Podcasts about i2c

This week's EYE ON NPI is a powerful pocket-sized 'puter - it's the new PocketBeagle 2 from beagleboard.org! (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/b/beagleboard/pocketbeagle-2) This is a nice update from the beagleboard team to replace the deprecated PocketBeagle (https://www.digikey.com/short/bcmnqt01) - this new version gives you a lot more processor power at a much lower price. It's perfect when you want a full-featured single-board computer with a ton of GPIO and analog inputs, in a very smol package for easy integration. The PocketBeagle 2 is built around a TI Sitara AM6232 (https://www.digikey.com/short/83md98qd) dual-core Cortex-A53 plus dual Cortex-M4 subprocessor, with 512MB of external DDR4 SRAM. There's 4 MB of onboard eMMC flash, plus a socket for external microSD cards. There's also essentials like USB C for the native device, and a picoprobe-compatible (https://www.digikey.com/short/fq4wmp2b) UART port. What's great about the PocketBeagle 2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/17jh4q7b) is that compared to many single-board computers, the design is fully open source (https://github.com/beagleboard/pocketbeagle-2) verified-and-tested, so if you want to design your own board to add or remove peripherals/components, you can just pick up an AM6232 (https://www.digikey.com/short/83md98qd) from DigiKey and route your own design. Of course, with the high density BGA chip design, it's for experts: many makers and small-scale designers will be better off just adding the 2x18 Cape Headers (https://docs.beagle.cc/boards/pocketbeagle-2/04-expansion.html) which give you a ton of power and GPIO. For example, if you want to connect an external USB device to the host peripheral, those pins plus power and ground are on P1. If you want to connect a TTL graphical display (https://www.digikey.com/short/z9mfvzr8), the HSYNC/VSYNC/DE/Data pins are all on the P1/P2 - they're called VOUT. There's also multiple I2C and SPI ports and analog inputs. The PocketBeagle 2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/17jh4q7b) is back compatible with older peripherals you can pick up to get started designing 'Capes' (the name used for plug-in peripherals). Since the boards use 0.1" socket headers, its easy to prototype with jumper wires or DIY a design with simple CAD software and hand soldering. You can check out the GamePup (https://www.digikey.com/short/n2pp834m)which shows how to connect USB host, external battery, TFT display and lots of buttons. Or the TechLab (https://www.digikey.com/short/852dqn2c) which has 7-segment display, buzzer, USB serial and host, PWM'able RGB LED and I2C accelerometer. (https://www.beagleboard.org/boards/techlab) There's open source design files that you can use to kickstart your own Pocket Cape design (https://github.com/beagleboard/capes/tree/master/pocketbeagle/TechLab) Best of all, the PocketBeagle 2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/17jh4q7b) from beagleboard.org is almost half the price of the original PocketBeagle...and DigiKey has them in stock right now for instant shipment! Book today and you'll have a tiny and powerful single board Linux computer in your pocket by tomorrow afternoon. And don't forget... next week, June 19 2025, there's a webinar you can join to learn more (https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4906084/A19039CF9E3C1ED0F430C14932B23630?partnerref=nph) about how to use the PocketBeagle 2 - it's free and run by the folks who designed the board, so register to get a reminder and watch!

Arduino. Founded in Italy twenty years ago by a group of visionary educators and engineers, Arduino was born out of a desire to democratize electronics and make it accessible to everyone. Named after a bar in Ivrea, the platform started with hand-assembled circuit boards for students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII). The founders—Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, David Mellis, Tom Igoe, and Gianluca Martino—made key decisions to keep the hardware and software open-source, ensuring that anyone could learn, create, and innovate.   The result is… a world where anyone, regardless of their technical background, can create electronic projects that once seemed out of reach. This is the world that Arduino has made possible.   The significance of Arduino extends far beyond its technical specifications. It has lowered barriers of entry, making electronics affordable and accessible. Its massive open-source community fosters sharing and innovation, sparking the Maker movement and encouraging creation over consumption. Arduino has become a platform, bridging disciplines like art, design, engineering, and computer science, and enabling rapid prototyping. Its impact is felt in education, product development, and the philosophy of technology accessibility.   Arduino has inspired a global movement, empowering hobbyists, students, artists, and professionals to bring their ideas to life. It has influenced modern IoT and smart devices, proving that with the right tools, anyone can be an innovator. Arduino's choice of the AVR ATmega168 and later the ATmega328P microcontrollers was pivotal. These microcontrollers offered a balance of performance, cost, and ease of use, featuring 8-bit architecture, flash memory, SRAM, EEPROM, and built-in peripherals like timers, ADC, PWM, UART, SPI, and I2C. This made them ideal for a wide range of applications, from simple projects to complex prototypes.   What happens next is anybody's guess, but the frontiers spawned by the Shockley's and Moore's of the world, with their advanced educations and access to vast amounts of capital, are giving way to the kid in their bedroom, tinkering with a board and a laptop, intent on building a thing – turning their imagination into reality through simple advancements in integrated circuits, sensors, and open-source software.   How can Microchip Technology fuel the ethos of the Do-It-Yourself Maker movement?

Arduino. Founded in Italy twenty years ago by a group of visionary educators and engineers, Arduino was born out of a desire to democratize electronics and make it accessible to everyone. Named after a bar in Ivrea, the platform started with hand-assembled circuit boards for students at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII). The founders—Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, David Mellis, Tom Igoe, and Gianluca Martino—made key decisions to keep the hardware and software open-source, ensuring that anyone could learn, create, and innovate.   The result is… a world where anyone, regardless of their technical background, can create electronic projects that once seemed out of reach. This is the world that Arduino has made possible.   The significance of Arduino extends far beyond its technical specifications. It has lowered barriers of entry, making electronics affordable and accessible. Its massive open-source community fosters sharing and innovation, sparking the Maker movement and encouraging creation over consumption. Arduino has become a platform, bridging disciplines like art, design, engineering, and computer science, and enabling rapid prototyping. Its impact is felt in education, product development, and the philosophy of technology accessibility.   Arduino has inspired a global movement, empowering hobbyists, students, artists, and professionals to bring their ideas to life. It has influenced modern IoT and smart devices, proving that with the right tools, anyone can be an innovator. Arduino's choice of the AVR ATmega168 and later the ATmega328P microcontrollers was pivotal. These microcontrollers offered a balance of performance, cost, and ease of use, featuring 8-bit architecture, flash memory, SRAM, EEPROM, and built-in peripherals like timers, ADC, PWM, UART, SPI, and I2C. This made them ideal for a wide range of applications, from simple projects to complex prototypes.   What happens next is anybody's guess, but the frontiers spawned by the Shockley's and Moore's of the world, with their advanced educations and access to vast amounts of capital, are giving way to the kid in their bedroom, tinkering with a board and a laptop, intent on building a thing – turning their imagination into reality through simple advancements in integrated circuits, sensors, and open-source software.   How can Microchip Technology fuel the ethos of the Do-It-Yourself Maker movement?

This week's EYE ON NPI is renowned world-wide, it's onsemi's ARX383CS 1/8-inch 0.3 Mp Global Shutter CMOS Digital Image Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr), a tiny pick-and-placeable vision sensor that is perfect for your next AI or robotics - or AI robotics - product! With the global shutter, you'll be able to get clear and complete photos each time, no matter your lighting and subject speed. We stock low-cost simple camera sensors like the OV5640 at the Adafruit shop (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5839) these cameras can do color, up to 720p or greater, and can even do internal JPEG compression before piping the image out of an 8-bit parallel interface. One thing that you'll quickly realized about these cameras is that they, like almost all cameras used for basic photography are rolling-shutter type. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter) That means the sensor reads each individual pixel in a row before moving to the next column, perfectly fine as long as the thing you're photographing is moving slowly compared to the speed of the sensor iterator. For robotics vision projects, this often gives smeared or blurry images, and since time = money and thus you need to run the motor as fast as possible. For example, our SM481 pick and place (https://www.hanwha-pm.com/en-mo/product/detail.asp?product_info_id=189&cate_id=50) can do up to 40,000 components per hour, each one with vision inspection: that's 10 a second! Whether you are building the fastest Rubik's-cube solver (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59qgzzSD1tk) or a license plate reader (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr) getting crisp-clear full-frame images is essential to make sure you get the best image. The ARX383CS (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr) is sold as a chip-scale-package, meant for pick and placing directly onto a PCB or FPC. It'll need various power supplies and clock signal, as well as configuration over I2C and of course a lens and lighting. Once set up, images can be captured and sent over DSI/MIPI single-lane, at VGA 640x480 up to 120 FPS or quarter-VGA 320x240 up to 245 FPS. The available datasheet doesn't have all the details, you'll need to contact onsemi to sign an NDA for the full specifications. onsemi has also developed a read-to-go plug-in camera module that you can quickly integrate called the PRISM1M-ARX383CSSM130110-GEVB (https://www.onsemi.com/design/evaluation-board/PRISM1M-ARX383CSSM130110-GEVB) which is not in stock right now at DigiKey yet (https://www.digikey.com/short/zfm5d7tj) but we're sure that if you need it you can try contacting DigiKey's sales reps and they'll be able to get you samples and quantity pricing. If you don't mind a bulkier eval board, the ARX383CSSM28SMKAH3-GEVB (https://www.digikey.com/short/78p2c3dq) is available immediately for purchase. If you've needed to add fast video or photography to your next product, the onsemi ARX383CS 1/8-inch 0.3 Mp Global Shutter CMOS Digital Image Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/45p5vfvr) is an excellent way to add a VGA global-shutter sensor with 125 FPS VGA-resolution output and I2C control. Best of all DigiKey has tons in stock for immediate shipment, book today and they'll send you as many as you want in the blink of an eye so you can start getting high speed video integrated by tomorrow afternoon. See the onseemi video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne8O8NlyIas

This week's EYE ON NPI is a follow up to one we did a few years ago on the similarly-named BQ25792 (https://blog.adafruit.com/2021/05/06/eye-on-npi-ti-bq25792-i2c-controlled-1-4-cell-5a-buck-boost-battery-charger-eyeonnpi-adafruit-digikey-adafruit-digikey-txinstruments/). The BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) builds on the '92 by adding selectable dual inputs and true MPPT solar support. This chip is inexpensive, powerful and can handle almost any battery and power source matching you desire. Let's look at some specifications: High power density, high integration buck-boost charger for 1-4 cell batteries supporting USB PD 3.0 profile – Integrates four switching MOSFETs, BATFET – Integrates input and charging current sensing Highly efficient – 750-kHz or 1.5-MHz switching frequencies – 5-A charging current with 10-mA resolution 96.5% efficient: 16-V battery at 3A from 20V Supports a wide range of input sources Autonomously sampled open circuit voltage (VOC) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for charging from a photovoltaic panel – 3.6-V to 24-V wide input operating voltage range with 30-V absolute maximum rating – Detects USB BC1.2, HVDCP and non-standard adapters Dual-input power mux controller (optional) Narrow voltage DC (NVDC) power path Backup Mode with Ultra-fast switchover to adjustable voltage Powers USB port from battery (USB OTG) – 2.8-V to 22-V OTG output voltage with 10-mV resolution to support USB-PD PPS – OTG output current regulation up to 3.32 A with 40-mA resolution Flexible autonomous and I2C mode for optimal system performance Integrated 16-bit ADC for voltage, current, and temperature monitoring Like the '92, the BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) supports any size battery. We have lots of battery packs in the Adafruit shop, and in particular we use 1S batteries – if there are more batteries, they are wired in series. But there's lot of folks who are building robotics that require higher voltages, so they have 2S, 3S, or 4S batteries. This charger can handle any of 'em, and you can configure the battery pack size using a simple resistor on the PROG port. In this case it also allows the chip to run in 'standalone' mode without the use of I2C to configure. The biggest improvement you get with the BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) is true solar MPPT support. The BQ25792 had VINDPM and IINDPM – the ability to track the input voltage to make sure it is not drooping from overdraw. While this lets you get pretty-close-to-MPPT it isn't true power-point-tracking which requires perturbation around the voltage to adjust as light and temperature affect the solar panel's efficiency. The '98 does this 'right' and even has a K Factor adjustment register - you can tweak this to get the best results based on different weather/temperature (https://www.ti.com/video/6287049638001)- or stick to the default value for good results. Another new feature is 'selectable dual-inputs' what this means if you can set up two power inputs - say DC plug and Solar - and then have the chip switch between them. This is particularly useful because you can't just use two OR'ing diodes to select the power source: the solar panel might have a higher initial open-voltage but can't supply as much current as a DC plug. I2C lets you select which one is priority! The BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) also has many of the cool features we liked in the BQ25792: On-The-Go mode where you can turn the buck-boost around and have it generate a variable voltage output, say 5V for powering other USB devices. Another thing that works is powering over USB where you can have the BQ negotiate 'high voltage' support from USB 3 ports. Note that this isn't USB Type C power negotiation, for that you'll want to get a separate USB Type C PD negotiation chip like the TPS25750D (https://www.tij.co.jp/jp/lit/ml/slpp103/slpp103.pdf)...we're hoping there's a future version with PD built in! There's also a built in 16-bit ADC that you can use to monitor various voltages and current draw. While you can charge the battery in 'standalone' mode - you really do need I2C to get the best performance and capabilities. Thankfully there's not a huge number of registers, and SDA/SCL can be 3 or 5V logic signals so you should be able to get it working on anything from an ATmega328 to a Raspberry Pi. We like the high integration: you really only need a few passives and an inductor to get a fantastic all-in-one charger for any lithium ion battery pack. If you're intrigued and would like more information, you've come to the right place! DigiKey has the BQ25798 (https://www.digikey.com/short/vnr279pz) in stock right now for immediate shipment. Order today and you can start designing your solar-powered products of the future by tomorrow afternoon.

