Can I use all the features of the TWR-K21F120MA's microcontroller (MK21FN1M0AVMC12) without a Tower Development Platform?

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Can I use all the features of the TWR-K21F120MA's microcontroller (MK21FN1M0AVMC12) without a Tower Development Platform?

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brentgreenwald
Contributor III

I'm trying to figure out if I can use all the different interfaces the chip supports with just the dev board.

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petec20
Contributor III

The TWR-K21F120MA is most of the functionality of a tower platform based on that card. However, most, if not all, of the connectivity is on the edge connectors of the PCB. You need elevator cards ( the documentation doesn't state it, but they come in pairs, a primary & a secondary, the primary carries a 5v to 3v3 regulator )  The TWR-K21F120MA card itself is likely to be the major cost, so adding the elevator cards, and say a blank protoyping card won't add that much more to the cost. But it gets you easy connection and the ability to easily flip prototyped stuff between MCU cards. You can also move the card order about to get say the prototyping card on the top of the stack which is handy. The Quality of the PCBs and manufacture is very good. The schematics are okay but follow the modern scurge of using standard library symbols to draw complex schematics, when a re organisation of the symbol, or using a schematic layout tool where the symbol's pin can be re-ordered to suit the schematic would produce a much more readable drawing on half the pages.

The PCI-e connectors on the system work well.The TWR user manuals lack jumper location diagrams but you can always draw your own, or spend that bit longer looking for them on the card. The cards also lack test point grounds, but you can solder them on.

Considering the cost of the elevator cards and prototyping cards they're good value for money.

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brentgreenwald
Contributor III

I'm trying to figure out if I need to buy the tower dev platform to use all the different interfaces of the said board

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595 Views
petec20
Contributor III

The TWR-K21F120MA is most of the functionality of a tower platform based on that card. However, most, if not all, of the connectivity is on the edge connectors of the PCB. You need elevator cards ( the documentation doesn't state it, but they come in pairs, a primary & a secondary, the primary carries a 5v to 3v3 regulator )  The TWR-K21F120MA card itself is likely to be the major cost, so adding the elevator cards, and say a blank protoyping card won't add that much more to the cost. But it gets you easy connection and the ability to easily flip prototyped stuff between MCU cards. You can also move the card order about to get say the prototyping card on the top of the stack which is handy. The Quality of the PCBs and manufacture is very good. The schematics are okay but follow the modern scurge of using standard library symbols to draw complex schematics, when a re organisation of the symbol, or using a schematic layout tool where the symbol's pin can be re-ordered to suit the schematic would produce a much more readable drawing on half the pages.

The PCI-e connectors on the system work well.The TWR user manuals lack jumper location diagrams but you can always draw your own, or spend that bit longer looking for them on the card. The cards also lack test point grounds, but you can solder them on.

Considering the cost of the elevator cards and prototyping cards they're good value for money.

594 Views
petec20
Contributor III

Which dev board were you comparing the TWR-K21F120MA to Brent?

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