Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • State Verified Answer
  • Replies 9 replies
  • Answers 1 answer
  • Subscribers 26 subscribers
  • Views 902 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Question about Arduino shield compatability

Former Member

I don't know anything about Arduino really... other than they have a lot of shield boards in their ecosystem to take advantage of...

 

So I bought an Arduino 1602 LCD character display and popped it on the Pioneer board. It didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't going to work. The D7 to D4 data pins on the LCD do align with the D7 to D4 Arduino pins (red letters on Pioneer Kit Guide; pg 28), but those pins map to Pioneer pins P2.7, P1.0, P3.5, and P0.0.  The PSoC Creator 'Character LCD' component requires that all the data and control pins be on the same port, yet D7 to D4 are on on 4 different ports.

 

So I have to ask, what is meant by 'Arduino compatible I/O header'? How does one use Arduino shields on the Pioneer board? Do you abandon the use of PSoC Creator and push in compiled Arduino code somehow?

 

Thank you for your time,

Dave

 

 

BTW: to the webmaster, I notice the instructions for tags below says 'use communities to separate multiple tags'...  darn spellchecker...

Parents
  • 0

    Hi Dave,

     

    The standard Character LCD Component in PSoC Creator requires you to use sequential pins, however there's a version of the Component in the Creator Community that allows for mapping across multiple ports. You can use that on your Pioneer Kit; Download from here (be sure to download the latest version v1.2, scroll down to the bottom of this link) - http://www.cypress.com/?app=forum&id=2492&rID=75707

     

    All arduino shields use a common board layout, in terms of spacing and number of pins (+ the arduino code to interface with the uno/due boards). The Pioneer kit is designed to be compatible with that very form-factor, so that you can take advantage of the many 3rd party shield boards.

     

    In this case, you abandon the arduino compied code, and do everything inside PSoC Creator! Most sheilds are based on standard interfaces like digital protocols (I2C, SPI, UART...) or are controlled by analog or digital peripherals (ADCs, Counters, Timers, DACs) - all of which PSoC Creator has in the form of Components for you to design with. In complex cases, you will abandon the arduino control and interface layer code, but may need to port over stack or application layer code. See examples of how we've interfaced with a wide variery of mixed-signal arduino shields of varying complexity - http://www.element14.com/community/message/75417#75417/l/100-projects-in-100-days (see list at the bottom of post#01)

     

    Welcome to the element14 PSoC pioneer community!

    -Gagan

  • 0 in reply to cy.gul

    Thank you for addressing that Gagan...  I plan to use PSoC Creator extensively and really have no plans to use actual Arduino code.

     

    When I got my Pioneer, I grabbed a generic Hitachi interface 2004 LCD module out of the parts bin and with the aid of the Custom Font example project I had it wired up and working in about an hour, having never touched a PSoC product or PSoC Creator before. The pinout differences when I got an actual shield threw me for a loop.  I guess I didn't pick the best type of shield to try as my first one.  I have an I2C converter coming so that I can use that generic LCD with the Pioneer as well (tho I will definitly try the cross mapping LCD component too).

     

    BTW: I told/showed a buddy the device and he immediatly went online and got 3, one for himself, one for his son-in-law and one for a g-daughter still in college. The combination of Pioneer and PSoc Creator is really something else.  We are now looking at a PSoC5 dev set to design a commercial product we have in mind.  Excellet job guys...

     

    Glad to be here,

    Dave

  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    Thats great to hear, David!

     

    To an end customer going into production, the obvious PSoC advantage is the integration of multiple chips into one, and the ease of development with a single tool.

     

    However, I think the platform is even more exciting for the hobbyists and hackers in us - it provides that artist's canvas, so to speak, to do all sorts of creative and imaginative embedded designs with. I like to think of it as the EE's etch-a-sketch with Lego blocks (yes I do like my toy references).

     

    For more LCD stuff - look at this SPI based color graphics LCD that we interfaced with. In fact, we created a custom component for it that only utilizes the programmable-logic fabric on the PSoC, thereby not using any of the standard serial comm. blocks Graphics LCD Display

     

    Hope you, your buddies, and their kids+grandkids enjoy developing with the Pioneer Kit!

    -Gagan

Reply
  • 0 in reply to Former Member

    Thats great to hear, David!

     

    To an end customer going into production, the obvious PSoC advantage is the integration of multiple chips into one, and the ease of development with a single tool.

     

    However, I think the platform is even more exciting for the hobbyists and hackers in us - it provides that artist's canvas, so to speak, to do all sorts of creative and imaginative embedded designs with. I like to think of it as the EE's etch-a-sketch with Lego blocks (yes I do like my toy references).

     

    For more LCD stuff - look at this SPI based color graphics LCD that we interfaced with. In fact, we created a custom component for it that only utilizes the programmable-logic fabric on the PSoC, thereby not using any of the standard serial comm. blocks Graphics LCD Display

     

    Hope you, your buddies, and their kids+grandkids enjoy developing with the Pioneer Kit!

    -Gagan

Children
No Data