I got the opportunity to use the new Cortex M0 based MBED module and used it to build a USB interrfaced RGB LED controller. I had a NXP RGB LED board that used a 8051 based MCU to implement the control system for the 32 RGB LEDs on the board. This system depended on coding the 8051 to porduce the desired lighting patterns, NOT VERY FLEXIBLE! For my project I first ported the 8051 code to MBED, initally I did this using a LPC1768 based MBED as an exercise to see how easy it was to move from 8051 to MBED, and it was. Next I moved the code to my new M0 based MBED, that was also very simple. Next I wanted to move away from hard coded lighting patterns to USB control. This will allow me to develop a simple GUI to control the lighting from a PC. MBED made this very simple and I quickly had my system working. Lastly to see how hard it would be to move from MBED to a traditional development enviornment. I created a short video to show how this was all done which you can view here: Direct link to video: http://avnet.na5.acrobat.com/_a786229625/usbwmbednxp/default/Viewer.swf

I either use a PIC,8052 or MBED for a project...it depends...

Nice video Jim :)