This week's EYE ON NPI features a new 'everything' sensor, the Sensirion SEN66 Environmental Sensor Node (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/sensirion/environmental-sensor-node-sen6x) . This is a highly-anticipated update to the SEN5x (https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/s/sensirion/eye-on-npi-sen54-environmental-sensor-node) goes hard on gas sensing, with VOC, NOx and CO2 sensors built in. You can even update to the SEN68 and get formaldehyde HCHO sensing! What we like about this series is the complete solution for all kinds of environmental sensing with a single cable. Sensirion is one of our fav sensor companies: from classics like the SHT45 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5665) to the popular SGP30 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3709) and the high quality SCD30 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4867) we have made breakouts for many-a-sensor from this company. Lately they've started to do fully integrated products - like the SEN5x series (https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/s/sensirion/eye-on-npi-sen54-environmental-sensor-node) that we covered earlier on EYE ON NPI. The SEN54 series has particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10) dust sensing, plus temperature, humidity, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with the SEN55 adding NOx. We saw this sensor often paired with an SCD30 (https://www.digikey.com/short/d1h3t1n4) or SCD4x (https://www.digikey.com/short/zmh2zjz3) to add CO2 sensing. Those folks will like the look of the SEN6x series as now we get CO2 sensing in all but the lowest-cost SEN60. One thing to note with CO2 sensing is that once a week it needs to 'self-calibrated' by letting it sense fresh outdoor air which will be ~400ppm. This isn't a bad idea for your health either. Another new sensor added in the upcoming SEN68 is formaldehyde, which integrates the SFA30 (https://www.digikey.com/short/2d5fb8rt). If you've used the SEN5x series, (https://www.digikey.com/en/videos/s/sensirion/eye-on-npi-sen54-environmental-sensor-node) you're probably familiar with their connection interface: a JST GH 6-pin cable is used to connect and provide power and I2C data connection. However, one thing to note is that the cable is the same but the pinout has changed. Power is now 3.3V instead of 5.0 and there's no UART interface, so the SEL pin is not available. For that reason, if you'd like to use the same cable, go for it - but the circuitry will need to change...for example we're revising our SEN5x breakout (https://www.digikey.com/short/h0jffnm2)! We like that, just as with the SEN5x series, the SEN6x (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/sensirion/environmental-sensor-node-sen6x) uses plain I2C to communicate. This makes it easy to integrate with any microcontroller or microcomputer, and the added CRC helps avoid accidental data corruption from EMI or loose cables. The interface is not just to each individual sensor - there's only one I2C address and command structure and once you initialize the sensor you can read all values at once for 'timestamped' consistency. The commands are easy to implement, but if you want a head-start, check out the Sensirion GitHub account (https://github.com/Sensirion?q=sen6&type=all&language=&sort=), they have code in C and Python for a 5-minute quick start. Excited to check this fancy new combo-sensor out? You're in luck because DigiKey has the Sensirion SEN66 Environmental Sensor Node (https://www.digikey.com/short/0d4jt424) in stock right now for immediate shipment! Order today and DigiKey will ship it you in an instant - you will be sensing up a storm by tomorrow afternoon! See at DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/0d4jt424 See Sensiron's video https://www.digikey.com/api/videos/videoplayer/smallplayer/6371044300112 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

For our solar-capable Feathers, we're going to design a FeatherWing helper board to assist with solar connection and monitoring. To do that, we will want to monitor two voltages (the LiPoly battery and the solar panel) and one current (the panel draw). Traditionally, we've liked using the INA219 and friends—let's see if we can find a voltage/current monitor chip with an I2C interface and at least two monitoring inputs. See the part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/tmc77hmn ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #Ladyada #FeatherWing #SolarProjects

This week on EYE ON NPI we're looking at a bright and sunny new product, this week it's the Vishay VEML6046X00 RGBIR Color Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/t3jhhdt1) an inexpensive way to add RGB + IR sensing with I2C to your next product. This sensor is the latest from Vishay, well known for their light sensing expertise, and requires no lenses or filters to get started immediately. We've used lots of Vishay sensors in our breakout boards (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=vishay) so we know they are experts in light sensors, in our experience their products are reliable and easy to use with I2C interfaces that hew closely to the I2C/SMBus specifications without funkiness like clock-stretching or auto-sleep modes. This is the first time we're looking at an RGBIR sensor from them. Traditionally we've leaned on them for infrared or 'clear' light sensing. As expected, the chip contains 4 diode sensors, tuned for red, green, blue and IR light. The sensors are fairly well normalized and characterized, with red at 90% and blue at 70% spectral sensitivity compared to green. What we thought was particularly useful about the VEML6046X00 is it comes with a Lux conversion table - and the Lux ranges up to 176 klux! This is great because it means it won't saturate out even in direct sun, reflected or directed light that would normally be considered 'blinding'. This is the highest lux sensor we've seen since the discontinued MAX44009 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/MAX44009EDT-T/2606393) which was the previous max of 188 klux. This sensor would be a good alternative with minimal work required to 'port' the firmware over. Speaking of firmware, the sensor communicates over I2C, much like most light sensors that don't need high speed. There's also an IRQ pin out for automatically triggering when going over or under a light level. The I2C register map is blessedly short, and there's an ID register so you can be sure you have the right sensor connected. Otherwise it's fairly similar to the other sensors we've used: you can probably whip up a library to do readings in a day or two - check Vishay's app note for integration for extra tips on how to initialize and read sensor data (https://www.vishay.com/docs/80410/designingveml6046x00.pdf) Or you can use Vishay's VEML6046X00 software library (https://www.vishay.com/docs/80546/veml6046x00_software_libraries.zip). Intrigued? You can pick up the Vishay VEML6046X00 RGBIR Color Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/t3jhhdt1) from DigiKey right now! It's in stock and tariff-free which makes it a great deal for a quality RGBIR lux sensor. We're also going to be looking at turning this into a breakout board. Until then, order now for immediate delivery, so you can spend more time in the sunshine and less time adding lux and color sensing to your next product.

This week's EYE ON NPI is Pretty Sweet Of Course! It's the Infineon Technologies PSOC Control C3 Microcontroller Line (https://www.digikey.com/short/8cw3wpp8) a souped-up microcontroller that is a perfect choice for engineers who need to do some motor control while also managing buttons, LEDs, displays, and other product requirements all on one chip. With a the high-speed ADCs on board, you can manage your BLDC motors and handle the feedback loop in firmware for dynamic tuning without the expense of a specialized co-processor. The PSOC Control C3 series comes in two flavors, the Entry and Main line chips (https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-arm-cortex-microcontroller/32-bit-psoc-control-arm-cortex-m33-mcu/psoc-control-c3m/). Both are based on the Arm Cortex M33 which means you know that your CMSIS-based code will be an easy compile and you can use existing pre-compiled libraries. The M33 line is an upgrade to the M3 and M4, giving you the same or better clock speeds and FPU/DSP commands you get with the M4 plus TrustZone and better power efficiency. The Entry line runs at 100MHz, with max 256k Flash 64K SRAM, 10-bit DAC, a 6 MSPS 12-bit ADC, 16 x 16-bit + 4 x 32-bit TCPWMs and a "CORDIC math coprocessor". The Main line can run at 180MHz, same Flash/SRAM and TCPWMs, and has a 12 MSPS ADC plus 4-channel HRPWM with less than 100ps resolution. Both come in 48 and 64 pin TQFP/QFN varieties, the Main line also has an 80-pin version. (There will also apparently be a Performance line, so far un-announced, which may offer more memory / higher frequency). Both have FPU/DSP support, so you'll be able to process the 6 or 12-MSPS ADC data quickly. And the CORDIC processor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORDIC) optimizes trig functions like sin/cos/tan/ln so you don't need lookup tables for performing these floating point calculations. These are particularly useful when handling motor motion calculations since they are often sinusoidal and we need to convert to-and-from the ADC measurements to the precision PWM timers. There's a huge selection of Arm processors out there, but the PSOC Control C3 has the best peripherals for motor control: it's rare to see 12MSPS 12-Bit ADC plus so many 16-bit and 32-bit timers with high-speed PWM. The CORDIC co-processor especially will make managing BLDC or Stepper motors a breeze. Plus you still get all the peripherals you would expect of a microcontroller: I2C, UART, SPI, CAN bus, DAC, IRQs, and lots of GPIO. That means you can handle all the other stuff your product has to do while also managing the motor in the background, saving you lots of space and money in BOM costs and fewer integration woes when trying to communicate between a main processor and a motor-control co-processor. The KITPSC3M5EVK eval board (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/infineon-technologies/KITPSC3M5EVK/25880112) is in stock right now if you want a ready-to-go kit at a good price. It comes with 'Arduino shield compatible" pinouts plus a USB / debug interface, and MikroBus connector for expansion. You can also pick up just the bare chip - for example the PSC3M5FDS2ACQ1AQSA1 (https://www.digikey.com/short/8cw3wpp8) is a fancy version with 256K of flash, the 12 Msps ADC, and hall encoder in a TQFP-64 package. It's in stock now at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Order today and you can have a powerful microcontroller with excellent motor feedback control in your hands by tomorrow morning.

