1 Introduction

Kit Introduction, Kit Contents, Terminology, Image Legend.

1.1 Curiosity Nano Explorer

The Curiosity Nano Explorer lives up to its name by providing extensive on-board features that allow users to explore and experiment with the microcontroller peripherals of their Curiosity Nano development board. It also serves as a great platform to become familiar with Microchip's software offerings.

A wide selection of input and output options:
  • INPUTS include Touch and mechanical buttons, a potentiometer, a joystick, a temperature sensor, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a microphone
  • OUTPUTS include LEDs (simple yellow, standard RGB, and WS2812B RGB), an OLED display, and a speaker
Solid support for serial communication:
  • I2C Bus with eight clients
  • SPI Bus with three clients
  • UART connection
Microchip’s complementary technologies:
  • Touch controller with three touch buttons and a separate touch button for use with microcontrollers featuring a touch peripheral
  • ECC608 provides CryptoAuthentication™ features
  • Power Monitoring by the PAC1944 enables the measurement of various power domains

Finally, if anything is missing on the Explorer, its functionality can be expanded via the mikroBUS™, Grove or Qwiic® connector.

1.2 Kit Contents

The Curiosity Nano Explorer kit contains:
  • One Curiosity Nano Explorer development board
  • 20 separable 100-mil jumper wires for pin remapping
  • Ten additional 100-mil pin jumpers
  • One 1x8 (100-mil) right-angled pin header to connect external programmer/debuggers
  • One joystick cap

1.3 Terminology

This user guide uses the following terminology:

Table 1-1. Terminology
TermExplanation
ExplorerThe Curiosity Nano Explorer development board
CNANOThe connected Curiosity Nano development board
CNANO SocketA socket with two 1x28 100-mil pin header sockets to connect any Curiosity Nano development board to the Curiosity Nano Explorer

1.4 Image Legend

The symbols and colors below are used throughout the user guide.