Infineon Smart Power Switch Bundle - Review

Table of contents

RoadTest: Infineon Smart Power Switch Bundle

Author: gam3t3ch

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?: null

What were the biggest problems encountered?: null

Detailed Review:

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First off thank you Element14 and Infineon for the opportunity to take part in this RoadTest as I was at first a bit hesitant from previous experience with Infineon's boards but then curiosity got me.

 

Unboxing:

First off I want to say how happy I am to see that Infineon decided to change their packaging as now it seems to be a lot more on par and was a great sight to see. As you can see in the picture below the view of the Boot kit in the box (new version) versus the old packing.  I think tho that if Infineon just inserted a backing on the old packaging it would have been sufficient as well but glad to see the change and the fact they might have gotten a few complaints about parts breaking off on the Boot kit or coming damaged to clients.  So that being said well on you Infineon for resolving that as quickly as can be.

 

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The Boards:

24V Protected Switch Shield with BTT6030-2EKA and BTT6020-1EKA for Arduino

Order number: 24VSHIELDBTT6030TOBO1

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Data Sheet 

Quick Start Guide

Infineon Site Product info

This board comes with a great quick start guide that will help get you up and running in no time!

 

So now that I have all the information I need to get going and started with this board Its time to get it onto the bench and see what it can do now I could post a bunch of specs and information here but I feel the links above will be enough for you to open and have a look at the information provided by Infineon about their board.  Armed with the quick start guide in hand I head over to the bench check out my video below on with the 24V Protected Switch with BTT6030-2EKA and BTT6020-1EKA for Arudino.

 

Back now, there was some issues when it came to getting the things going,  I recorded tons of video but in the end decided against posting it up until I could further get more information from Infineon as well as maybe having a chat with one of the members that seems to have the best grasps on these boards and software with Dave.   

 

My goal was to use the Arduino Uno provided with the kit to do the work since I didn't have any female header pins for the boot kit,  This provides a great deal of confusion since now them stating that the boards are for arduino but have no educational literature to help support that sure it fits on it but was unable to upload from Dave connected to the Arduino on multiple platforms and OS Version.  Now the only board with an actual Arduino example was the Low-Side Switch shield below.  I managed to be able to test and configure the unit but once again opted to not upload the video on it as I would have like to have had all 3 video's  that I had planned for this Roadtest completed but only managed 1 of 3.  This being said there is much to learn when it comes to Infineon boards in my opinion and will certainly play with them more but need to dial it back a bit and start with using the xmc1100 boot kit on it and avoiding the Arduino Uno for now until Infineon can produce a library of examples that might help further their boards. 

 

Compatibility seems to be the biggest issue when it comes to Infineon boards in my option. I am happy to see they are getting in the right direction which their packaging but  need to now start upping their game with examples and samples on their site to make it more easy to learn their products as being more familiar with Arduino R3 then the Boot kit I would have loved to have used the Arduino Uno R3 for the entire testing phase. 

 

Where does this leave me on this Road test?

Well I will say this the low-side switch shield was great to deal with and play test and configure through the arduino IDE.    

I will have to update my 2 other video's with the use of the XMC1100 boot kit and then upload them to the Roadtest here when completed.   Still waiting on the header pins to arrive.    Also the protected switch shield can be run either in standalone mode or controlled with a arduino or the XMC boot kit.  This is something that I will certainly be exploring further in the near future as well.

 

Out of the box the one that functions and lives up to its name and "is" for Arduino would be the Low-Side Switch shield and only reason being they have the example code on their site so you don't need to learn Dave right out of the box.

 

It has been seriously a huge stress on me this RoadTest I had huge hopes for the outcome in this one as things were moving along fine with the one board then it seemed to just halt and there was a wall.  Seriously put the header pins in add the few more cents to help people get up and running faster and make your products "For Arduino" Actually for it.

 

 

 

Low-Side Switch Shield with BTF3050TE For Arduino

Order number: SHIELDBTF3050TETOBO1

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Product Brief

Quick Start Guide

Infineon Site Product info

This board comes with a quick start guide as well.

 

Now we are going to go back to the bench and see what we can come up with for this board as far as a simple project. I do love the input voltage range on these boards certainly adds a great deal of benefit and a lot more flexibility in my opinion. So In short I did manage to run the demo on this board.  Preformed as it should was quite impressed with it.  

 

 

 

 

Protected Switch Shield with BTS50010-1TAD for Arduino

Order number: SHIELDBTS500101TADTOBO1

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Product Brief

Quick Start Guide

Infineon Site Product info

Quick Start Guide is printed on the inside of the box so don't toss it out!

 

This one you will have to buy extra connectors as well.  As you will see in their testing video the extra's they have added which are not included in the kit.

This board can be used as a stand alone board or with  Arduino Uno R3 or XMC1100 Boot kit or other compatible boards.

 

 

I will say I am very disappointed with my end result with this RoadTest so will apologize for lack of information and will get those video's up as soon as my female header pins arrive and I can further test the boards I certainly have projects I would love to use these with but when it comes down to it the frustration and lack of information on them has gotten the better of me. 

 

Going forward,  I feel I would have to really research the Infineon products to see if there was enough information and examples available for my skill set.  I do plan to take more time to play around with these boards here but with my back log of projects on the go it might take a bit to get the full grasp of these boards but have a feeling its going to just come down to having all the parts for the boards that are needed to fully run a proper test on them.  So going forward I would suggest Infineon or Element14 to consider the missing components that might be required to complete the RoadTest and have everything available to be able to do the simple tasks of demoing of the products.  I understand doing projects with these would be a added expense to the Roadtester and we expect that but this kind of reminds me of theMAX30001 EV Kit (ECG, BioZ, Heart Rate, and Pace) Where we all had to jump on Amazon and order 3M Red Dot Monitoring Electrodes. 

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