We're testing out an I2C-to-solenoid driver today. It uses an MCP23017 expander. We like this particular chip for this usage because it has push-pull outputs, making it ideal for driving our N-channel FETs and flyback diodes. The A port connects to the 8 drivers, while the B port remains available for other GPIO purposes. For this demo, whenever we 'touch' a pin on port B to ground, the corresponding solenoid triggers provide an easy way to check speed and power usage. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #electronics #robot #solenoid

This week's EYE ON NPI is a NAND in the HAND, it's ISSI Serial NAND Flash chips (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/i/issi/serial-nand-flash) available in a variety of sizes and footprints. These are great options for folks that need more data storage on their PCBs, but don't necessarily want an SD card. DigiKey has a selection of 1Gbit and 2Gbit chips, so you have tons of storage for data logs, images, recordings, or even filesystems. And the price is great, you'll pay much less per byte when buying NAND flash There's plenty of times you'll need to access non-volatile memory on your microcontroller: graphics or audio files for a user interface, maps or almanac data for telemetry, sensor or usage logs, interpreted code scripts, firmware updates, security certificates, etc. these files are too big to be stored in simple EEPROM chips (https://www.digikey.com/short/0rf9t7qb) that max out at a few kB. The next step up is to use NOR Flash (https://www.digikey.com/short/jfp3bvph) - you can get up to 256 Megabytes in size! (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/issi-integrated-silicon-solution-inc/IS25LP02GJ-RHLE/24617385) Compared to EEPROM which comes in 1-Wire, I2C or SPI, you definitely have to use an SPI interface for NOR Flash. It's also possible on many chips to have 4-bit-at-a-time QSPI or even 8-bit OSPI interfacing for fast reads. And that's the thing that's really nice about NOR: instant reads of any byte anywhere in memory just like EEPROM. Unlike EEPROM you can't write just one byte at a time anywhere in the storage, you have to write 'page' and erase a 'sector' at a time - each page tends to be about 256 bytes, a sector is often 4KB. That means if you want to update a file, you'll need to read the whole 4K block into a memory cache, change the bytes you want to, then erase and re-write the block out. The good news though is once you write out a page, you can pretty much assume it will stay for many years: there's rarely corrupted data in NOR flash. And, although erasing and writing is a bit of a pain, the instant-access means NOR is great for 'XIP' or other dynamic memory access. If NOR is so great, why bother with NAND? One is cost: a 2MB NOR chip isn't too bad about 45 cents in quantity (https://www.digikey.com/short/zff49fb7) but once you get to the biggest 256 MB ones (https://www.digikey.com/short/vffmp583) the pricing gets high pretty quickly: $15 in tray quantities. Considering you can get a 64G SD card for that price, NOR isn't very cost effective. Second is sizing: if you want 1GB for large files, it just isn't available. For that kind of density you need NOR flash. NAND flash is the kind of flash you get when you buy a USB key or microSD card, although those have USB or SDIO interface chips (https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2013/where-usb-memory-sticks-are-born/) that are wire bonded to the NAND flash chips. You get a lot more for the price: instead of $15 for 256MB NOR, its $3 (https://www.digikey.com/short/r77p0922). You also don't need more pins! We always thought that NAND flash required a lot of pins since it comes in 48-TSSOP (https://www.digikey.com/short/8zqbmw31) but turns out that you can get it in a QSPI 8-pin format. That makes it easy to integrate without needing an 8-bit wide memory controller. However, the architectural decisions that give ISSI NAND (https://www.digikey.com/short/jtp8ppdb) the massive size & low cost that we love also make it more complex to use than NOR flash. For one, you can no longer get random access to any byte you like. Instead, an entire page must be read at once into a 2176-byte cache, and then can be accessed. This is fine for most uses except we can't use XIP anymore and there are probably some memory access use cases that don't work nearly as nicely. Also that high density means that bits are more likely to go 'bad' and flip. While you can sorta-kinda get away with not doing error correction or wear leveling on NOR, you absolutely must do error correction and wear leveling on NAND! ISSI includes a simple multi-bit ECC system that can handle repairing up to 8 bits per 2176-byte page. And, every time there's ECC errors, you will need to 'refresh/rewrite' the data to clean it up. That refresh counts against the 60K or 100K write cycle - you are more likely to need wear-level management, even if you don't expect to write that often. Basically, check if your microcontroller SDK has a NAND controller library (https://github.com/D-Buckingham/NAND_flash) that can manage this all for you. So, if you need to level up your storage, with easy-to-use SPI or QSPI-interface, ISSI has many NAND (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/i/issi/serial-nand-flash) options to let you quickly and inexpensively add 1 or 2 gigabits of non-volatile memory with built in ECC support and block cache. DigiKey will be stocking them shortly, sign up (https://www.digikey.com/short/jtp8ppdb) to be notified when they drop into stock mid-next month!

This week, we were all over the place with a bunch of different designs and experiments. After last week's analysis of the TLV320DAC3100, we made some updates to the design and re-booked prototype PCBs. We also designed a triple-matrix bonnet: with our latest work on getting HUB75 RGB matrices working on the Raspberry Pi 5, we can now do matrix control on the latest Pi 5 chip. But we're limited by the RP1 chip, so to get big displays going, we'll need multiple strands—these don't use significantly more bandwidth because half of the pins are shared. Finally, we ended the week by getting another older prototype working: the SAM-M8Q is an entry-level all-in-one GPS from u-blox. It comes with both UART and I2C interfaces, plus a built-in antenna, so it's ready to go out of the box. The NMEA interface is trivial, but we also wanted to try out the UBX interface, and thankfully, Claude 3.7 was able to vibe-code it for us in a jiffy.

Heeeey, we're just having a super chill vibe here at the desk of Ladyada—writing a driver for the uBlox M8Q https://blog.adafruit.com/2024/09/10/a-mini-gps-from-ublox-with-i2c-and-uart/ which has both I2C and UART interfaces. As expected, it can do everyday NMEA output, but it can also do UBX, a "compressed" protocol for advanced data reads and writes over I2C/UART—or even SPI on some other chips. However, the UBX protocol is a hugely complex driver to implement, with dozens of commands and hundreds of flags. But why stress when you can viiiibe? We're using this beast of a spec as an excuse to try out the new Claude 3.7, which is doing great at chomping through the UBX documentation roughage and giving us some nice code on the other side. Within an hour, we're able to connect and switch to UBX mode by sending a well-formed message and receiving an ACK. What we like about coding with a good LLM is that it does the work we sometimes get lazy over, like handling various error conditions, timeouts, and verbose error messages. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #ai #gps #coding

Join Scott as he works on getting CircuitPython working on the Fruit Jam prototype board and answers questions. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com Thanks to dcd for timecodes! 0:00 Getting started 1:40 Welcome everyone 3:00 metro rp2350 4:15 fruit jam priority interrupt 8:20 fruitjam display modes 800x480, 720x400 9:28 more unboxing.. 13:14 display testing - hstx peripheral on rp2350 - 8 bit color 15:30 audio tone test also 17:30 720x400 - from 80x25 text 20:45 desktop code - reset 23:09 HDMI and I2C devices 24:45 Emoji support 26:00 Serenityos.org and fonts 28:17 CP and file grid fonts 29:45 consider support for half and full width characters 30:40 consider coloring text 31:10 Unifoundry.com unifont 36:00 terminal and tile grid changes 37:00 CP Terminal terminalio in github 38:00 CP terminalio pythoh example search ( "/random_backups/" ) 42:14 CP now has the ability to dynamicaly allocate memory 48:24 X11 PCF and BDF fonts ( fontforge.org ) 53:00 investigate lvgl font format 58:00 explore lvgl font converter tool 1:01:44 converted into 1.9Mb unifont.bin file 1:07:45 celeste.py and pico-8 1:22:45 Celeste on the screen! (128x128 screen) 1:23:54 explore rescaling 1:37:27 Celeste live 1:38:44 dive into code.py for optimization 1:47:10 looks better and faster 1:48:49 backup - but first 8 bit 100x180 - and DMA discussion 2:00:32 update the uf2 and download - and try 180x100 2:04:01 wrapup ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

We're starting to stock a lot of chips that can do digital I2S out, which makes for great-quality audio playback. That's great when you have enough processing power to decode WAVs or MP3s in real-time. However, we could really use some better DACs in the shop. We like the UDA1334A (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3678), but that's technically discontinued - it's great because it doesn't require an MCLK that some boards like the Raspberry Pi don't have and doesn't need I2C configuration either. The PCM510x is a good family, too; it ranges from the inexpensive PCM5100 (https://www.digikey.com/short/z50cnp0h) to the PCM5102 (https://www.digikey.com/short/80z2nh3h) which has high quality output at a higher cost. This breakout could use any of the family chips & gives you all the GPIO needed with a 3.5mm headphone jack for line-level output. We're testing it out with some cool tunes from the adafruit soundcloud, check it out! (https://soundcloud.com/adafruit). Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #tech #technews #music

This week on EYE ON NPI we're eatin' our Wheaties (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvyInWTLM8s) - it's the Analog Devices MAX96714 Single GMSL2/GMSL1 to CSI-2 Deserializer (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/base-product/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/175/MAX96714/737256) a way to send high resolution digital video over a co-ax wire without losing quality. These advanced serial-deserial sets - we'll call them SerDes for short - let you minimize cabling, for reduced weight and complexity when passing high speed video from cameras or to displays over single flexible RG coax. It's easier than ever these days to add high quality video or camera sensing to your products: boards like the Raspberry Pi can do dual 4K HDMI and up to two DSI / CSI ports on the Compute Modules (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/single-board-computers-sbcs/933?s=N4IgTCBcDaIMYHsC2AHArgFwKYAIkIBM0AbLEAXQF8g) but the cables that they come with tend to be short, maxing out at 500mm long. (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/raspberry-pi/SC1130/21658263) That's because the MIPI protocol used for data transfer is designed for ultra high speeds over low cost flex PCBs, from say a laptop motherboard to the laptop monitor or webcam. Now, we do sell looooong cables (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2144) that are 2 meters long but with the caveat that they are well outside the expected spec. They do work! But we wouldn't put it in a product that goes to customers. So what do you do if you have a car, where the seats and dashboard have monitors but the main processor is probably in the back of the car, far from the hot engine? That's where Analog Devices got inspired from the Cable TV of our youth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television) that would let kids of the 90's watch dozens of channels using...only one cable! The cable, in this case, is a coaxial cable: one copper wire surrounded by a plastic dielectric, then a braided metal ground return. Coax cables are flexible but rugged, and DigiKey stocks thousands of different types (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/coaxial-cables-rf/475) by the foot or reel. So they make an excellent physical transport layer for video in aggressive environments because they are shielded yet flexible. With GMSL you need two chips: a serializer like the MAX96717 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3pcv09pn) and a de-serializer like the MAX96714 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3jqw8tj8). Between the two, connect said coax, then configure both sides for the data format you want and boom, you have a transparent video link! The serializer will take the digital data, then turn it into a serialized-packetized-data-packet on a single wire. That thin wire can fit into spaces that would normally be a challenge such as cars / aerospace where weight is at a premium, robotics where the shielding will protect the signal integrity, and medical where high rez cameras have to fit in tiny spaces. GMSL even supports 'power over coax' where a DC signal can be used as a carrier for the high frequency data - so you really can have one thin cable for everything. Depending on which generation of GMSL you choose, you will get either 3 Gbps or 6. A small portion of that is 'upstream' communication, thats used for IRQs, video/camera control and extra I2C or GPIO. If you need stereo or quad camera/video , you can use a quad deserializer: you will still get 4 coax cables in but it'll be smaller and perhaps better synchronized than having four separate deserializers. To get started, we recommend picking up the MAX96714-BAK-EVK eval board (https://www.digikey.com/short/nh82vrbc), which is not inexpensive but does have everything you need to get started with the MAX96714 (https://www.digikey.com/short/3jqw8tj8). Note you'll also need the serializer! One thing that's nice is that if you want to get set up with a Raspberry Pi to start, you can order the Pi Cam Eval board (https://wiki.analog.com/resources/eval/user-guides/ad-gmslcamrpi-adp) which is an adapter for the eval to use off-the-shelf Pi camera modules, pick up at DigiKey (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc/AD-GMSLCAMRPI-ADP/21678785). Then to set up the configuration you can use the Linux driver to have automatic setup (https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/media/i2c/max96714.c) without a separate configuration program. If you'd like to try out GSML for your next long-distance video product, you can pick up the Analog Devices MAX96714 Single GMSL2/GMSL1 to CSI-2 Deserializer (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/base-product/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/175/MAX96714/737256) today from DigiKey because it's in stock for immediate shipment! Book now and you can be zipping along MIPI CSI data at 6Gbps by tomorrow afternoon.

