Shawn Smith from Rabid Prototypes can work all parts of an electronics development process, from design to prototypes to finish parts. With eight previous Kickstarter electronics projects, seven of them successful, the Rabid Prototypes team is back with Pixel 2.0, an Arduino compatible smart display.
Pixel 2.0 was developed as a smart display for Arduino Zero units. The microcontroller is a 32bit, 48 MegaHertz Arm Cortex M0+ with 32k of RAM. The 1.5 inch display screen has 128x128 pixel color OLED display and a microSD slot. The system operates at 3.3 Volts, 14 digital I/O pins, 6 analog input pins and 1 analog output pin. The board itself is 1.8 inches square.
A MicroUSB port lets the user program the board and the units will ship with Arduino/Genuino Zero bootloaders already installed. Pixel 2.0 can be used with the Arduino SPI and SD libraries, and uses pins 7, 8, 9 and the ATN pin. A huge plus for me with this board is its compatibility with Adafruit's graphics library. I've always found this the most convenient method for planning out a pixel display, and leaps and bounds past using Microsoft Paint in the early 2000s.
The Pixel 2.0 is a redesign of a previous display that Rabid Prototypes developed, and there's a nice section in the campaign page detailing the changes made to the board and the reasons for those changes. This not only updates an old product but brings several design details in line with their Neutrino 2.0 microcontrollers.
Several options for a display like this are outlined - users might make retro video games, attach sensors to display data and text, or incorporate the Pixel into wearables. The commitment to Open Source also means that users will most likely find several other uses for the display before long. As of today the campaign needs $900 to be fully funded and will end on March 15. If successful first units are expected to ship in June.