1.1 PIC32CX SG61 Curiosity Ultra Evaluation Board

The PIC32CX SG61 Curiosity Ultra Evaluation Board is a comprehensive hardware platform designed for evaluating the PIC32CX SG61 microcontrollers (MCUs). This evaluation board is supported by the MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Microchip Code Configurator (MCC), which provide application examples to facilitate the design of custom applications.

Key Features:

  • Microcontroller: The board features the PIC32CX1025SG61128 microcontroller.
  • Buttons and LEDs: It includes one mechanical reset button, two mechanical programmable buttons, and two user LEDs.
  • Oscillators: The board is equipped with a 32.768 kHz crystal and a 12 MHz oscillator.
  • Memory: It has a 64 Mbit Quad SPI Flash and an AT24MAC402 Serial EEPROM with EUI-48™ MAC address.
  • Interfaces: The board supports a USB interface (Host or Device), Ethernet 10/100 Mbps RMII Interface with modular PHY Header, and two CAN interfaces with onboard transceivers.
  • Connectors: It includes an SD/SDIO card connector, DAC Output Header, mikroBUS header connector, two extension headers compatible with a wide range of Microchip extension boards, and Arduino® Uno header connectors.
  • Debugging: The board features an embedded debugger (PKoB4) for programming and debugging, along with a Virtual COM port (CDC).
  • Power: It can be powered through USB or Power Header and Barrel Jack connector for external power sources.

The mikroBUS header connector is a significant feature of the PIC32CX SG61 Curiosity Ultra Evaluation Board. It consists of a pair of 1×8 female headers with a proprietary pin configuration and silkscreen markings. The pinout includes three groups of communication pins (SPI, UART, and I2C), five additional pins (PWM, interrupt, analog input, reset, and chip select), and two power groups (+3.3V and 5V). This standardized header allows for easy integration with a variety of mikroBUS-compatible extension boards, facilitating rapid prototyping and expanded functionality. In this project, it will be used for the D4i communication board.