We'd like high-quality I2S digital audio generation for our Fruit Jam board, and both 16-ohm headphone/line level out and a mono 8-ohm speaker driver. Ideally, we wouldn't need two or three chips to achieve this: the DAC would have headphone drivers and a class D speaker driver. We'll need I2C control, 3.3V logic, and up to 5V for speaker power. When you need a very specific setup for audio converters, sometimes it's easiest to go to the semiconductor website and search for the exact setup. (https://www.ti.com/audio-ic/converters/dac/overview.html) .Then you can book your order from DigiKey. See the chosen part on DigiKey: https://www.digikey.com/short/hjw02vdt ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/

#circuitpythonparsec How to use the built-in I2C battery monitor on your Feather ESP32-S2/S3 boards. code example: https://github.com/jedgarpark/parsec/blob/main/2025-01-24/code.py https://www.adafruit.com/product/5477 Learn about CircuitPython: https://circuitpython.org Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

We got our WLED-friend PCBs today, and we only made one mistake: the wrong resistor on the 3.3V feedback line. Now that it's fixed, the board seems to work great with the latest version of WLED (https://kno.wled.ge/basics/tutorials/)! we are checking all 4 signal outputs with this handy 256-LED grid that sits on our desk. Next, we will test the onboard IR receiver, USB PD, I2S microphone, extra I/O pins, and I2C. We'll also do an Arduino IDE board definition in case folks want to use it as a generic ESP32-to-LED-driver board. We're calling the board "Sparkle Motion" for now, but if you have other naming ideas, let us know - if we pick your name, you get a free board (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6100). Sign up, coming soon. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #wled #ledscreen #electronics

We got our WLED-friend PCBs (https://blog.adafruit.com/2024/12/02/leftovers-layout-wled-board-revision-a-completed/) and are testing it with various LED grids. First, we tried out a 16x16 NeoPixel grid that runs on 5V. Since that worked well, we're now onto a much bigger 60 x 60 grid - that's 3,600 LEDs! These are some NeoPixel pebble (https://www.adafruit.com/product/6024) netting samples we're also testing at the same time; each one has 20 x 60 pixels and uses 12V power, so it's a good test of the DC pass-through for higher voltages. Since WLED has a limit of 2000 pixels per output, this demo uses the three output ports that are then 'merged' together in memory to make a single large grid. We have more to test soon: the onboard IR receiver, USB PD, I2S microphone, extra I/O pins, and I2C, so watch for those videos as they come together. Coming soon - https://www.adafruit.com/product/6100 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #wled #neopixels #ledart

This week's EYE ON NPI knows where New York Hottest Club is at, it's the Teledyne FLIR Lepton® 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/teledyne-flir/pocket-sized-thermal-camera), a bite-sized full-featured video camera for remote thermal measurements. With a resolution of 160x120 pixels, remote temperature measurements of -40°C to +300°C, and the size of a coin, this camera can be embedded into any kind of product, whether it's running Linux, RTOS or a plain old microcontroller. Thermal cameras are multi-purpose, with usage in medical, industrial, construction, maintenance and security industries. Use them to make sure equipment is running at the right temperature and not overheating, that insulation for a room is performing adequately, locating people or animals, or detecting fevers without touching. FLIR makes the best low-cost, small-size thermal cameras and they're available off-the-shelf at DigiKey for quick integration. Each camera outputs either a simple grayscale-valued frame or one with a false-color RGB888 palette - the palette can be configured over I2C. The Lepton 3.1R is one of a series of cameras available from FLIR, including the Lepton 2 and 3.5. What's great is all have the same physical pinout and shape that can plug into a socket. This is great for manufacturing yield and field repair: the expensive module is placed last in the manufacturing line so earlier yield issues don't affect it. Also you can swap different resolution/FOV modules to customize for the end-user. For example, the Lepton 2 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/flir-lepton/500-0763-01/6250105) is a little less expensive but has only 80x60 pixels. Or you can upgrade to the Lepton 3.5 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/flir-lepton/500-0771-01/7606616) with similar resolution but a narrower FOV. Note that the FOV will affect the distortion greatly: a wider FOV requires a lens to focus the IR emissions but will fisheye the middle and compress the edges. There's software from Teledyne FLIR (https://www.flir.com/developer/lepton-integration/lepton-3.1r-dewarping-application-note/) that will "de-warp" the 3.1R's output, using Open CV, to give you more realistic imagery. To learn how to work with these modules, we recommend the Lepton engineering integration guide (https://flir.netx.net/file/asset/13333/original/attachment). Unlike the simplest thermal camera modules and sensors, which use only I2C, or the most complex USB-video output devices, the Leptons use a combination on I2C for configuration - called the CCI Command and Control Interface - and SPI for VoSPI - a.k.a. video over SPI. This makes them possible to integrate with a wide range of microcontrollers or microcomputers. As mentioned before, you don't solder the cameras to the PCB. Instead they are plugged into a common Molex 1050281001 socket (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/1050281001/3045223) which is only $1 at DigiKey and comes on a pick-and-place reel. If you want to get started very quickly, DigiKey and GroupGets (https://www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/groupgets) have partnered up to offer a wide range of breakout boards, USB adapters and dev-boards that feature the Teledyne FLIR Leptons (https://www.digikey.com/short/2djrnzpr) GroupGets also published firmware and example code (https://github.com/orgs/groupgets/repositories?type=all) to get you started with their products so you can quickly evaluate the Lepton and make sure it will work and what resolution/FOV is ideal: simply swap the different models in and out of the Molex socket. GroupGets also works with makers to get their prototypes to market, working with DigiKey for part sourcing (https://www.digikey.com/en/blog/digikey-partners-with-groupgets-to-help-startups-getmade) so if you have an idea and need a help making it to production check them out! If you need a high-quality thermal camera that is plug-and-play, easy to integrate and at a great cost, the Teledyne FLIR Lepton 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera is hot hot HOT and in stock right now for immediate purchase from DigiKey (https://www.digikey.com/short/0zr8w59q). Order today, pick up an eval board too, and you can be measuring the world around you by tomorrow afternoon. See on DigiKey at https://www.digikey.com/short/0zr8w59q See the manufacturer's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xsDuiq8eZc

This week's EYE ON NPI is having Too Much Fun - it's the ams OSRAM TMF8806 Single-Zone direct Time of Flight sensor (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/ams/tmf8806-single-zone-tof) the latest in ams' series of ToF sensors. This sensor may seem like "YAToF" but there's a few things that caught our eye. One is the excellent pricing, about $2 in quantity. Another is the simplicity of function: unlike many ToF sensors, there isn't a massive firmware stack required to load on each boot. Instead, the default firmware is in ROM for a lightweight interface. We've stocked ToF sensors (https://www.adafruit.com/search?q=tof) for quite a while - mostly the ST VL series. These sensors have developed quite a bit over the years, starting with the 100mm-range VL6180 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3316) and continuing onto multi-grid devices that we've covered on previous EYE ON NPI's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PocFz427NE). The way these work is by blasting laser pulses out of a VCSEL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical-cavity_surface-emitting_laser) which then bounces off of the target and the 'time of flight' is measured in the pF range to give accuracy and range. Easy to describe, but non-trivial to implement...the light doesn't bounce off perfectly, and a lot of individualy measurements need to be taken and then averaged - this is called the histogram. The histogram data is filtered in software to toss outliers and double-bounces, to get the 'true' calibrated distance. And it has to do this dozens of times a second. The complexity of the algorithm is what gives each product its accuracy, precision, repeatability and range - so its no surprise that its running on an in-package microcontroller. However, as the sensors have gotten more advanced, the firmware process has also gotten complex: for many ToF sensors you have to 'load' the firmware algorithm on boot (https://github.com/STMicroelectronics/stm32-vl53l5cx/blob/main/modules/vl53l5cx_buffers.h#L33) and even if you don't, its a non-trivial port to other platform. That's what caught our eye for the ams OSRAM TMF8806 (https://www.digikey.com/short/f9v8w20d), the description specifies "No FW download is required to operate this device, saving host MCU memory space, reducing startup time, and saving overall system power by enabling customers to quickly start the device and make measurements in a few milliseconds". The interface is trivial, they even provide the I2C commands required to boot, load firmware, and perform a reading, its about a dozen commands. For hardware, it's also a nice and simple integration - with a small OLGA package, I2C communication, and 1.8V or 3.3V logic level. One thing to watch for, the sensor comes with 3 'modes' - short, medium and long range. Minimum range for all of these is 10mm, the max is 200, 2500 or 5000mm. And,while the sensor can do 5000mm, it requires pretty specific calibration and lighting. The default range is 2500 and we recommend sticking to that if you can because then you get the benefit of built-in configuration and calibration for speed/simplicity. To get started fast, ams OSRAM supplies multiple drivers for Arduino or other C microcontrollers (https://github.com/ams-OSRAM/tmf8806_driver_arduino), generic Python (https://github.com/ams-OSRAM/tmf8806_driver_python) and Linux kernel (https://github.com/ams-OSRAM/tmf8806_driver_linux). You can also grab an eval board in 'shield' format that has a microcontroller for plug-and play usage (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/ams-osram-usa-inc/TMF8806-EVM-EB-SHIELD/24768739) Add low power, super fast ToF sensing to your next design with the ams OSRAM TMF8806 Single-Zone direct Time of Flight sensor (https://www.digikey.com/short/f9v8w20d), in stock for immediate shipment from DigiKey! Order today and it will ship to you at pico-second speed, so that you can be integrating it by tomorrow morning.

We've got the DS2484 in stock, that our I2C-to-1Wire converter board https://www.adafruit.com/product/5976 and we also now have a prototype breakout for the DS2842S-800 which has 8 selectable channels. on one hand, you can always have multiple 1-wire sensors on a single 1-wire bus, but you have to deal with ROM addressing to know which is measuring what. by having 8 separate channels you can be more sure about what each sensor is sensing, and it was pretty easy to add support - just one more function for adjusting the active channel. The DS2842-800, with eight selectable channels, simplifies 1-wire sensor management compared to the DS2484. Adafruit stocks both and has a prototype breakout for the DS2842S-800, ensuring precise sensor readings and easy channel adjustment. #Adafruit #1WireTech #DS2842 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

Larry Janus is no stranger to broadcast engineering, but his passion is excellent design of vacuum tube based audio circuits, and then controlling their functions using modern control electronics via WiFi. This passion leads to a clever integration of a tube-based mic pre-amp, fully remote controlled using a phone app over WiFi. This arrangement gives rise to some interesting and convenient possibilities for stage-placed mic pre-amps with remote control. Larry Janus joins us from his well-equipped home lab in Florida. Show Notes:Larry’s web site featuring his 2UBES VTX-1 Dual Triode Tube Mic Pre-Amp with WiFi ControlCriteria Recording Studio - MiamiRadioWorld article about Gary Blau - W3AM - Silent KeyHistory of the Fairchild 660 Tube CompressorInfo on the ubiquitous 12AX7 vacuum tubeInfo on the I2C data & control buss, used in many electronic designsLarry does embedded design work at MANLEY Laboratories Guest:Larry Janus - Audio Equipment Designer & Systems Engineer at MANLEY Laboratories Host:Kirk Harnack, The Telos Alliance, Delta Radio, Star94.3, & South Seas BroadcastingFollow TWiRT on Twitter and on FacebookTWiRT is brought to you by:Nautel and the HD Digital Radio Test DriveBroadcasters General Store, with outstanding service, saving, and support. Online at BGS.cc. Broadcast Bionics - making radio smarter with Bionic Studio, visual radio, and social media tools at Bionic.radio.Angry Audio and the new Rave analog audio mixing console. The new MaxxKonnect Broadcast U.192 MPX USB Soundcard - The first purpose-built broadcast-quality USB sound card with native MPX output. Subscribe to Audio:iTunesRSSStitcherTuneInSubscribe to Video:iTunesRSSYouTube

