Batteries Included Forever. Fill Stockings Not Landfill.

• Author: USBWorld
• Filed under: USB News, USB gadgets
• Date: Dec 17,2008

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Recession Proof Power with Moixa USBCELL Re-Usable Batteries

Over 22,000 tonnes of batteries end up in landfill from when “rubbish after one use” Alkaline batteries are thrown away from toys and gadgets annually in the UK, creating toxic waste for hundreds of years.

Moixa Energy’s award winning USBCELL re-usable batteries help reduce this, as they can be re-used hundreds of times by re-charging in USB ports on desktops, laptops or games consoles. Saving money and planet. USBCELLs were recently a Good Housekeeping consumer awards finalist, and in September won the Barclays Commercial ‘Green Leaders in Business’ award. They were also the only British company to win an iF Gold Design award at Cebit earlier in the year as a top 50 world design (www.usbcell.com/awards).

Recognized globally as a sustainable product, this British invention is now stocked this Christmas at leading UK stores nationwide such as Morrisons, Halfords, Currys, and John Lewis, (see www.usbcell.com for details), and is helping councils and the UK reduce battery waste — now a legal requirement under the EU Batteries Directive which aims to reduce UK battery landfill by 25% by 2012.

Moixa Energy CEO, Simon Daniel comments, “Our USBCELL products aim to solve problems, save money and be sustainable. Why keep running to the shop each time the XBOX/WII/PS3 controller or digital camera or toys run out of power on Boxing day when you can simply swap over and re-charge USBCELLs on console USB ports, or recharge from laptops or desktops. We also believe USBCELLs, like solar energy, are a great example of recession proofing — buying green power solutions today (before banks/currencies lose your money!) will keep on providing renewable energy to devices and saving money, throughout a pro-longed recession.”

Moixa Energy is a London based company which develops renewable power for homes and portable applications. USBCELL batteries are patented technology (usbcell.com/ip) and will soon be available in other formats for phones and cameras, as well as private labels for partner companies. Moixa Energy is also developing low power DC technology for homes and schools to be further announced in 2009.

New $39 Piccolo USB tools jumpstart 32-bit real-time control development

• Author: USBWorld
• Filed under: USB News
• Date: Dec 16,2008

Piccolo MCUs sampling now to enable greener, more cost-effective industrial, automotive and consumer applications

Helping designers bring 32-bit real-time control to cost sensitive applications, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced two new USB-based tools for Piccolo(TM) 32-bit TMS320F2802x microcontrollers (MCU). The new evaluation and development tools make it easier for designers to evaluate Piccolo MCUs and develop more energy-efficient, real-time control applications such as solar power micro-inverters, LED lighting, white goods appliances and hybrid automotive batteries (http://www.ti.com/controlstickpr). In addition, the first Piccolo-based devices, the F2802x series, are now available for sampling (http://www.ti.com/piccolopr).

Piccolo controlSTICK key features

• $39 evaluation tool

• Helps designers evaluate and learn about Piccolo MCUs

• Small, USB stick form factor

• On board USB JTAG for quick, easy project evaluation

• Access to all control peripherals through header pins

• 32 KB limited Code Composer Studio(TM) IDE and example projects

Piccolo USB Experimenter’s Kit key features

• $79 for full development kit; includes $49 Piccolo controlCARD

• Prototyping gets designers developing on Piccolo MCUs quickly

• On board USB JTAG emulation with connection for external emulator and power supply

• Access available to all Piccolo pins

• 32 KB limited Code Composer Studio IDE

Real-time control drives energy efficiency across many applications

• Solar micro-inverters: Packing 32-bit performance into a small, low-cost package brings better efficiency and control to solar-powered systems by enabling micro-inverter-based systems that have the potential to drive higher power conversion efficiencies compared to traditional, centralized inverter systems.

• Commercial and industrial lighting applications: LED technology can bring up to 50 percent higher energy efficiency compared to traditional high pressure sodium lamps. Piccolo MCU-based systems enable smart current control and easy system networking to reduce the complexity and cost of managing color mixing and temperature control required for white LED systems.

• Power line communications (PLC): Piccolo MCUs’ real-time performance and integration help bring PLC to multiple applications, including street light networks that allow cities to pinpoint power outages and centrally manage or adjust lighting based on time of day, traffic or weather conditions.

Pricing, availability, tools and support

The $39 Piccolo controlSTICK offers example projects that walk through Piccolo MCUs’ advanced functionality, from simply blinking an LED to configuring the high resolution ePWM peripherals. The $79 Piccolo Experimenter’s Kit offers the next step in development by allowing designers to prototype and develop full Piccolo MCU-based projects quickly and easily. The first F2802x Piccolo MCUs, TMX320F28027PTA and TMX320F28023DAA, are available for sampling and scale from 40 to 60 MHz variations with up to 64 KB Flash memory, 12-bit ADC, ePWM and various peripherals. Future Piccolo MCUs such as the F2803x series will offer increased performance and memory sizes as well as additional peripherals and features such as the programmable, floating point control law accelerator (CLA).

Source: Texas Instruments Incorporated