Those of you who've kept an eye on our github page might have noticed that we've been busy this past few weeks.

We've made some significant changes to our bill of materials, improving our precision and speed. Most notably, we've elected to change our microcontroller from the LPC1343 to the ATXMEGA32A4U. Atmel (the company who makes the chip used in the Arduino) recently released a series of XMEGA microcontrollers with powerful USB features and a fast, accurate ADC. Our friendly neighborhood Atmel representative shed some light on issues with past XMEGA revisions and we have every confidence that this change will help us produce a quality product on a tight timeline. This in mind, the proof is in the pudding - we have our hands on samples, and will be exhaustively testing them.

(scanned sample)

With the XMEGA's awesome analog-digital converter and sweet USB controller, we're able to increase the CEE's sample rate to 100k samples per second at full 12bit resolution. The XMEGA has an internal programmable gain amplifier that will allow higher-resolution measurements at lower voltages and current.

Early-stage discussions with Seeed Studio have started. They've extended an offer to pursue manufacturing and fulfillment through their Propagate and Bazaar services. With the level of interest that we've received to date, we're seriously considering it. Offloading fulfillment to Seeed will allow us to focus on support, software, content creation, and eventually other products.

People have come up with novel uses of the CEE. We exchanged messages on our public mailing list about using both source-measure channels to calculate the half-cell potential of a solution, using a three-electrode cell. There's also been discussion about using the CEE to determine the I-V curve of a solar cell, letting anyone determine the efficiency and power of loose or broken cells. Might be useful the next time you build a budget array. Awesome things are afoot, and with fifty hours to go, time is running out for you, your friends, your college professor, and your crazy uncle to get in on the action!

Best,

Ian & Kevin