We had a customer request for an I2C to 1-Wire converter: handy for when you don't have a spare GPIO, or maybe you can't do fast pin toggling, or maybe you have a single board computer or desktop that you want to connect to 1-Wire devices like the DS18B20. so we spun up a prototype board with the DS2484 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/DS2484R-T/5020823) the latest version from Analog Devices. here i'm testing out my code: with multiple DS18B20's, some TO-92's (https://www.adafruit.com/product/374) and a wired sensor (https://www.adafruit.com/product/381) that i can dunk in a teacup to verify it reports the temperature right. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #adafruit #DS2484 #gpio

We just wrapped up our breakout board design for the DS2484 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/analog-devices-inc-maxim-integrated/DS2484R-T/5020823)an I2C to 1-Wire device, and we had someone ask "what is 1-Wire, and when should I use it?" We'll quickly run through the history of 1-Wire and iButton devices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Wire) then search on DigiKey to find some of the 1-Wire chips that are most common, such as EEPROMs (https://www.digikey.com/short/z58jzbmf), GPIO expanders (https://www.digikey.com/short/zzt3c33m) and - of course - temperature sensors (https://www.digikey.com/short/5985cd9t)! See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/5985cd9t Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

This week's EYE ON NPI is catchy like an 80's pop song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPn0KFlbqX8), it's ams OSRAM's TCS3530 True Color Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/ams/tcs3530-true-color-sensor) It is a new light sensor from ams OSRAM that is pre-calibrated for CIE XYZ color temperature sensing output, without a lot of gnarly math! We're huge fans of ams's light sensors, one of our first sensor breakouts was the TSL2561, (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/ams-osram-usa-inc/TSL2561T/3095179) a wide-input-range light sensor with an I2C interface. We followed that up with a breakout for the TCS34725 which can detect separate red, green, blue and clear channels. With a little math, color reflected off of objects can be calculated into RGB color-space - we used it to make an umbrella that matches whatever color it touches! (https://learn.adafruit.com/florabrella/) Since then, ams OSRAM has worked to create better light sensors that reduce the need for end-user calibration or a lot of microcontroller lifting. The chips have carefully tuned PN diodes to not only be able to report correct color values, but ideally also have little variation from sensor-to-sensor. The TCS3530 (https://www.digikey.com/short/qwt595fh) is the latest color sensor from ams OSRAM, and it's also their newest with XYZ color output! This means you can read CIE XYZ color values out directly from the driver, which is going to be the best way to model what a human eye sees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_1931_color_space) - not just an optimal concept based on 'pure' RGB photodiodes. This makes it ideal for use with cameras, monitors, printers/copiers and other devices that have humans that are looking at the colors. By detecting ambient light temperature, monitors and camera sensors can adjust their white balance to have their color gamut appear more 'natural' even in yellowish incandescent or halogen, or blueish fluorescent light. The TCS3530 (https://www.digikey.com/short/qwt595fh) does this by having 8 separate PN diodes, each tuned to a specific frequency band, to cover from about 400nm to 750nm. The diodes are normalized by the ALS engine so that you don't get over-sensitivity to green or IR. The diodes are arranged in a 4-way symmetric array to get fully balanced readings across all frequencies: there's probably some reasoning to how the layout is done to avoid signal from one diode from affecting a nearby one, something ams has decades of experience with. A modulator and flicker detection system can sense light pulses such as those from incandescent bulbs (at 120 Hz) or monitors (30 to 60 Hz) so that we can sample at the same times during the wave, or sample long enough to capture a full waveform worth of light. Interfacing is fairly simple, although there are a few things to watch out for during integration. The sensor supports both I2C and I3C (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC4zkvdVag4) so it's good for legacy or modern microprocessors. Note the chip requires no greater than 1.8V power and logic, so for 3.3V systems - a shifter will be necessary. Finally - the chip has a massive number of registers to tweak the settings. So while you could write a driver, you're probably best off using ams OSRAM's TCS3502 linux C kernel driver to base your implementation if you are not just using Linux/Android directly. If you want to add precision color sensing with pre-calibrated CIE XYZ outputs to your next design, the ams OSRAM's TCS3530 True Color Sensor (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/ams/tcs3530-true-color-sensor) is a top choice from a world leader in light sensing. And best of all, it's in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment! Order today and you will get this compact all-in-one devices shipped to your door so you can start letting your true colors shine by tomorrow afternoon.

This week's EYE ON NPI will take you for a SPIN around the block - it's STMicroelectronics' STSPIN32G0 Three-Phase BLDC Controller (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/stmicroelectronics/stspin32g0-three-phase-bldc-controller) series of chips, featuring 250 or 600 V three-phase BLDC FET controllers with integrated embedded STM32 MCU! These chips are an 'all in one' solution to advanced motor control when you want to have sensors and tight integration, or a super tiny footprint. As budding robotics hobbyists, we've designed and stocked many products - like this Motor Shield (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1438) - to support a variety of small DC motors. Some well known varieties are: Hobby Servos, DC brushed motors, and steppers. Hobby servos are actually just DC brushed motors with a feedback circuit, so we'll ignore those. DC brushed motors are simple: apply a positive DC voltage to the two wires, and the rotor spins one way. Apply a negative voltage, they spin the other way. As you can expect from the name, inside are brushes, that connect from the rotating center to the two permanent magnets on the outer diameter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brushed_DC_electric_motor). This makes them inexpensive, and very easy to use: simply PWM the voltage to change the speed, invert the voltage to change direction. Nothing more complex than an H-bridge is required. But the brushes do eventually wear out, or oxidize, or splinter. Which means the motors will eventually 'die' and need replacement. Fine for toys and simple products that have low usage, but not appropriate for white goods or automotive or anything where life-time and reliability are essential! Stepper motors are a tad more complex: in order to have precise movement, they use a bank of 4 electromagnetic coils to 'step' the axle around a little bit at a time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor). No brushes to replace! But they don't rotate fast: the point is they have small accurate steps, and they're kinda expensive. What if we could combine DC brushed motors and steppers to create... Brushless DC Motors? Wow, so smart! That's exactly what a BLDC is, a DC motor that has no brushes, but does have multiple windings that have to be synchronized right to rotate. They're a little more expensive than brushed motors, but not significantly. The biggest cost increase is in the driver complexity because you need to drive and sequence three branches, whereas the commutator/brushes on a brushed motor handles that for you. Normally folks will use their favorite microcontroller, then wire it up to a BLDC driver (https://www.digikey.com/short/3bf72p89), like the L6235Q (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/L6235QTR/2772201) which can push 2.5A per-bridge at up to 52V. But, wouldn't it be nifty if you didn't have to do any wiring, so that even for small designs, you can have a fully integrated motor controller with your main microcontroller. Or, you could use the microcontroller as an I2C or SPI peripheral that integrates the temperature/current/voltage/torque monitoring that you would normally have to manage as a interrupt-run thread on a main core. That's what we've got here with the STSPIN32G0 Three-Phase BLDC Controller (https://www.digikey.com/short/977t8ftv) series of chips. It's a ARM Cortex M0 STM32G031C8 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/STM32G031C8U6/10300273) running at 64MHz and 64K flash / 8K SRAM, with standard peripherals, debug, and even some 5V-friendly GPIO. Inside, the STM is bonded to the control circuitry so that 3 sides are used for microcontroller interfacing, and the fourth side is high-voltage friendly with separated pads. Program it just like any other STM32G031C8, and just define the motor control pins to the bonded wires. And then you'll need to connect the 6 power IGBT/FETs to create the 3 driving half-bridges such as STGD6M65DF2 (https://www.digikey.com/short/7dwq7zw2) Are you ready to have a super-integrated BLDC driver board that comes with a top-notch Cortex-M0 and all the power-driving experience ST has to offer? You're in luck because the STSPIN32G0 Three-Phase BLDC Controller (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/stmicroelectronics/stspin32g0-three-phase-bldc-controller) is in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment. Check out the all-in-one EVSPIN32G06Q1S1 eval board (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/EVSPIN32G06Q1S1/22470459) if you want to immediately start testing out the STSPIN32G0. Then place your order today so you can start putting your own spin on motor driving by tomorrow afternoon.

We designed this CH552-based QT Py board before the chip shortage, but now parts are plentiful so we made some prototypes and are trying out the CH55xduino (https://github.com/DeqingSun/ch55xduino) board support package. and, it works! but watch out, its C not C++ so you can't use the huge collection of existing libraries and drivers. however, for about '40 cents' per chip, you get a 8051 with native USB that can do CDC/HID, has 4x 8-bit ADCs, hardware serial, I2C, SPI and doesn't need a crystal or a lot of passives. obviously there's down sides to such a minimal 8-bit microcontroller chip but we think it could be super fun for some very basic USB projects! Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #adafruit #electronics #diy

This week's EYE ON NPI will make you say "Yeee-haww", to the buckin'-and-boostin' bronco known as the Richtek RT6160A Buck-Boost Converter with I²C Interface (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/r/richtek/rt6160a-buck-boost-converter). The RT6160A is a high-efficiency, single-inductor, synchronous buck-boost converter that can provide up to 3 Amps of current to a dynamically-configurable voltage from 2.025V to 5.2V. With an amazing 2uA quiescent current, this chip lets you add an advanced power supply for the price of an LDO that will let you design with the smallest possible battery. We're big fans of Richtek for low quiescent power supply chips - our favorite 3.3V LDO is the RT9080-33 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/richtek-usa-inc/RT9080-33GJ5/6161634) which can provide up to 600mA with a 0.5V dropout, and a really nice 4uA quiescent current. This is great for deep-sleep wireless projects where you've got a chip with ultra-low power snooze modes, like the ESP32 - we were able to get down to 10.5 uA in deep sleep thanks to the RT9080! (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-itsybitsy-esp32/low-power-use). Compare that to the AP2112K which we used to use, has a quiescent current of 55uA. However, the RT9080 is a LDO fixed at 3.3V@600mA - and of course, LDOs have that dropout which translates to power lost. If you want to sip every last Coulomb out of the battery on hand, you'll need a DC/DC converter. Usually we see a buck converter - since you are converting from a Lithium Polymer battery, you'll have 3.7V nominal, 4.2V peak voltage and maybe you'll buck that down to 3V. If you want to really get the best possible range of performance, you can go with a buck boost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck%E2%80%93boost_converter). That way you can buck down from 3.4-4.2V and then as the battery starts drooping, the chip switches into a boost mode to cover the 2.7V~3.2V range. The RT6160A is a Buck-Boost converter that seems well designed for battery-powered projects, with an input and output range of about 2 to 5V. The default output is 3.3V and you can 'select' between two voltages by toggling a GPIO pin. This makes it easy to adjust the desired voltage and then swap from 'high' to 'low' voltages without an I2C command. Why would you want two voltages? Well, you could use 3.3V or greater for when you want the best performance from a radio, then drop down to 2.5V when the radio isn't on and you want to reduce both the conversion current and also reduce your chip quiescent current: most microcontrollers will use lower current at lower voltages since they are not pushing around as much current onto the internal logic FETs. Combine this with a microcontroller's dynamic clock frequency configuration and you've got a simple system to squeeze more current out of your battery. And usually you have to 'spend' a lot of current to run the DC/DC converter, but this chip has an amazing 2uA quiescent current - lower than most LDOs we've used, and amazing for an up-to-3A output device. If you want to have the lowest quiescent, highest-flexibility power management chip in your next design, the Richtek RT6160A Buck-Boost Converter with I²C Interface (https://www.digikey.com/short/hv7fm4nt) is an excellent choice: Richtek really know their power supplies and they keep it nice and simple so you can get to integration instantly. Best of all, DigiKey has the RT6160A (https://www.digikey.com/short/hv7fm4nt) in stock right now, for immediate shipment, and $1.32 by the reel! All you need is some ceramic caps and an inductor. For fast testing in your application, there are also some EVB_RT6160AWSC (https://www.digikey.com/short/0p80hqvj) eval boards in stock. Order today and you can be waving your cowboy hat in celebration by tomorrow afternoon.

