Olimex releases two open-hardware bidirectional level shifters for breadboards and UEXT
Olimex has launched the BB-LVL-SHIFT and UEXT-LVL-SHIFT, two open-hardware boards for automatic bidirectional voltage level translation, with design files released under CERN OHL v2.
Summary
Bulgarian open-hardware vendor Olimex has introduced two new level shifters to address mixed-voltage embedded projects. The €3.95 BB-LVL-SHIFT targets breadboard prototyping with two-line bidirectional translation from 1.65V to 5.5V at up to 1Mb/s for I2C and UART. The €4.95 UEXT-LVL-SHIFT adds SPI support and interfaces with Olimex's UEXT connector ecosystem, reaching 420Mb/s on SPI/UART at 5V. Both designs are available on GitHub under the strongly reciprocal CERN Open Hardware License Version 2.
What the two shifters offer
- BB-LVL-SHIFT: 2-line automatic bidirectional level shifting, 1.65V–5.5V range, up to 1Mb/s for I2C and UART; breadboard-compatible with through-hole option
- UEXT-LVL-SHIFT: Full UART/SPI/I2C level shifting on UEXT connector; I2C at 1Mb/s, SPI/UART at 75Mb/s (1.8V), 180Mb/s (2.5V), 420Mb/s (5V)
- Both use the strongly reciprocal variant of CERN OHL v2; hardware design files on GitHub
- Pricing: BB-LVL-SHIFT at €3.95, UEXT-LVL-SHIFT at €4.95 before volume discounts
Why it matters
The release adds readily available, documented open-hardware options for a common embedded problem, and the CERN OHL v2 license ensures derivative designs must also be open.
Original reference: www.hackster.io →