Minibloq developers today released news that the Beta version of the software will support Maple 32 bit Microcontrollers in addition to Arduino. Minibloq is a Graphical user interface and programming environment for Arduino Microcontrollers. I have used the Alpha versions of the program and found it is easy to use intuitive.

Minibloq v0.8 was released to backers and alpha testers recently and great progress has been made based the on feedback received. Recently, Minibloq doubled the number of Arduino boards it will work with. Programmer Julián da Silva has been adding boards jsust as fast as he can program them. So far the boards have been Arduino compatible with 8-bit AVR micro-controllers. However, this week the Maple 32 bit  board were added to the list of supported hardware.  The Maple from LeafLabs is a 32 bit microcontroller that features an ARM Cortex M3 processor running at 72 MHz.

According to information on the Leaflabs web site :

“Our Maple board consists of the essentials: a fast processor with lots of peripherals. At the center of Maple is a 72MHz ARM Cortex M3 chip, providing the increased computational power desired by more advanced users. In the past, ARM processors were notoriously unfriendly in non-professional environments due to p

roprietary tool chains and unfamiliar instruction sets. Because of this, they were conspicuously absent from classrooms and hobbyists’ workbenches. Leaf aims to change this by providing an ARM tool-chain built from open source components and a programming environment that is intuitively easy to use. For those of us who love and are familiar with Arduino, Maple is offered in an Arduino-compatible format, complete with Arduino pin layouts and programming environment.”

Although the multiboard subsystem is still a work in progress, the potential for Minibloq to deal with different hardware and back-end compilers is extremely encouraging. The ability of one programming environment to be used across multiple platforms could spur increased development and use of open source micro-controllers. With support for iPad already in development, support for Mac OSX, Linux and with Minibloq already in use in School in Argentina, Minibloq’s future look bright.

To find out more about Minibloq Graphical Programming Environment  check out the following blog posts or subscribe to our newsletter.

Minibloq Test Drive

Minibloq v0.8 Alpha Kickstart

Kickstarter

Video

Source: https://blog.minibloq.org/2011/09/maple-32-bits-board-is-here.html

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/791396812/minibloq-graphical-programming-environment-for-ard