The ESP32-C6 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5672) is Espressif's first Wi-Fi 6 SoC integrating 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 (LE) and the 802.15.4 protocol. It brings the goodness you know from the low-cost C3 series (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5337) and improves it with Zigbee/802.15.4 at 2.4Ghz. That means it could make for great Matter (https://csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter/) development hardware! We took our Feather ESP32-S2 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5000) and swapped out the 'S2 for a C6. Plus some re-routing and here's what we've got: a C6 Feather with lots of GPIO, lipoly charging and monitoring with the MAX17048, (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5580) NeoPixel, I2C Stemma QT port, and a second low-quiescent LDO for disabling the I2C and NeoPixel when we want ultra-low power usage. We also tossed a BME280 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2652) on there, so you could use it immediately as a low power temp/hum/pressure sensor. Now it's time to do the bringup - we like to blink LEDs, toggle pins, and also check that NeoPixels glow up. Good news: so far everything works! We're going to keep at it and see if we can maybe get a simple Matter demo going before we book the PCBs #adafruit #feather #esp32c6 #featherboard #wifi6 #bluetooth5 #zigbee #matteriot #lowpower #iotdevelopment #tempmonitoring #pcbdesign Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

This week's EYE ON NPI will galvanize your next design, with robust galvanic isolation specifically for I2C devices: we're highlighting the Analog Devices ADuM1252/3 Bidirectional I²C Isolators (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/analog-devices/adum1252-bidirectional-i2c-isolator). They are available in two flavors: as the unidirectional ADuM1253 (https://www.digikey.com/short/0w8fq3w5) and bi-directional ADuM1252 (https://www.digikey.com/short/r4j3tcrf). These little SOIC chips provide trustworthy isolation up to a shocking ±10 kV surge, with pending safety and regulatory approvals, so you can feel confident that your design is created as safe as possible. Digital isolation (https://www.analog.com/en/product-category/isolation.html) is essential when dealing with medical, industrial or robotic designs. For industrial/robotic applications, the motors are very noisy and you want to make sure that there is no direct path for that electrical noise to your delicate sensors or microcontrollers. With medical cases, engineers are often tasked with measuring very fine sensors, with uV signals, and providing repeatable data that is used for life-or-death decisions, while also making sure that the 'DUT' is never exposed to dangerous voltages all in an environment with tons of other equipment, some of which may be misbehaving...that's a lot of pressure! The ADuM1252/3 is specifically designed for isolation of I2C signals: you can't just use 'any' isolator because I2C is a bi-directional data protocol that uses pull-ups on open-drain data and clock lines to communicate from controller and peripheral. The ADuM1252 (https://www.digikey.com/short/r4j3tcrf) has bi-directionality on both SDA and SCL, useful for 'multi-controller' modes or when clock stretching is used. The ADuM1253 (https://www.digikey.com/short/0w8fq3w5) has unidirectional SCL for most common I2C devices, and is a little less expensive. The ADI iCoupler technology uses 'galvanic' isolation, that's not the same as optoisolation! According to ADI, you'll get much better data-rate performance and isolation with galvanic compared to optoisolation. Also, lower power since you don't have to turn on/off an LED. Plus you can also use iCoupler for power transfer, which optoisolation cannot do. (https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/frequently-asked-questions/icoupler_faq.pdf) The way iCoupler works is by creating a tiny transformer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer) with two sets of metal coils, separated by an isolating polyamide layer. For data transfer, little coils are used and for power transfer, bigger coils can handle a couple mA! Of course, if we're using a transformer, you know that DC signals cannot be passed through, only AC; and data has a DC component plus isn't a sine wave. That means that there's also a data-to-AC codec on board that will turn I2C signals to AC, then back to I2C. All this is managed transparently so you don't have to worry about it, just treat it as a single I2C bus. There's also a couple nice extras that are helpful if you're trying to make I2C more fault-tolerant. Pre-charge circuitry and 'stuck' detection allow hot-swapping, either purposeful or accidental. The two isolated sides are not connected together until the Side2 half is in a neutral-bus condition. Since each side is separate, you can also use the ADuM1252/3 (https://www.digikey.com/short/1vbn4hcb) for level shifting: either half can be between 1.7 and 5.5V power and logic. With the fast iCoupler codec, you can get up to 2 MHz clock rate for fast I2C data transfer. If you need iCouplers for other protocols like USB or SPI - Analog devices has those available as well, each version is tuned for the usage so you get the best performance. If you need high performance galvanic isolation for your next I2C design, the Analog Devices ADuM1252/3 Bidirectional I²C Isolators (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/analog-devices/adum1252-bidirectional-i2c-isolator) will do an excellent job at creating a code-transparent galvanic barrier for up to 2 MHz bidirectional I2C communication. And best of all, both the unidirectional ADuM1253 (https://www.digikey.com/short/0w8fq3w5) and bidirectional ADuM1252 (https://www.digikey.com/short/r4j3tcrf) are stock at DigiKey right now for immediate shipment. Order today and you'll be gallivanting your way to iCoupler bliss by tomorrow afternoon. See the ADI video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cH-ym9QJlQ

For the Trinkey board we're working on, we want to include on a temperature/humidity sensor. We've got tons of options in the Adafruit shop, but it's always good to see what is available on the market and compare the different accuracies with their price points. Let's see what's available on DigiKey for an SMT, high accuracy, temperature+humidity sensor with I2C interface, and 3.3V-friendly See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/zd85wq43 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

This week's EYE ON NPI is virtually the best chip you could get for VR tracking - it's the TS4631 Light-to-Digital Converter (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/triad-semiconductor/ts4631-light-to-digital-converter) a specialized mixed-signal ASIC that is designed especially for folks who want to design accessories for the SteamVR (https://store.steampowered.com/app/250820/SteamVR/) and specifically, HTC Vive hardware (https://www.vive.com/us/). Thankfully, this chip is available without restriction or NDA, which means it's theoretically possible for anyone to design tracking technology without the hard part of making the fixed-base-transmitters. Precision 3D tracking within a room is incredibly hard: Cameras can kinda do depth perception but they require a lot of computation and often make mistakes on object recognition. You can try using UWB but it's very pricey and has precision limitations. HTC Vive solves this by using IR light, which is not-sensitive to room illumination, doesn't have RF interference, and is fairly inexpensive. Each 'lighthouse' acts like a lighthouse: after an initial Infrared burst for sync, it sweeps IR over X & Y directions. Check out Alan Yates' detailed talk for how this design works (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75ZytcYANTA) The object being tracked has an IR photodiode, which catches the sync pulse, then measures the time between that and the X and Y sweeps. It does this for each lighthouse. With some fun matrix math (https://trmm.net/Lighthouse/), it can then calculate it's X Y Z coordinates with respect to the Lighthouses and, given we know the location of those Lighthouses during an initial calibration step, we can localize that IR diode within the fixed coordinates of the room we're in. That means that if you want a device that can detect the IR pulses and sweeps, all you need is an IR photodiode like the OSRAM BPW 34 (https://www.digikey.com/short/b5jn4pnp) and a bunch of analog electronics to filter out ambient noise, detect the carrier frequency, and give you the timing pulses detected. Or, you can save yourself a ton of effort, and just go with the Triad TS4631 (https://www.digikey.com/short/fwr173wh). All you need is the photodiode and a couple simple passives and you can have a configurable sensor analog front end at low cost and low complexity. In fact, that's what nearly all Vive-compatible hardware uses. (https://twitter.com/SadlyItsBradley/status/1634146181755355136) The Triad TS4631 (https://www.digikey.com/short/fwr173wh) comes in a compact 0.4mm-pitch 9-pin BGA package, which thankfully uses the center ball as a second ground so no buried vias are required. Give it 3.3V power, a BPW 34 S (https://www.digikey.com/short/p8j9r7z0) photodiode, and a couple passives for the power supply, and it's ready to go! There's two output pins for the Envelope and Data from the IR signal. Those two pins are also the I2C configuration pins, and you can use any microcontroller to read and write the configuration registers that let you set up the gain, thresholds and sleep modes. There's a library for the TS4231 (https://github.com/TriadSemi/TS4231) available from Triad, and since the TS4631 mostly improves the TS4231's power usage, you can likely start your microcontroller interfacing and development with that code. There's also lots of other folks playing around with the Triad TS4631 (https://www.digikey.com/short/fwr173wh) and TS4231 (https://www.digikey.com/short/fmcj4wft) which means that you can find hobbyist projects for design inspiration. We found some great info from famed hackers CNLohr (https://hackaday.io/project/153224-ts4231-esp8266-lighthouse-tracking) including libsurvive for desktop tracking (https://github.com/cntools/libsurvive/), Trammell Hudson (https://trmm.net/Lighthouse/), and other YouTube makers (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ts4231). There's also a published project called HiveTracker (https://hivetracker.github.io/) that has hardware and firmware for a fully-designed tracker board with Bluetooth LE as the backchannel. If you want to get started with making 3D-trackable devices for VR or AR applications, it's great to not have to build the whole system from scratch. With the Triad TS4631, (https://www.digikey.com/short/fwr173wh) you can integrate into the existing SteamVR/HTC Vive ecosystem or you can chart your own path with their hardware and your own software. Either way, you'll want to pick up some TS4631's and you're in luck because DigiKey has them in stock right now, for immediate shipment! Order today and you can be tracking in cyberspace by tomorrow afternoon.

This week's EYE ON NPI is gonna give it to up high...then down low (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_five) ...ready to measure, never too slow! It's STMicroelectronics' TSC1641 Digital Power Monitor (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/stmicroelectronics/tsc1641-digital-power-monitor), a high-precision temperature, voltage, power, and temperature monitoring chip with I2C or I3C interfaces for integration with modern microcontrollers and microcomputers. This chip is great for tracking actual power usage into motors, LEDs, batteries etc. to detect anomalies or conserve power, with a tiny footprint and flexible usage. The TSC1641 is a modern take on the old-shunt-resistor-into-an-opamp method of power monitoring (https://learn.adafruit.com/portable-solar-charging-tracker/analog-stuff). For one, the TSC1641 can handle high or low-side measurements. That means you don't run the risk of having your grounds floating above earth, or managing multiple reference voltages. Also of course wiring is a snap, you just insert the board in between the power rail and load. Second, it can read up to 60VDC voltages - great for big battery packs, automotive or robotics. Third, it will calculate power and low-pass filter for you so you aren't affected by spiky power usage. Fourth, there's an onboard temperature sensor tossed in. Finally, this chip is not just I2C compatible, it has I3C support https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I3C_(bus) which makes it a great investment for long-term designs as I3C catches on and is supported in the next generations of microcontrollers. We covered I3C in a previous EYE ON NPI (https://blog.adafruit.com/2022/05/12/eye-on-npi-nxp-p3s0200gm-i3c-switch-with-hardware-select-and-enable-eyeonnpi-nxp-digikey/) so check it out for more details. To sum up fast: I3C is back-compatible with I2C but has push-pull logic support for up-to-12MHz speeds, in-channel interrupts so a separate IRQ line is not needed, and dynamic addressing so there's no address collision. A great update to all the things that make us batty about I2C. Support for I3C on the controller-side is still rolling out so you probably will use this chip in I2C mode for now, but your firmware can be adjusted-up to I3C on a future revision. This chip is a great response to the INA series from TI - and we love competition, it's great for all engineers when the chip companies clamor for our business by iterating and improving! Compared to the INA237, the ST TSC1641 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/TSC1641IQT/21725159) has the same specs but is 10% less, plus you get that I3C support that none of the INA chips have yet. The high level of integration means you only need to spec a shunt resistor. The resistor selection will have to balance the dynamic current range measurable with the 16-bit precision. If you pick too small of a resistor, you'll max out the measurable current faster. If you pick too large of a resistor, you wont get good accuracy at low currents. Check the datasheet for how to select a good resistor and then how to tell the chip what value you've chosen: that will let the TSC1641 perform the power/current/voltage calculations on its own without you having to do any math. If you'd like to get started fast, there's also an eval board that is Arduino-shield-compatible (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/s/stmicroelectronics/steval-digafev1-evaluation-board-for-the-tsc1641), some firmware is provided for the Nucleo series of ST dev boards to evaluate without any soldering or coding. If you're interested in the STMicroelectronics TSC1641 Digital Power Monitor (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/stmicroelectronics/TSC1641IQT/21725159) you are in luck because it's in stock right now at DigiKey! Order today and it will ship faster than you can give a high-five, and be at your doorstep tomorrow afternoon for your power-monitoring pleasure.

