Developer's kit sheds light on IrDA connectivity

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 12, 2002

A new Microchip Technology development platform from Arrow Electronics will significantly simplify the design, evaluation and prototyping of embedded systems that require IrDA infra-red connectivity.

A new Microchip Technology development platform from Arrow Electronics will significantly simplify the design, evaluation and prototyping of embedded systems that require IrDA infra-red connectivity.

The MCP2120/MCP2150 developer's kit contains all of the hardware, software, documentation and cabling needed to set up an IrDA solution based on Microchip's MCP2120 or MCP2150 ICs.

The MCP2120 is a fully static IR encoder/decoder that sits between any standard microcontroller UART and an IrDA-compliant optical transceiver, while the MCP2150 is the industry's only low-pin count communication controller to support both the IrDA standard protocol stack and bit encoding/decoding.

Featuring two MCP2120 development boards, the developer's kit enables a complete transmitter and receiver system to be implemented.

The kit also includes an MCP2150 development board that can be used to communicate with other IrDA-enabled devices.

In addition to the boards, samples of the MCP2120 and MCP2150 devices are also provided, along with all necessary data and power cables.

A comprehensive user guide is also supplied.

The development boards, which can be connected to either a PC or another system, allow the user to configure input and output options including direct connection to a host UART.

Output options include an off-the-shelf transceiver and a minimal cost component solution that is jumper selectable.