The mbed Microcontrollers are a series of ARM microcontroller development boards designed for rapid prototyping.
It includes 512KB FLASH, 32KB RAM and lots of interfaces including built-in Ethernet, USB Host and Device, CAN, SPI, I2C, ADC, DAC, PWM and other I/O interfaces.
Simply put, the mBed is an alternative option for electronics hobbyist who want something more powerful then the Arduino board with a lower level programming language.
How to use :
Once you have your mBed, connect it to your computer using a mini-USB to USB wire.
The mBed should appear as a normal USB flash drive should, this mean you can store files on it.
To make your first program, open a browser and go to http://mbed.org/. You will need to create an account.
Once you have your account set and the mBed in place, you are ready to make your first program, head to https://mbed.org/handbook/mbed-NXP-LPC1768-Downloading and follow the instructions. You will be up and running in no time.
![mBed pin out](http://slab.concordia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mbedmicrocontrollerpinout4.png)
The pinout above shows the commonly used interfaces and their locations. Note that all the numbered pins (p5-p30) can also be used as DigitalIn and DigitalOut interfaces.
Tech specs, Arduino Mega 2560 R3 VS mBed NXP LCP1768
mBed LCP 1768 | Arduino Mega 2560 R3 | |
Price | 59$ | 59$ |
Flash Memory | 2.1 meg | 256k |
Clock Speed | 96MHz | 16MHz |
RAM | 32 KB | 8 KB |
EEPROM | Entire flash memory can be used | 4 KB |
Pins | 25 pins total, 5 can be used for Analog and 5 for PWM, all can be used for Digial IN/OUT | 54 Digital (15 PWM), 16 Analog |
Online ressources :
mbed NXP LPC1768 Microcontroller Flyer