In order to archive double-sided floppies, or deal with Apple Disk ][ drives, we need to create 'fake' index pulses, that's something that lets the software know when the disk surface has rotated 1 time. We have a guide page showing how we support 'hacked' disks using an external optical sensor (https://learn.adafruit.com/flippy-floppy-drive-modification/) but it requires some fiddly wiring. Ideally we could make a little breakout board for the reflective sensor that has a cable for quick installation. We'll want it to be 'right angle', ideally SMT solderable, and it should be a plain logic or analog type output since I2C isn't going to be fast enough to catch transitions. See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/vishay-semiconductor-opto-division/TCRT1000/1681165 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

OK, after a long hiatus, the ESP32 Itsy Bitsy prototypes are built and ready for testing! We first designed this board Feb 20, 2020 - and it's been waiting oh so patiently for its turn. The ESP32 Pico module packs 8 MB of flash and 2 MB of PSRAM. Despite its small size this board can handle fairly complex programs. This board is very small but has lots of pins, with a USB-serial converter, NeoPixel, reset and user button, Stemma QT connector, and a 5V-logic output specifically for driving NeoPixels. to do my final 'all in one' test we're reading temperature and humidity from an I2C sensor, sending it to IO, then reading back the onboard NeoPixel color from the dashboard. It's an excellent way to make sure the whole thing is working the way we like. Last up, we'll do a low-power test, and then it'll be ready for fabrication! Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ ----------------------------------------- #espressif #esp32 #adafruit #ItsyBitsy

This week's EYE ON NPI is an EYE ON SPI! We're going looooooooong with the Analog Devices LTC4332 Point-to-Point Rugged SPI Extender (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/analog-devices/ltc4332-point-to-point-rugged-spi-extender) which lets you take what normally would be a short PCB-trace connection to SPI devices and have them up to 1200 meters away - that's over 12 football fields (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football_field) using a differential link protocol that can run on common CAT-6 cabling. This means you can have have super long SPI connections for distributed node communications that need more bandwidth than I2C but don't need the complexity of an Ethernet controller. ADI's LTC4332 is a point-to-point rugged SPI extender designed for operation in high-noise industrial environments over long distances. Using a ±60 V fault-protected differential transceiver, the LTC4332 can transmit SPI data, including an interrupt signal, up to 2 MHz over two twisted pair cables. The extended common mode range and high common mode rejection on the differential link provide tolerance to large ground differences between nodes. We're excited about the LTC4332 (https://www.digikey.com/short/88rpbrfh) because we know that Linear Tech-designed hardware is really good quality and the specifications are 'real' rather than optimistic. We've used a similar-family chip for I2C, the LTC4311 (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4756) which is an active terminator - but found it definitely will let you extend I2C to 100 feet with no issue and no code required. The LTC4332 (https://www.digikey.com/short/88rpbrfh) is, likewise, a 'transparent' bridge chip that converts a 4-wire SPI connection, with 3 chip selects and one IRQ line to a differential protocol that will work nicely with common Ethernet cables (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable). One nice detail is that you can use any of the 4 common SPI modes for polarity and SCK latch-direction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Peripheral_Interface#Mode_numbers). The same chip is used on both sides of the controller and peripheral connection, simply set the REMOTE pin to high or low to determine which side is which. Then make sure the SPEED pins are set up the same, as they will determine the expected max-clock speed. Wire up the two differential pairs, when the connection is good, the LINK pin will drop low which you can use like an Ethernet link light. For more advanced configuration you can connect to the internal chip to read fault and status bytes. However, it looks like you don't have to unless you want more control: the chip will function transparently even without firmware register configs. One thing to watch out for, while controller-to-peripheral data is sent instantaneously, reading data is delayed by one byte because it has to read the full byte in and then transfer it over the differential connection. So if you're using it to read from a remote sensor or driver, make sure to 'toss' the first byte and read an extra byte at the end! If you're looking to go long with a simple solution to remote SPI communication, the Analog Devices LTC4332 Point-to-Point Rugged SPI Extender is an excellent choice (https://www.digikey.com/short/7zcd7vc5), don't forget you'll need two for each remove device. There's also a compact dev board available called DC2799A (https://www.digikey.com/short/qbn5397v) that has input and output sides for instant testing. The LTC4332 (https://www.digikey.com/short/7zcd7vc5) is in stock right now for immediate shipment from DigiKey - order today and you'll be able to take your SPI devices to the next level - like literally to the new few floors up - by tomorrow afternoon!

this prototype board allows folks to use many Grove devices with Feather boards! it fits nicely on top and has 3 Analog/Digital connectors, 1 UART connector and 2 I2C connectors. Not a ton, but enough to get many small projects going. we even managed to fit a vertical Stemma QT port on the end for another I2C connection. we think this board will be handy for bridging two great standards! Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

This week's EYE ON NPI is a compact and capable analog-to-digital converter, it's the Microchip MCP3421 18-bit, 240 SPS, single-channel ADC (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/m/microchip-technology/mcp3421-analog-to-digital-converter). This SOT-23-6 part is simple, inexpensive, and easy to use with an I2C interface that can run up to a 3.4MHz clock rate. Being able to power it from 2.7V to 5V makes it an easy-to-integrate component whenever you need an ADC that has differential inputs, adjustable gain, and a built in precision/low-drift reference voltage. One of the trade-offs with getting 18-bit precision is that the ADC is not going to be very fast: you can configure the chip to do a faster 12-bit conversion at 240 SPS, but at 18-bits, it slows down to 3.5 SPS. That's because the way a sigma-delta ADC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta-sigma_modulation) works, it 'guesses' the analog voltage and uses a comparator to determine whether the input is higher or lower. Each 'guess' takes an extra step, and thus halves the throughput, so 12-bit is 240 SPS, and 14-bit is 1/4 (2-bit) slower, 60 SPS. Ditto 16-bit is 1/4 slower, 15 SPS, and finally 18-bit is 3.75 SPS. However, sigma-delta ADCs are inexpensive, so as long as you don't need high speeds there's no reason to spec a faster and more expensive part! The MCP3421 is already set up for differential inputs, which means that you can read positive or negative differences between the two inputs, as long as both signals are between 0 and 2.048V. This means it's not going to be great for reading stuff like potentiometers, where you have a single-end reading referenced to ground, and you want to read the full range from 0 to Vcc. It is great, however, for reading sensors like strain gauges, pressure sensors, or thermocouples. The I2C interface for the MCP3421 is simple and well documented: there's a command byte that can be written directly to set continuous or one-shot, gain from 1x to 8x and the ADC bit depth. Then, the current data can be read directly, with the status/'command' byte following. Since the ADC is differential, note that the data will come out as binary 1's complement for easy casting to a signed 16 or 24 bit variable. Since there's no address selection pin, you can determine which I2C the device responds to by purchasing a part code variant. For example, A0 is address 0x68, A1 is 0x69, etc. We used ChatGPT to quickly put together an Arduino-compatible library (https://chat.openai.com/share/76252459-50e5-4cd2-8edf-08bf3cc1c438) in about an hour and it pretty much worked right out of the box minus a few typos. The final, tested library code is available here (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_MCP3421). We also spun up a quick prototype PCB for the MCP3421 (https://twitter.com/adafruit/status/1650909789591945248) and it works very nicely, with a terminal block for the differential input, and Stemma QT ports to quickly plug into a variety of dev boards. If you're on the look-out for a well-designed high precision ADC to integrate into your next design, the Microchip MCP3421 18-bit, 240 SPS, single-channel ADC (https://www.digikey.com/short/5htnqnw8) is an easy win. And, best of all, it's in stock right now for immediate shipment from Digikey. Order an MCP3421 today (https://www.digikey.com/short/5htnqnw8) and you'll be convertin' by tomorrow afternoon!

This week's EYE ON NPI is in a class of its own, it's Richtek's RT9120S Series Class-D Audio Amplifier with DRC Control,(https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/r/richtek/rt9120s-class-d-audio-amplifier) a powerful amplifier with a wide operating voltage range, high efficiency, high wattage and many supported input formats We love I2S audio amplifiers here, they're a huge step up from PWM + analog amplifiers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation) in that you will get much higher audio quality due to having true analog output and the DAC being tuned for 16, 24 or 32-bit audio. Most simple PWM is maybe 8 or 10 bits! As long as your microcontroller or microcomputer has I2S output support, you can use 3 or 4 pins to generate a bitstream of audio. For example, our Stereo Bonnet (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/adafruit-industries-llc/3346/6573323) adds two single-channel I2S amplifiers to the Raspberry Pi so that it can drive 3 Watt speakers. But what if you need more MOAR power? This is where this I2S amp will shine: it can handle up to 30W per channel, stereo, and best of all it does not require an MCLK input signal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C2%B2S) so it will work great on Raspberry Pi computers of any size - although of course it will work on other microcontrollers and microcomputers as well. Let's take a look and some of the features we like in this chip. First thing to note is that there are a few options in the RT9120 family (https://www.richtek.com/~/media/AN%20PDF/SG017_2022.pdf): the RT9120 is the original, the RT9120S is an upgrade - it can now support 30W instead of 20W thanks to an RDS(on) as low as 90 mΩ and has 94% efficiency over 92%. It does seem to be pin compatible, so if you're using the non-S version this ought to be pin-compatible for an upgrade. This amp is Class D, which means if you're used to class AB amps that require massive heat-sinking, you'll be please to know you can likely get away without requiring a heat-sink - although you'll probably want a big back ground plane and 2 oz copper to help dissipate via the thermal-package ground pad. The trade off is you will need some passive components on the output of the amplifier, because it generates a high frequency - up to 1.5MHz - PWM signal that needs to be filtered down to 10-20KHz. It looks like this amp can use simple ferrite bead + capacitor outputs, but for the best EMI filtering and sound, a 10uH + 0.47uF capacitor is needed for each 'leg' of output. As this is a powerful amp, and since people will want to play it loud, and you'll want to avoid nasty clipping, the RT9120 also features Dynamic Range Compression (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression) which will slowly turn down the gain as the signal gets louder, so that you don't get square wave distortion. Lastly, you will need to control the chip over I2C, it isn't free-running. However, this means you can enable filters, change the Class D frequency, adjust the gain digitally instead of reducing the signal depth, and get an error output report to know if there's a short or open on the speakers, or missing I2S signal lines. However, if you're using a Linux-based system there's already a Richtek-authored kernel driver you can use.(https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/tree/sound/soc/codecs/rt9120.c) Sounds good? I think so! And the fact that the Richtek RT9120S Series Class-D Audio Amplifier with DRC Control is in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment at a very nice price (https://www.digikey.com/short/wqddcrqj) is music to my ears. You can also pick up an eval board for a very reasonable price (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/richtek-usa-inc/EVB-RT9120SGQV/19914630) which will get you started quickly, particularly if you need to implement an I2C driver. Order today and DigiKey will ship your order instantly, you will be able to start adding booming quality sound to your design by tomorrow afternoon.

