Digilent Inc.'sI/O Explorer board is a microcontroller-powered USB based input/output
expansion peripheral for PC computers. The I/O Explorer is useful for introductory
to intermediate programming classes to give students the ability to interact with
I/O devices outside of the PC.
USB Peripheral Devices
The I/O Explorer
provides RC servo connectors and a number of built-in I/O devices, such as switches,
push buttons, LEDs, rotary encoders and a speaker/buzzer. Also included are
Digilent Peripheral Module (PmodTM) connectors that allow access to and control
of devices external to the I/O Explorer. The board may be used either as a USB bus powered device or as a
self powered device. The board provides analog input channels and analog output
channels via on-board Analog to Digital (A/D) and Digital to Analog (D/A) converters.
There is also a Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) interface
for asynchronous serial communications.
The I/O Explorer can also be used as a microcontroller development board. It
microcontrollers, one having USB device capability. All the user requires is a
programming cable or in-system debugger to load firmware into the microcontroller.
Digilent supplies the firmware images needed to restore the I/O Explorer to the
factory configuration as a USB peripheral device if it has been reprogrammed
with user defined firmware.
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