Chirp Explorer Board: The prototyping board designed for data-over-sound
We’re pleased to announce the Chirp Explorer Board, the first embedded development board that’s tailor-made from the ground up to explore the possibilities of acoustic data transfer.
It’s based on the Arm Cortex-M4 CPU, which, despite its low cost and low-power operation, packs a powerful set of DSP capabilities courtesy of its integrated FPU and CMSIS-DSP library.
It has an integrated dynamic loudspeaker, MEMS microphone, and high-quality Cirrus Logic codec (supporting audio sample rates up to 192kHz), so it has everything you need on-board to transmit and receive Chirp signals.
We’ve made it as quick and simple as possible to integrate with the Chirp Arm SDK, with drop-in examples to get you up and running in minutes — no need to wrestle with handling audio I/O manually.
Here’s how you send a small payload:
Specifications
- Arm Cortex-M4 CPU running at 168MHz, with 256KB RAM and 2MB Flash
- High-quality 192kHz audio DAC (Cirrus Logic CS4271) supports data-over-audio transmission in the audible and near-ultrasonic ranges, with a transmission range up to 3m
- Integrated MEMs microphone and 1.4W dynamic loudspeaker provide integrated support for sending and receiving Chirp signals
- Supports 3.5mm line-level inputs and outputs to connect to external audio peripherals (with optional Molex adapter)
- User-assignable user interface elements: 2x RGB LEDs, 2x potentiometers, and 2x push buttons
- Arduino-compatible GPIO pinout, with 21 GPIO pins, 8-channel 12-bit ADC, 2-channel 12-bit DAC, SPI, CAN, I2C, UART, and several multi-function hardware timers
- Powered via micro-USB and programmed via standard SWD interface
- Integrates seamlessly with the Chirp Arm SDK
- Can also be used as a general-purpose development board for audio prototyping
How do I get one?
Sign up to join the pre-order wait list at explorer.chirp.io.
We’ll begin shipping in late 2018.
Credits
The Chirp Explorer Board has been a collaboration with Rebel Technologies, some of the most talented people in audio tech, who’ve also recently created the excellent Magus programmable and patchable synth toolkit.
Design and development of the highly-optimised Chirp Arm SDK has been directed by Damien Laidin, our supremely talented Embedded Lead. Damien will be introducing the Explorer Board at Audio Developer Conference 2018 (London, UK).
