One thing folks will notice very quickly is that HydroPWNics makes heavy use of FreeScale ARM Cortex M0+ microcontrollers. I chose these MCUs for their very nice cost to performance ratio and low power capabilities. I am currently using two different MCUs the MKL05Z16VFK4 and the MKV10Z16VFM7. The ML05 is being used for modules because I want them to be low power capable and the L series (Kinetis L) designed for that. The MKV10 is on the hub and I intend that to be doing a bit more processing (sample modules, aggregating the data, rudimentary processing etc), hence the hire clockspeed. I also wanted to support both wired and wirelss functions so I needed the dual UART of the MKV10. Even thought the V series (Kinetis V) is targeted towards motion control and higher performance its still considered a low power product. Now that being said what if these modules had Teensy compatibility? The benefit of Teensy compatibility would mean that my modules could be compatible with the Arduino IDE and all of Paul's great libraries. It would effectively make this project Arduino compatible, which is handy to get other's involved in the project later on as it grows. Before I make a decision I should not this is not a simple switch either way. Teensy compatibility could be implemented by either porting the code base or swapping chips. This would mean redesigning all the modules around the Teensy chips or a project in itself for software.

Now redesigning the PCBs seems like a lot but to be honest they are not too compex, they are two layer designs using circuits I've played with before and took very little time to implement. What I need to do now, is perform some testing. Luckily I can get the MKL05 as a FreeScale Freedom board, so I can use that to test the sensors I plan to use and runs some benchmarks. The MKV10 doesn't have a Freedom board yet, there is talk of one but I haven't seen anything as of late. Next off I would have to evaluate Teensy. The Teensy LC is the most attractive one because its low cost and low power, despite all the custom hardware I am trying to keep costs down (see log about board cost estimates and look for the BOM post coming soon). The Teensy LC has a Cortex M0+ similar to the MKL05 but is equipped with USB, also the LC uses a QFN package which I like very much for the size and I find them very easy to solder. Despite the differences between the Teensy LC and my chips, I think I could make it work either way but first I want to do some testing. Stay tuned for more to come!