Testers will be selected on the basis of quality of applications: we expect a full and complete description of why you want to test these particular products.
Testers are required to produce a full, comprehensive and well thought out review within 2 months of receipt of the product.
Failure to provide this review within the above timescale will result in the enrolee being excluded from future RoadTests.
The issue at hand: Infineon selected the worst-case scenario for the DC-link capacitor based on the board specs and that is why it is 1000uF. Based on your application, there is a very high probability that a smaller cap can be used in place of the 1000uF. To calculate the cap value required, refer to the app note http://www.infineon.com/dgdl/Infineon-NovalithIC_BTN89x0-x2-AN-v00_03-EN.pdf?fileId=db3a30433fa9412f013fc8d88e3d430a&ack… section 4.2 starting on page 10. Equation that you need to work with is eqn 10 on page 12 (of the app note).
C4, so called DC-link capacitor: This electrolytic capacitor is required to keep the voltage ripple at the Vs- 9 pin of the NovalithIC low during switching operation (the applied measurement procedure for the 10 supply voltage is described in Chapter 3.1 of the Application Note). It is strongly recommended that the voltage ripple at the NovalithIC Vs-pin to the GND-pin is kept below 1 V peak to peak. The value of C4 must be aligned accordingly. See therefore Equation (10) in the Application Note. Most electrolytic capacitors are less effective at cold temperatures. It must be assured that C4 is also effective under the worst case conditions of the application. The layout is very important too. As shown in Figure 6, the capacitor C4 must be positioned with very short wiring close to the NovalithIC. This must be done to keep the parasitic inductors of the PCB-wires as small as possible.
==> the user manual refers to Chapter 3.1 but it is in section 4.2. Infineon needs to update their errata sheet!
Road Trip started May 1st. Infineon boards arrived 5/11. Yun arrived 5/29. I had May open to work on the RoadTest but no hardware! Anyway, June is here and I'm out of town 3 of the 4 weeks so cramming in as much as I can. Probably will not have all functioning until end of July since I have time available in July to work on this Road Test
OK ... venting is done with.
The Yun was very easy to bring up and get online. I used the blogs by Greg Baugues and have the Yun texting me pictures from a webcam when an event is triggered. Pretty cool and easy to implement. For the blogs, click on the following:
As mentioned, in an earlier comment, the Infineon board kits need to be made more user friendly.
* No headers? come on guys!!!
* Mounting a 1000uF cap vertically on the DC Motor Control Shield so no other boards can be piggy backed?
* No jumpers provided with the RGB LED shield? And these are not 0.1" jumpers so not easy to find in the real world unless you pay $$$
* In order to prototype and debug, need to mount the shields adjacent to the Yun rather than stacked on the Yun
RGB LED shield:
* Many of the better LED engines have 4 banks of LEDs, not 3. I have 2 LED_Engin High Power LEDs - Multi-Color RGBW Flat lens On MCPCB (LZ4-24MDCA-0000) arriving tomorrow. Note the it is RGBW, not RGGB nor RGB. Most LED_Engin devices have 4 sets of LED so I will be using 3 sets of LEDs rather than the 4 sets on the LED_Engin.
* Infineon does a reasonable job describing how to calibrate the settings on the Yun for the specific LED engine that you will be using. With technology moving as fast as it is, the LED engines that Infineon used in their examples are already obsolete!!!
* I will calibrate the settings for 2 LED engines. In the near future the setup will be expanded to 4 LED engines then 6 LED engines so all the settings for the LEDs will have to be recalibrated (I will keep a library of settings for all the different LED engines that I use)
DC Motor Control Shield
* Like I mentioned above, the 1000uF cap looks like a WTC tower on the PCBA. Yes, this is an evaluation board but more thought should have been put into the component selection. I am leaning towards believing the 1000uF is overkill. If not,and the 1000uF is required, can we say NOISE problems??? I'll be looking at this closer in the future
Project:
* Automation of window shades and plant lighting
* Final project is a multi-shelf window greenhouse with automated lighting and blinds
* Objectives:
* The window blinds are automated for privacy (closed at night, open during the day or opened/closed manually from an app)
* For winter months and stormy days when the sun is not shining, compensate with LED lighting. Select the RGBW coloring which is optimal for plant growth
* Provide additional environmental sensor feedback via humidity, light and temperature sensors
* Apps provide CC (command and control) of the setup
* If environmental conditions go outside of user defined limits, a text message is sent to the users giving them an immediate heads-up that something is wrong
* For lighting, as mentioned earlier, I am using LED_Engin RGBW engines. Sweet LEDs (need heat sinking) and are reasonably priced
* For luminosity, I am using the SL2561. Breakout board for this sensor available through sparkfun.com or adafruit.com
* For humidity and temperature, the HTU21D. Breakout board for this sensor available through sparkfun.com or adafruit.com
That's it for today. On a business trip for the next 10 days. On return, I'll post a foto of the setup and the process of calibrating the RGB LED shield for the LED engin LEDs
Infineon Lighting RGB LED Arduino Shield
Top Comments
I'm looking at the really useful tool that should have element14 and a QR code on it ..
element14Dave
I've modded mine to make it easier to stack it, by using a coaxial cap and stacking headers: