Feedback request on the initial MikroE Clicks List @Parallax
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,392
in Propeller 2
Hello,
If you've been participating in the P2 Live Forum - Early Adopter Series, you'll know that we created an adapter for the P2 Evaluation Board <=> MikroE Click boards. The thought is that for the P2 to grow an audience it should be able to swim in a larger sea. Mouser and Digi-Key move thousands upon thousands of the MikroE Click boards. These provide us with a quick way of prototyping/testing a circuit.
Our intent is to stock a dozen or two of them, release community objects in their support (Spin2 and C libraries), and have them for sale as a convenience. In time, as our support grows for these, customers can also get them from Mouser.
This is the initial list of MikroE Click boards I'm looking at bringing in:
4-20 mA R click https://www.mikroe.com/4-20ma-r-click
4-20 mA T click https://www.mikroe.com/4-20ma-t-click
AIR QUALITY click https://www.mikroe.com/air-quality-click
Brushless 3 click https://www.mikroe.com/brushless-3-click
eINK click - bundle https://www.mikroe.com/e-paper-bundle-2
Environment click https://www.mikroe.com/environment-click
FTDI click https://www.mikroe.com/ftdi-click
LightRanger 4 Click https://www.mikroe.com/lightranger-4-click
LSM6DSL click https://www.mikroe.com/lsm6dsl-click
OLED C click https://www.mikroe.com/oled-c-click
Ozone 2 click https://www.mikroe.com/ozone-2-click
PROTO click https://www.mikroe.com/proto-click
Proximity 3 click https://www.mikroe.com/proximity-3-click
Relay2 click https://www.mikroe.com/relay-2-click
RS232 click https://www.mikroe.com/rs232-click
RS485 click 3.3V https://www.mikroe.com/rs485-33v-click
mikroBUS Shuttle Bundle https://www.mikroe.com/mikrobus-shuttle-bundle
Stepper 2 click https://www.mikroe.com/stepper-2-click
WiFi ESP click https://www.mikroe.com/wifi-esp-click
Appreciate your input here.
What Click boards do you think we are missing?
Which Click boards do you find not necessary?
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
If you've been participating in the P2 Live Forum - Early Adopter Series, you'll know that we created an adapter for the P2 Evaluation Board <=> MikroE Click boards. The thought is that for the P2 to grow an audience it should be able to swim in a larger sea. Mouser and Digi-Key move thousands upon thousands of the MikroE Click boards. These provide us with a quick way of prototyping/testing a circuit.
Our intent is to stock a dozen or two of them, release community objects in their support (Spin2 and C libraries), and have them for sale as a convenience. In time, as our support grows for these, customers can also get them from Mouser.
This is the initial list of MikroE Click boards I'm looking at bringing in:
4-20 mA R click https://www.mikroe.com/4-20ma-r-click
4-20 mA T click https://www.mikroe.com/4-20ma-t-click
AIR QUALITY click https://www.mikroe.com/air-quality-click
Brushless 3 click https://www.mikroe.com/brushless-3-click
eINK click - bundle https://www.mikroe.com/e-paper-bundle-2
Environment click https://www.mikroe.com/environment-click
FTDI click https://www.mikroe.com/ftdi-click
LightRanger 4 Click https://www.mikroe.com/lightranger-4-click
LSM6DSL click https://www.mikroe.com/lsm6dsl-click
OLED C click https://www.mikroe.com/oled-c-click
Ozone 2 click https://www.mikroe.com/ozone-2-click
PROTO click https://www.mikroe.com/proto-click
Proximity 3 click https://www.mikroe.com/proximity-3-click
Relay2 click https://www.mikroe.com/relay-2-click
RS232 click https://www.mikroe.com/rs232-click
RS485 click 3.3V https://www.mikroe.com/rs485-33v-click
mikroBUS Shuttle Bundle https://www.mikroe.com/mikrobus-shuttle-bundle
Stepper 2 click https://www.mikroe.com/stepper-2-click
WiFi ESP click https://www.mikroe.com/wifi-esp-click
Appreciate your input here.
What Click boards do you think we are missing?
Which Click boards do you find not necessary?
Thanks,
Ken Gracey
Comments
Sure! Can do. I initially looked towards one that JonnyMac has favored in the past (PFC8583) and found it was end of life. We need to identify the RTC with the most viable, non-obsolete, commonly used, low-cost processor at it's core. They've got a list here https://www.mikroe.com/rtc-click. What would be the favored RTC?
Ken Gracey
Ken Gracey
OK, that's certainly helpful and shall be our candidate. Thanks for the extra set of eyes, Dennis.
Ken Gracey
If somebody can pick out a more appropriate brushless controller board for the P2 that would be nice, unless the one we've identified is the right fit. I'd also get a few low-cost brushless motors in stock to make it quick to get crackin' on some results.
Ken Gracey
However, my latest development is a motherboard that accommodates the
Tibbit Blocks
and fits their standard enclosure. The end result is a finished saleable product.
This one
-- https://www.mikroe.com/rtc-10-click
...uses the DS3231 which I've written P1 code for and friends have used in several projects.
Are there other Click boards for which you would like drivers?
Ken Gracey
I would like to suggest a Click GSM board, for example Click GSM 3G.
This will be very useful for remote monitoring projects.
The DRV10983 can handle up to 28V and 2A which is probably good for first experiments with a brushless motor without the risk to burn something. But it is far too little power to drive something useful. Even a small model servo draws more current.
And yes, the P2 could handle a brushless motor power stage (mainly 3 PWM outputs and 3 ADC inputs) directly. But then you don't need the mikroBUS but on the other hand much more complicated software than you'd need for the DRV10983. Not a big problem but somebody has to write or port it. I've written a lot of code for industrial servo control and I'm "almost finished". But there you usually have an encoder on the motor. For simple brushless drives you don't. The algorithms for sensorless drives are quite different.
Another option is to have a smaller single wide jumperable Click adapter board that lets you choose up to 8 of the 12 connected pins yourself. The Click module spacing will possibly just fit the P2-EVAL dual connector pitch, but it's tight. Perhaps this could also then let the Click breakout connector also work alongside the existing Parallax breakout boards on each side of the P2-EVAL. Spacing these out is not ideal I know.
Isn't that what the "shuttle bundle" is for, listed in Ken's OP?
Aha, yeah Mickster that could help us too, hadn't looked at that one. It seems like it is just paralleled which is okay for 1-wire and i2c based boards.
@Mickster Since you've touched them - are these modules any good for semi industrial applications, I mean robust enough and somehow environmentally sealed ? They look good for sure, like funny LEGO bricks.
On the main subject of the MicroE click modules and drivers for these - I'd start with the minimal set of them, based on the most popular functionalities people use or would like to use and I'd select these functionalities first.
Then the modules, picking the ones that are based on relatively new, mid range priced, good quality components.
Yes, all I do is industrial control systems; mainly retrofitting CNC Tube Benders where I remove the old Siemens/Allen Bradley/Beckhoff/Cybelec controls and replace them with my own creations. Therefore I need a flexible solution that is robust and doesn't scream "hobby box".
I looked at the Tibbo motherboard but decided against it due to configuration limitations. Furthermore, their programming languages don't even feature a millisecond timer which is something I use a lot.
The Tibbit blocks use a mixture of SPI, I²C, Serial and DIO and so I have designed a more flexible motherboard that fits in their size #3 project box.
In the "Parts" section of their site, you can find empty shells for custom blocks. The pins, on the underside of the blocks are standard headers and quite long. You need the provided extraction tool to remove a block.
I'm sure many would welcome the support for the (most?) popular chip in the WiFi department but since you asked ...
Now you got me interested. Thanks a lot. I've surfed their site very briefly but somehow missed that part.
Did you design your own comm protocol or do you use one of the well established ones ? Are these tube benders managed somehow remotely or just stand alone beasts ?
So I built my own Plug and play system that lets me just plug in whatever device I want to use and then let the software do it's thing. The Propeller Plug and Play system. I can build it at home for pennies.
He is a picture of some of the devices I can just plugin. The software decides if it's I2C, SPI, or Serial.
Why buy a device with a dedicated bus interface.
Mike
They make great products. I sill have aPic 4 developement system & a dspic developement system from then. I use thir mikroPascal Pro Compilers for Pic & dsPic. I've used some of their medi type boards before they became Click boards. Everything worked great.
@ Ken
https://www.mikroe.com/nano-lora-click
Nano LoRa Click is a LoRa® technology-based transceiver Click board™, which operates at a sub-gigahertz frequency of 815MHz and 928 MHz Bands, optimized for very long-range, low consumption applications, suitable for LPWA networks. Thanks to the spread spectrum modulation feature, as well as the low power consumption, it is capable of achieving a long-range communication, immune to interferences. Operated over the UART interface, it represents a very simple, yet powerful solution for the LoRa-based IoT communication network solution.
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Over view :
LoRa is a wireless technology that offers long range, low power and secure data transmission for M2M and IoT applications. LoRa is based on chirp spread spectrum modulation, which has low power characteristics like FSK modulation but can be used for long range communications. LoRa can be used to connect sensors, gateways, machines, devices, animals, people etc. wirelessly to the cloud.
LoRa Technologies operates in different frequency bands in different regions: In the United States it operates in the 915 MHz band, in Europe it operates in the 868 MHz band and in Asia it operates in the 865 to 867 MHz, 920 to 923 MHz band. Click here to learn more about LoRa frequency bands
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Having some SRAM with a battery backup is really useful for Propeller projects. You can continuously save a few variables to the SRAM and these variables will survive a power outage.
I don't know if Mikroe sells one like this but I like using the MCP7940N-I/SN.
@iseries Could you please elaborate a bit more ?
I'd say Ken has already given an answer to your question in his opening post or at least that's how I see it. He just wants the forum members to add or remove a module and state the reason behind such a move.
There are users who need these drivers badly to speed things up in development and certainly there are some, like myself, who simply lack the abilities or time to write their own drivers for a commonly available component, at least at the moment.
Or maybe you are referring to some other post, mine possibly ? If that's the case, I'll explain.
I also prefer to do things on my own but as we all know, writing ones own drivers is often a tedious and challenging experience, depending on the device in question. The protocol isn't the only factor. Neither is the pinout. It's all of the conditions one must meet to deliver.