When you see a round display, do you think... pizza? planet? beachball? no? how about a Stargate animation! there's three parts to getting these funky displays working with raspberry pi over the DSI port: the SPI configuration of the screen, the I2C configuration of the ICN6211 converter and the DTO device tree overlay on the pi itself. all must be perfect for an image to appear! to make it less complex, we're going to only do one part at a time and celebrate the successes. we got the SPI config working with blinking the display on and off, and the ICN config was proven when we displayed a colorbar test pattern. finally we load a DTO up which will tell the pi to look for a 720x720 display off the dsi0 port (https://github.com/timonsku/display-overlays/blob/main/panels/HD40015C40/HD40015C40.dts) and voila! a 60Hz display with full color... we can even play any video off the desktop with VLC and it looks great. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

we love a colorbar, oh oh oh oh! red, orange, yellow, green, blue... we love a rainbow when it appears on our TFT display! there's three parts to getting these funky displays working with raspberry pi over the DSI port: the SPI configuration of the screen, the I2C configuration of the ICN6211 converter and the DTO device tree overlay on the pi itself. all must be perfect for an image to appear! to make it less complex, we're going to only do one part at a time and celebrate the successes. we already got the SPI config working - blinking all the pixels on and off - now we look at the ICN configuration (https://github.com/timonsku/Adafruit_CircuitPython_ICN6211) - to make sure the PLL and resolution and sync's are correct (https://github.com/timonsku/display-overlays/blob/main/panels/HD40015C40/HD40015C40.py)! in order to separate it from the raspi MIPI DSI interface config, we turn on BIST test mode and have it display a colorbar (https://github.com/timonsku/display-overlays/blob/main/panels/HD40015C40/HD40015C40.py#L28). if the colors are in the right order we know that we have 2 out of 3 working, and we can move onto the next stage...Device Tree Overlay config! Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

there's three parts to getting these funky displays working with raspberry pi over the DSI port: the SPI configuration of the screen, the I2C configuration of the ICN6211 converter and the DTO device tree overlay on the pi itself. all must be perfect for an image to appear! to make it less complex, we're going to only do one part at a time and celebrate the successes. first is the SPI configuration: without worrying about the ICN or DTO part, we will send the commands to the display from an on-board attiny chip and then toggle all the pixels on and off using commands 0x22 and 0x23. makes it look like a gigantic LED. but now that we see it working, we can move onto the next stage...ICN6211 config! Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

we took october off from working on this project, but we're back baby! a PR was submitted to allow DTO-level configuration of display timings , rather than having a specialized driver for each display config (https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/pull/5640) which, if merged in by the raspi folks, will mean we don't need to do specialized kernel compilation or module work. at the same time im working on setting up the onboard attiny chip which will be used to configure the ICN6211 over I2C, the TFT over SPI, and manage the backlight. in order to make it possible to 'hot swap' displays without bustin' out a UPDI adapter, we'll store the configuration code in an EEPROM that is exposed over the Pi's DSI I2C port. or at least, that's the idea! we'll see if it works soon :) Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

You can add USB-C Power to your devices with the Adafruit HUSB238 Power Delivery Breakout. This breakout lets you get up to 100W of power over USB-C for those projects that need more than 5 volts at 2 amps. You can set the output voltage using the on-board jumpers or control it over I2C using a microcontroller. Learn Guides https://learn.adafruit.com/case-for-husb238 https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-husb238-usb-type-c-power-delivery-breakout Adafruit HUSB238 Breakout https://www.adafruit.com/product/5807 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

You can add USB-C Power to your devices with the Adafruit HUSB238 Power Delivery Breakout. This breakout lets you get up to 100W of power over USB-C for those projects that need more than 5 volts at 2 amps. You can set the output voltage using the on-board jumpers or control it over I2C using a microcontroller. Learn Guides https://learn.adafruit.com/case-for-husb238 https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-husb238-usb-type-c-power-delivery-breakout Adafruit HUSB238 Breakout https://www.adafruit.com/product/5807 Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

This week's EYE ON NPI will take a load off your mind, it's Nexperia's NPS4053 5.5 V Load Switch (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/n/nexperia/nps4053-5_5-v-load-switch) - it's Nexperia's first load switch and they did a great job with the NPS4053 which can be used for a variety of situations where you want to separate power supplies for protection or power savings. I'll admit, I've never used a load switch chip before - so this EYE ON NPI was a bit of a learning experience. Traditionally we've used 3 major ways to switch current. First is, of course, a simple switch - we use something like this on our QT Py Lipo BFF (https://www.adafruit.com/product/5397) where we want to allow mechanical switching and the amount of current isn't super high. The slide switch is specified for 300mA and we double-up the DPDT to allow for 600mA. This could be expanded upon with a power switch that can handle up to 240VAC and 5A (https://www.adafruit.com/product/3991) - but of course someone has to flip the switch. We could solve that issue by going with a relay or a solid-state-relay (https://blog.adafruit.com/2023/08/03/eye-on-npi-sensata-crydoms-series-1-ac-panel-mount-solid-state-relays-eyeonnpi-digikey-sensata-digikey-adafruit/) but they have some downsides as well: high cost, large space requirements. We need something much smaller! On our dev boards we have historically used two techniques for flipping on/off power to subcircuits. One is the P-FET high-side switch, which you can see on our Metro boards on the DC jack (https://www.digikey.com/short/d3j7z977). This method is classic, and works well but has a few downsides: you need a second transistor to control high voltages with a low voltage signal since the gate is pulled up to the high input voltage. Also, there's that built-in diode that is will conduct current from the output back to the input - you can see in our schematic how we also have to add a forward-diode to protect against that. Altogether, you would need 2 transistors, a diode and a couple resistors to make a FET-based switch. There's also another downside to FET switches, which is that they are not current limited, so if you happen to be switching a significant amount of current, it could cause a transitory spike on your main power supply...which causes a brownout! Something we experienced when we tried using a P-FET to switch on-off an I2C port. It worked great for low-current sensors but would crash the board when used with a 100mA-draw air quality sensor. So we used a fully separate LDO on the Feather ESP32-S2's (https://www.digikey.com/short/4nj457zb) - this works because we have a volt or more drop from the conversion from 5V to 3.3V so if there's a dip in the voltage, it isn't going to affect the main micro's power supply. This works because the LDO is only a few cents (https://www.digikey.com/short/fnr9jtnj), and we happen to have the headroom. It also has true-disconnect (no extra diode needed!) and is compatible with lower voltage logic signals. But, most devices have a DC/DC converter which is going to be a lot larger than a SOT-23-5 LDO - and there might not be as much headroom. That's where the Nexperia NPS4053 5.5 V Load Switch (https://www.digikey.com/short/ttjt5mjw) comes in! It combines all the analog electronics you need to easily switch loads of up to 5.5V at 2A, with all the niceties that you'd normally have to manage by hand. Instead of a second diode, it has true-cutoff. Instead of a separate current-limiting circuit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowbar_(circuit)), you can set the current limiting with a resistor and the load switch will turn from Constant Voltage to Constant Current mode. The chip also handles transients nicely, with soft-start, so that you don't get a shock to the power supply if the sub-circuit turns on all at once! In addition, there's Under Voltage Lockouts and short circuit protection. If something does go wrong, the chip will disconnect the load and drive the FAULT pin low, so you can communicate to the user that something is amiss. For many of the short/temp/over-current errors, the chip will naturally recover. With an adorable 2x2mm HVSON package and a cost of only 20 cents in quantity, the Nexperia NPS4053 5.5 V Load Switch (https://www.digikey.com/short/ttjt5mjw) will fit into the same board slot as a transistor for not much more, and replace a ton of power management circuitry with elegant simplicity! And, best of all - it's in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment, in both commercial/industrial (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nexperia-usa-inc/NPS4053GHZ/21286453) and Q100Z variants (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/nexperia-usa-inc/NPS4053GH-Q100Z/21286452). Order today, then kick your feet up on an ottoman and take a load off: you can relax while DigiKey picks, packs and ships your order instantaneously so that you will have parts in hand by tomorrow morning.

This week's EYE ON NPI stands alone as a fantastic new solution for high power charging of large battery packs and also power boosting from battery to system: it's ADI/Maxim's MAX77789 Standalone 3.15A Charger (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/a/analog-devices/max77789-standalone-3-15a-charger), an all-in-one power management IC that lets you ditch DC power plugs and simplifies your BOM, at an excellent price. We'll also be covering the MAX77787 (https://www.digikey.com/short/wzv7095b) which is the fraternal-twin-sister product: using I2C instead of resistor settings for configuration. We've been covering USB Type C PD sinks and supplies for about a year here on EYE ON NPI & The Great Search, they're an excellent way to ditch those DC barrel jack power supplies (https://learn.adafruit.com/usb-pd-hacks/) and allow folks to use a single connector and standard power supply (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C90UnNAlCFQ) for various voltages, from 5V-20V at up to 5A. There's plenty of chips that will connect to a PD source and negotiate that voltage for you (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQea9IEmf28) but now we can start to take advantage of USB PD for battery charging as well! This week's dynamic duo does pretty much everything for battery management. As devices get more complex, and battery cost goes down, the packs included in products are getting bigger. If you're trying to charge a 5Ah battery at standard 5V/1A rates, it will take at least 5-8 hours to do so, when folks really want 1-2 hour charge rates. The MAX77789 and MAX77787 have a buck converter that will deliver up to 3A to the battery for 3x faster charging. But, if you try to draw 3A from a USB 5V power cable, that built-in resistance will cause a voltage droop - remember we need at least 4.5V to have the headroom for charging up to 4.2V or 4.35V Lithium batteries. Thus, these chips use USB PD (https://learn.adafruit.com/understanding-usb-type-c-cable-types-pitfalls-and-more) to request higher voltages when available: 9V or 12V means that we can draw less current to get the same amount of power, which means less resistance loss over the cabling. For pre-C chargers, such as Samsung or Apple or Quick Charge (https://learn.adafruit.com/understanding-usb-type-c-cable-types-pitfalls-and-more) the USB D+/D- pins are used. In such cases where you want to have the data pins available for USB data/sync, you'll need something like the MAX20334 (https://www.digikey.com/short/p8b23vf3) data line switch to flip the pins back to your MCU. The MAX77789 uses resistors on the IFAST, ISET and INLIM lines to set the charge rate, timeout, and pack float voltage, the MAX77787 uses I2C. Both have a couple configuration pins, and LEDs for status monitoring. Both have the ability to also be turned into a boost converter - you can't use both charging and boosting at the same time, but since you can use the SYS voltage when connected to USB, you'll have at least 5V either way. The booster is fixed to 5.1V output. On the '89 the boost is enabled by GPIO, the '87 enables it over I2C. Both chips are available in 0.4mm pitch BGA - which means pad-in-via and multi-layer boards in order to pass the inner configuration traces out. Many of the traces are tripled-or-quadrupled to provide the current carrying capability of 3A charge and 6A peak discharge. An eval board is also available (https://www.digikey.com/short/4dc80hwz) which makes quick verification easy. For the I2C configuration version there's also desktop software to try out various settings - the standalone version has jumpers so you can attach any resistor value. Both the ADI/Maxim MAX77789 (https://www.digikey.com/short/j7zhtj4h) and MAX77787 (https://www.digikey.com/short/wzv7095b) Standalone/I2C 3.15A Chargers are in stock right now at DigiKey for immediate shipment. It's great to see forward momentum in chip design releases now that the shortages have abated: only a year ago we were scrambling for diodes and op-amps and now we have a wealth of great new products to choose from! Order one of these powerful Lithium battery management chips today and you'll have it shipped immediately so that you can start integrating it into your new design by tomorrow afternoon.

As we are plowing through the last of our chip-shortage-recovery revisions, next up we're about to do a bunch of Raspberry Pi HAT displays. HATs (https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/introducing-raspberry-pi-hats/) are 9 years old, and are a standardized way of Attaching Hardware on Top of RPi's. Given the RPi shortage is also over, thankfully, it's time to look at more HATs! One feature that HATs have is an onboard EEPROM that helps identify the board via a set of extra I2C pins - this EEPROM can be used to load device tree fragments, contain MAC addresses, calibration details or other non-secured unique data. We've covered 25Q series SPI Flash memory before, and 24-series looks soooo similar but they are not! Let's look at some options for adding generic 32Kbit / 4 KByte I2C EEPROMs including some things to watch out for so you don't make mistakes we have. See the chosen part on DigiKey https://www.digikey.com/short/v4jn79hj Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/