED. With 8-bit microcontrollers, Blinky tends to be very common as it’s the easiest to do with the smaller components. When you get to the higher end micros, you don’t see it too often or you see additions that you wouldn’t necessarily see in the low end.

Questions/Comments

Any questions or comments please go to Digi-Key’s TechForum