Cypress PSoC® 6 BLE Pioneer Kit (CY8CKIT-062-BLE) - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: Cypress PSoC® 6 BLE Pioneer Kit (CY8CKIT-062-BLE)

Author: gsgill112

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Development Boards & Tools

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: It is a complete package, Though if designer needs WiFi, a WiFi Shield would be needed.

What were the biggest problems encountered?: Getting the Tools Installed.

Detailed Review:

Hi to all the community members reading,

First of all I would like to thank E14 for selecting me as a RoadTester for this Kit. Moving on..

 

INTRODUCTION

This Kit is a IoT Personals Dream Come True [Full Stop].  It is not just a kit for professionals to make that wonderful NextGen IoT Product but equally a kit for beginners to get started with the entire ecosystem of development. Go through the Kit review for all the info and kit Walkthrough.

 

KIT REVEW

 

E-Ink Display

One of the most amazing things about the Kit is the E-Ink display and couple of sweet sensors thrown with the E-Ink Shield that comes with the kit.

The E-Ink or ePaper Display is manufactured by Pervasive Displays part No :E2271CS021 Pervasive: E-ink 2.71 inch epaper display, which simply means that it cannot be replaced with some other vendor.

The display is a 2-Color B/W display with a resolution of 264 x 176 px and 117dpi.

 

Further it is a SPI based Display so it definitely can be used with Arduino* image

 

imageimage

You can se the E-Ink in action in pictures above.

 

To conclude this section links of data sheets and driving waveforms app note is attached

DATASHEET     :    2.7" TFT EPD Panel (E2271CS021) Rev.01

WAWEFORMS :    COG Driver Interface Timing for small size G2 V231

 

Ready Code By :    REPAPER   ::  https://github.com/repaper/gratis

                               SEEED        ::  Small e-Paper Shield V2 - Seeed Wiki

                               WYOLUM   ::  https://github.com/wyolum/EPD

 

* NOTE : E-Ink display do not have any storage, so you would require to store the entire image pixel matrix in the MCU which eats up some storage space on he MCU.

 

ISSUES FASED

The Greatest Issue I faced was setting up the Development tools. Apparently PSoC creator 4.2 is still in beta and has new dependency.

I am using a MAC Book and a linux based desktop system and guess what you don't have a IDE for that ?? What ??

Nonetheless Cypress gives you a set of instructions to set up everything image

1. Download virtual box, it's free image (Virtual Box downloads Link : http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/ Latest version is 5.0.10 image )

2. download PSoC Creator BETA (https://community.cypress.com/docs/DOC-14408 )

3. Get a copy of Windows OS ?? image

4. Install Win OS and the Creator

    NOTE Do a full install, On Win 7 you may need to download Few more dependencies ?? image

5. After all that Some how there was some issue and the app won't start ?? W.T.F

 

So I repeated all steps again and finally (Thank God It Started Working image image )

 

BATTERY ISSUES

Coming Soon

 

SOME IMPORTANT LINKS

Virtual Box downloads Link : http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/

Latest version is 5.0.10 image

 

I was wondering what is PDM ??

Ans : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-density_modulation

 

Code Examples PSoC 6 : http://www.cypress.com/psoc-6-mcu-code-examples

Although they are already included in the PSoC 4.2 Env for PSoC 6 BLE Pioneer Kit

 

Link to the PSoC 63 Datasheet : http://www.cypress.com/psoc-6-mcu-psoc-63-ble-datasheet-programmable-system-chip-psoc-preliminary?source=search&cat=technical_documents

 

PSoC 6 Pioneer Kit : http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/psoc-6-ble-pioneer-kit

 

CONCLUSION

In Conclusion

imageThe Best IoT Kit Till Now

imageSuper Cap

imageEndeless configuration options

imageProgrammer can be used in various modes

imageDetachable programmer

imageDetailed help in and of tools

imageRevised API References are awesome

imageReally Awesome Tools

imageGreat Learning board

imageAwesome Set of sensors

imageE-Ink Display image

imageTutorial Follow Along Video Series on YouTube image

imageimage OPTIONS TO SWITCH OFF BOTH CORES OR ONE CORE OR RUN HW APPLICATION (This is simply amazingimage)

imageTools only on Win Platform

imageTools Still in BETA

imageNo Coin Cell Battery Holder

imagePSoC 6 is on Board (Not detachable)

imageSome Power Mgmt Issues

 

Thanks

GS Gill

 

P.S-> MORE COMMING SOON

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