Arduino Experimenting, Evaluation and Expansion Shield (Arduino EEE) [140009-I]
More and more microcontroller boards are equipped with Arduino-compatible pinheaders (for example, see the ARM Cortex Board from Infineon http://www.ehitex.de/evaluation-boards/infineon/456/xmc1100-boot-kit-kit_xmc11_boot_001).
More and more microcontroller boards are equipped with Arduino-compatible pinheaders (for example, see the ARM Cortex Board from Infineon http://www.ehitex.de/evaluation-boards/infineon/456/xmc1100-boot-kit-kit_xmc11_boot_001). In order to evaluate those controllers, a simple shield would be nice which fulfills the needs for beginners as well as for more advanced programmers.
For beginners, we could have the usual combination 2 LEDs, 2 Buttons and one potentiometer, extended by one foto-resistor. With this shield, one can develop, debug and test first programs using the digital output, digital input and analog input capabilities of the controller.
For advanced programmers, I would like to suggest one EEC/Gnublin and one ECC pinheader on the shield.
One can connect a lot of other boards by a ribbon cable to the EEC-pinheader, e.g. a 8x-Relay-Board, a Display-Board, a T-Sensor-Board, a Stepper-motor-driver and many more from the Gnublin Extension-board-series (see http://www.elektor.com/gnublin). The EEC has the following pinout:
To the ECC connector (see www.elektor-labs.com/ECC), one can connect the ready-to-be-published RS485- and 433-MHz-Wireless-Boards from Elektor, besides the possible Wifi- and Bluetooth-Boards for this connector. So the intermediate and advanced programmer can learn to make more sophisticated programs using the SPI, I2C, PWM and UART-features of the controller; but on the other hand the shield will be quite cheap because we only have a few components integrated.
The shield could also play an important role in a programming beginners course in Elektor (BASCOM and C).
5 V - 3,3 V compatibility:
Arduino-compatible boards may run on 5 or 3,3 V (at the IOREF-pin, this voltage can be detected). Besides of that, the EEC connector is specified for 3,3-V-IO and the ECC connector for 5-V-IO. Bi-directional voltage level translator like TXB0106 could be a solution (http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1718799.pdf).
Elektor ref. 140009
Discussion (4 comments)
Lucky 10 years ago
Lucky 10 years ago
Some people are having issues to get the LCD working. In some cases this is simply a matter of adjusting the LCD's contrast voltage using the SMD potentiometer P2 on the shield. Without any sketch running on the Arduino, the top line of the display should show solid black blocks with the contrast set to the right value. Turn P2 counter-clockwise until these blocks appear.
The link below allows you to download a simple sketch for the Arduino, which displays the text 'hello!' in the top line and increments a decimal counter every second in the second line of the LCD.
Lucky 10 years ago
We decided to make it less complicated (expensive) and more straight forward: the level shifters are omitted and an LCD (2 x 8 characters) was added to this shield. Some resistors were added to protect I/O pins of the Arduino.
For the I2C bus we rely on the open drain structure to tackle the 5V <->3.3V issue of the Gnublin I2C boards, after all this shield is used for the Bascom Arduino course and not primarily intended for more complex I2C systems. Only power, SDA and SCL are connected on the EEC connector.
140009 Top and Bottom in black for DTP.pdf (31kb)
140009 Compositions in colour for DTP.pdf (49kb)
BOM 140009.zip (11kb)
Lucky 10 years ago