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Naoyuki Tsubaki
IoT Product Marketing
Published: April 14, 2020

Hello, everyone. Today, I would like to introduce the latest MCU RX72N development kit (Envision Kit), which was released on April 7th. The has three important conditions such as multi-function, easy to use, and reasonable price. Therefore, I recommend this kit to users who want to try HMI development with MCU but unable to decide which is the most effective development kit in the market.

Envision Kit

The RX72N MCU installed in the envision kit is a 32-bit MCU added to the RX flagship family. Equipped with a high-performance CPU and large capacity and high-speed Flash/RAM, it is possible to realize HMI functions such as LCD display and audio I/O with just a single-chip MCU without external memory. The RX72N is a single-chip MCU with industry-leading performance.

The envision kit is in the shape of a smartphone-sized board and features a touch panel LCD, audio IC, and connectivity functions such as wireless (Wi-Fi/BLE) and Ethernet. On top of this, the kit is equipped with an emulator. With all these functions available, it costs only 6,000 yen. This is the most cost-effective kit in the market that enables easy HMI evaluation.

In addition to RX72N, this kit is equipped with many analog parts that Renesas has enhanced its lineups, including audio IC, amplifier, regulator, and clock generator. All of the ICs required for system development are covered by Renesas components. This is an advantage that can be achieved only with Renesas, as we are capable of providing total system support.

Now, let’s switch on the envision kit that you have purchased, and the demo will be launched.

sports game

SPORTS GAMES! Graphic display can be shown with just MCU, without external memory. This makes the kit perfect to create dynamic GUI at low cost. This demo program is created using GUI tool, “emWin” which is provided free to RX users. Don’t you think it’s fun to introduce HMI with demo games in your system? If you want to create an exciting product, this is the perfect kit to meet your expectation. This demo program is already released on the Web as a sample.

You can hold a sports game anytime, even under situations when it’s difficult to hold a large-scale event!

3 Types of Games

4 kinds of games are recorded into the demo program. My score was 85 for archery, 38.89 sec for the 400 meters, 170 kg for weightlifting, and 2.11 min for cycle racing. I hope you will join the games too!

Also, based on FreeRTOS provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), the initial program is equipped with functions for LCD display as well as for firmware update with SD card while offline.

The firmware to be released in the future is capable of secure communication using Renesas’s own security function – “Trusted Secure IP”, firmware update by connecting with AWS, and collaboration with each of our business partners’ unique middleware. In this way, we will also develop various attractive developments indispensable to not only HMI function but also IoT elements. Please stay tuned!

Take the RX72N Envision kit and “Envision” your system more and more concretely.

Visit GitHub to get a wide variety of technical information useful for development, such as quick start guide and sample demo code.

Additional note: This kit is made in Kumamoto, Japan, and we collaborated with “Kumamon”, a mascot of Kumamoto prefecture, who is the sales manager with over 1.5 billion dollars of annual sales. Please check out the cute package.

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