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Overview#

What is this?#

pyControl D-series breakout is a device that connects a pyboard D-series microcontroller with twelve RJ45 ports. It is intended for use with the pyControl behavioral experiment control framework.

How is it different?#

pyControl Breakout Board 1.2 (left) and D-series Breakout (right)

The core distinction between this breakout board and the official pyControl breakout board 1.2 is the upgrade to a newer generation pyboard (i.e. a more powerful microcontroller). Some benefits of the newer pyboard include being smaller, faster, having more memory, and having more input/output pins. Having more available pins is particularly useful, as it enables the breakout board to provide more behavior ports without requiring a port expander. Below is a comparison of the two breakout boards.

Breakout Board 1.2 D-series Breakout Board 1.6
Microcontroller
Board pyboard v1.1 pyboard D-series SF6W
CPU 168 MHz Cortex-M4F 216 MHz Cortex-M7F
RAM 192 KB 512 KB
ROM 512 KB 4,048 KB
Connectors
RJ45 6 12
BNC 4 0
USB Full Speed (12 Mbit/s) High Speed (480 Mbit/s)
Behavior Ports
Power Driver Pins 14 24
Digital I/O Pins 14 30
ADC Pins 12 15
DAC Pins 2 2
UART Buses 3 4
I2C Buses 2 2
Dimensions
PCB 1.8 in x 7.6 in 2.7 in x 3.6 in
Performance1
Latency - No load 561 ± 16 µs (100% < 1 ms) 307 ± 9 µs (100% < 1 ms)
Latency - High load 842 ± 293 µs (84.8% < 1 ms) 372 ± 95 µs (100% < 1 ms)
Accuracy - No load -210 ± 281 µs (100% < 1 ms) -342 ± 285 µs (100% < 1 ms)
Accuracy - High load -27 ± 351 µs (99.2% < 1 ms) -361 ± 280 µs (100% < 1 ms)


  1. More details about the performance comparison here