The core of the Shine It! kit is a small demonstration board that, in addition to an µPD78F8024 8 bit microcontroller from NEC Electronics, also contains several other components including MOSFETs, which can switch currents in the range of 300 mA to 1.5 A.
The MCU itself particularly features an integrated four-channel constant current driver for constant High-Current Driver (HCD), which can be configured either in four independent channels or as combined channel. The constant current drivers can be operated in buck or boost mode. The options, which offer the developer for example the selection of the optimum LED control, are correspondingly versatile. In addition to the integrated temperature or ambient light sensors, a DMX512 interface, a RS232 link or optionally also a wireless ZigBee(TM) access are available to users of the Shine It! kit.
The Shine It! system board enables a flexible LED configuration complete with existing onboard RGBW LEDs, connections for external LED modules and ready to use LED light engines. Additionally, the demonstration kit contains Applilet EZ, a very comprehensive and easy to use GUI tool. Three steps are all that are needed in order to graphically configure the board, automatically generate the source code using the IAR compiler and program the target with help of a USB connection. Furthermore, with help of the flexible Applilet EZ tool, developers can also create user-defined dimmer controls by manually drawing the duty cycle for each channel.