SparkFun Electronics And Renesas Launch Thing Plus - RA6M5: A Developer Board For Prototyping Advanced IoT Solutions

Low-power Bluetooth® and Qwiic come together in this high-performance microcontroller, delivering ease-of-use in challenging IoT applications.

BOULDER, Colo., April 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SparkFun Electronics is excited to announce the Thing Plus - RA6M5, boasting an impressive and nimble feature set designed to save developers time. The RA6M5 group from Renesas is made to meet the demands of real-time applications, featuring a 200MHz clock speed and powered by a low-power Arm® Cortex®-M33 processor.  A standout feature of the Thing Plus -RA6M5 is its Bluetooth® Low Energy connectivity. The added DA14531MOD module from Renesas facilitates wireless communication while maintaining low power consumption, using just 4mA and capable of being powered by a coin-cell battery.

Created with flexibility in mind, the SparkFun Thing Plus - RA6M5 comes with a Qwiic connector for rapid prototyping and integration with a wide range of Qwiic-connected devices, all within the familiar Feather footprint. The RA6M5 comes with 512kB of SRAM and 2MB of Flash, ensuring ample memory and storage for complex projects. SparkFun has enhanced this capability with an additional 16MB of QSPI Flash and an SD card slot, providing users with extensive data storage options. Additionally, the board's firmware is equipped with SmartBond™ - CodeLess™ AT command set, which allows for straightforward Bluetooth configuration, requiring only AT commands from the user, thus eliminating the complexity of module reprogramming.

"With our release of the Thing Plus - RA6M5, there's no compromise between performance, low-energy consumption, and flexibility," said Kirk Benell, CTO at SparkFun Electronics. "This board is not just powerful and agile; it optimizes the Renesas RA6M5 group on a platform that is designed to be user-friendly, making advanced IoT prototyping accessible to a wide range of developers and industry professionals."

"We are excited to witness the launch of the Thing Plus - RA6M5. Collaborating with SparkFun, a leading open-source solution provider, enables us to make our technology more accessible to a broad base of makers and students. This platform allows customers to build complete and scalable IoT edge solutions with an easy-to-use and affordable module," said Brad Rex, Sr Director of System Solution Team at Renesas Electronics.

A video demo of the new Thing Plus - RA6M5 can be viewed at the Renesas booth at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany from April 9th-11th, and is available for purchase at https://www.sparkfun.com/products/24243

SOURCE SparkFun Electronics