What is it?

These are the highest-capacity NOR flash memory chips offered by Micron (N25Q00AA and MT25QL02G) in a 1 Gbit (128 Mbyte) or 2 Gbit (256 Mbyte) capacity, respectively. The chips are on a small pc board designed to mount directly onto a Teensy 3.X and use the hardware SPI port. They can also be used on a breadboard with any microcontroller. There are 100 K pullups on the #CS, #HOLD, and #WP pins since Micron offers no internal pullups. The chip can still be used in quad mode. There is only one chip select per chip in either size so these boards are compatible with Paul Stoffregen's SerialFlash library, which provides an easy and powerful way to make use of these boards.

Why did you make it?

Everyone understands the need for compact data logging solutions. SD Cards are fine if you have the space, power, and it doesn't cause problems with other peripherals. This isn't always the case. I started with EEPROMS, which are very low power and super easy to use, but they only provide at most 512 kBytes of data storage. This is enough for several minutes of motion sensor data logging, but there are many applications where this isn't enough.

These SPI Flash memory chips increase the available storage by orders of magnitude. If 512 kByte of EEPROM can log a 100 Hz data stream for five minutes, the 1 Gbit flash can do so for a week, the 2 Gbit flash for about two weeks. That's a lot of data!

What makes it special?

These are appallingly small boards that are designed to be soldered directly to your Teensy for fast and deep data logging applications. They can be used standalone on a breadboard also, but mounted on your Teensy is where they shine enabling low-power, fast, and portable data logging for many applications. Order one or both boards from OSH Park and assemble some of your own, or order the fully assembled and tested board from me and see what you can do with too much memory!