FIGnition inFUZE from RS Components

The inFUZE version of the FIGnition DIY computer went on sale today. I reviewed the original kit from nichemachines over a year ago and now a ‘special’ version is available with pre-programmed games and utilities and much improved documentation. Another small, cheap microcomputer board has dominated the market over the past year and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you its name! On the face of it, FIGnition has nothing like the processing power of its rival Raspberry Pi so why would you want one? One answer lies in the way the kit is presented:  bags of components and a bare printed circuit board. You won’t need a keyboard, mouse or SD memory card: you will need a soldering kit and some hand tools.

Both FIGnition and Raspberry Pi were launched with the same aim in mind: to produce an inspirational teaching tool in general and a means to help reverse the chronic decline in UK technical education in particular. They take different approaches however. FIGnition gives you a ‘feel’ for the hardware and that wonderful sense of satisfaction gained when something works that you’ve built yourself. As soon as the command prompt appears you can type in some commands or compile some code. With this inFUZE version, source code from the external Flash memory can be compiled and run immediately. All the programs supplied are well documented and illustrate programming techniques or explain how the hardware works. A simple 2-channel analogue data logger program is included so students can be monitoring and graphing, say, temperature and light levels with the addition of a few discrete components.

After opening the box the first thing to do is read the Getting Started guide thoroughly. A large amount of information has been squeezed into this small leaflet but for the detailed construction and testing guides you will need to refer to the FIGnition website. Most of the downloadable documentation is in ‘beta’ form and will be finalised in the coming weeks. So far there is an introductory Tutorial aimed at very young beginners, the inFUZE Bundle guide and the first part of the FIGnition User Manual covering the FORTH programming language. The second part will cover the hardware in detail. Also to come is a ‘Cookbook’ of ideas some of which will be provided by the FIGnition User Group forum.

The basic hardware design hasn’t changed since my last review – apart from the audio jack socket colour being changed to red to signify its origin! The firmware has undergone extensive revision and now features a powerful graphics engine. The latter is very well demonstrated by the speed and smoothness of the 80’s style computer games provided. Sooner or later the user will tire of the on-board keypad and long for a conventional keyboard. Well, an enthusiastic FIGnition owner has tackled this problem and designed a PS2 keyboard interface ‘shield’ that plugs into the expansion connectors. FIGnition has a GPL-open source software licence and is Open-Source Hardware OSH compliant to encourage this sort of development. Instructions for building the interface can be found here.

The inFUZE kit and associated accessories can be purchased via the RS Components website. See featured products.

See FIGnition in action and talk to its designer: Julian Skidmore will be at the Manchester Mini Maker Faire on August 10th and 11th.

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