Request Teensy LC with More Memory

kai

New member
Dear Paul et al,

I work for a small company where we develop electronics and software to support other projects for our customers. I have found the Teensy LC to be really nice to develop on and the MKL26Z64VFT4 micro is low cost and in a small (7mm x 7mm) QFN package that is easy to integrate into boards with tight constraints. My only complaint is that the Teensy LC has somewhat limited RAM and FLASH memory. I would really like to see a version of the Teensy LC with the MKl26Z128VFT4 micro with twice the RAM and FLASH. I've thought about trying to edit the Teensyduino library to add this myself, it doesn't look like it should be that hard - but I thought I would make the request here first. I would be happy to pay a few more dollars for a "Teensy LC+". Why don't I just use a Teensy 3.2? Well, honestly it comes down to the package - I need something close to that QFN48 size. Also I don't often need anything more powerful than a Cortex M0. I've looked at other ARM based Arduino compatible micros like the Arduino Zero and STM32duino and I feel more confident in using PJRCs products and libraries, but the lack of memory on the Teensy LC is currently a sticking point. I know that my company's Teensy LC demands won't be great enough to make any significant difference to PJRC, but I'm guessing that there are other folks out there that would also see benefit to having a higher memory version of the Teensy LC.

Sincerely,
Kai
 
Obviously I don't speak for Paul or PJRC, but there's often a lot of requests for variants of these products.

I believe some tough calls had to be made when the LC was put together to keep the cost as low as possible whilst still retaining performance. The issue being that the LC needed to fit in that 'Low Cost' tag to keep itself clear of the pricing territory of the T3.2. The fact is that the product range offered by PJRC has to be kept to a minimum to keep operating costs and stock levels down (economy of scales and all that) and it's only this that probably keeps the LC at the cost it is; the additional of an LC+ would cut into LC sales and suddenly this economy of scale is lost.

What might be feasible, is a refresh of the LC, in the same way going from the T3.0 -> T3.1. But even pin compatible parts require significant engineering time and work to realise and test with the multitude of libraries supported by Teensyduino and I can imagine that the additional sales probably wouldn't ever account for this lost time, especially when the current alternative for most hobbyists is just to go ahead and pick up the more expensive T3.2 if they need those resources.

Just some food for thought. =]
 
A Teensy LC with twice as much RAM and flash would be fantastic, if prices could be kept down. The price difference for these chips at Digikey is only 61 cents, in quantities of 500, so seems like it would make sense. If Teensy LC could be refreshed with only a slight increase in price, I think that would be a big win!
 
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