Experience the brilliance of our green dot matrix display with SZ810757G and TM4C1294NCZAD

Visualize, customize, shine!

Published Sep 05, 2023

Click board™

7x10 G Click

Dev Board

Fusion for Tiva v8

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

TM4C1294NCZAD

Elevate your projects with the tranquil ambiance of our green LED dot matrix display, suited for creating visually pleasing displays, notifications, and graphics in various settings

Hardware Overview

How does it work?

7x10 G Click is based on two SZ410757Ns, green LED dot matrix modules from Wuxi Ark. A single LED matrix module is composed of 35 LED elements grouped in rows and columns. The LED elements in one row have their cathodes connected and routed to a single-row pin. The LED elements in one column have their anodes connected and routed to a single-column pin. Multiplexed like this, modules have a fairly low number of pins (12 per module), making them suitable to be driven by shift registers and a decade of counter ICs. The driver circuit consists of two 74HC595 - 8bit, serial input - parallel output shift registers, one CD4017 - a Jonson topology decade counter with ten outputs, and one ULN2003A - an IC with seven integrated

Darlington transistor pairs, all chips produced by Texas Instruments. The shift registers are used to polarize the anodes on the columns of the LED displays. To complete the LED's current path, their cathodes must be connected to the ground. This is where the CD4017 and ULN2003 ICs are used. The ULN2003 IC drives rows of the dot matrix displays by sinking the current on the active row. To activate one of the seven input channels of the ULN2003 IC, the CD4017 decade counter IC is used. The design of the decade counter allows only one row to be active at a time. So, to see the complete picture on an LED matrix, the row scanning has to be fast enough so that the effect called persistent vision takes place. It produces an illusion of a complete image, even if only one row

is seen at a time - because the human eye cannot detect very fast changes in light. 7x10 G Click uses a 4-wire SPI serial interface of the 74HC595 shift registers to communicate with the host MCU. The shift registers are chained together and can be reset over the RST pin. The clock and the reset inputs of the CD4017 are controlled by the RC and RR pins. This Click board™ can operate with either 3.3V or 5V logic voltage levels selected via the PWR SEL jumper. This way, both 3.3V and 5V capable MCUs can use the communication lines properly. Also, this Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing easy-to-use functions and an example code that can be used as a reference for further development.

Features overview

Development board

Fusion for TIVA v8 is a development board specially designed for the needs of rapid development of embedded applications. It supports a wide range of microcontrollers, such as different 32-bit ARM® Cortex®-M based MCUs from Texas Instruments, regardless of their number of pins, and a broad set of unique functions, such as the first-ever embedded debugger/programmer over a WiFi network. The development board is well organized and designed so that the end-user has all the necessary elements, such as switches, buttons, indicators, connectors, and others, in one place. Thanks to innovative manufacturing technology, Fusion for TIVA v8 provides a fluid and immersive working experience, allowing access

anywhere and under any circumstances at any time. Each part of the Fusion for TIVA v8 development board contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. An advanced integrated CODEGRIP programmer/debugger module offers many valuable programming/debugging options, including support for JTAG, SWD, and SWO Trace (Single Wire Output)), and seamless integration with the Mikroe software environment. Besides, it also includes a clean and regulated power supply module for the development board. It can use a wide range of external power sources, including a battery, an external 12V power supply, and a power source via the USB Type-C (USB-C) connector.

Communication options such as USB-UART, USB HOST/DEVICE, CAN (on the MCU card, if supported), and Ethernet is also included. In addition, it also has the well-established mikroBUS™ standard, a standardized socket for the MCU card (SiBRAIN standard), and two display options for the TFT board line of products and character-based LCD. Fusion for TIVA v8 is an integral part of the Mikroe ecosystem for rapid development. Natively supported by Mikroe software tools, it covers many aspects of prototyping and development thanks to a considerable number of different Click boards™ (over a thousand boards), the number of which is growing every day.

Microcontroller Overview

MCU Card / MCU

Type

8th Generation

Architecture

ARM Cortex-M4

MCU Memory (KB)

1024

Silicon Vendor

Texas Instruments

Pin count

212

RAM (Bytes)

262144

Used MCU Pins

mikroBUS™ mapper

CD4017 Clock

PE3

74HC595 Reset

PB6

RST

74HC595 Latch

PE7

SPI Clock

PA2

SCK

SPI Data OUT

PA5

MISO

SPI Data IN

PA4

MOSI

Power Supply

3.3V

Ground

GND

CD4017 Reset

PD0

PWM

INT

SCL

SDA

Power Supply

Ground

GND

Take a closer look

Schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

Fusion for PIC v8 front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the Fusion for Tiva v8 as your development board.

NECTO Output Selection Step Image hardware assembly

In the advanced settings, pay special attention to the Redirect standard output field. By default, it is set to Application output as the method of displaying final results. To show results via a UART terminal, select the “UART” option in that field and click the “SAVE” button. You will be returned to the Compiler field, and now you can move on to the next step by pressing the “NEXT” button.

Buck 22 Click front image hardware assembly

SiBRAIN for PIC32MZ1024EFK144 front image hardware assembly

v8 SiBRAIN MB 1 - upright/background hardware assembly

NECTO Compiler Selection Step Image hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output

After pressing the "FLASH" button on the left-side panel, it is necessary to open the UART terminal to display the achieved results. By clicking on the Tools icon in the right-hand panel, multiple different functions are displayed, among which is the UART Terminal. Click on the offered "UART Terminal" icon.

Once the UART terminal is opened, the window takes on a new form. At the top of the tab are two buttons, one for adjusting the parameters of the UART terminal and the other for connecting the UART terminal. The tab's lower part is reserved for displaying the achieved results. Before connecting, the terminal has a Disconnected status, indicating that the terminal is not yet active. Before connecting, it is necessary to check the set parameters of the UART terminal. Click on the "OPTIONS" button.

In the newly opened UART Terminal Options field, we check if the terminal settings are correct, such as the set port and the Baud rate of UART communication. If the data is not displayed properly, it is possible that the Baud rate value is not set correctly and needs to be adjusted to 115200. If all the parameters are set correctly, click on "CONFIGURE".

The next step is to click on the "CONNECT" button, after which the terminal status changes from Disconnected to Connected in green, and the data is displayed in the Received data field.

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for 7x10 G Click driver.

Key functions:

c7x10g_draw_pixel - Drawing the pixel on the display
c7x10g_draw_char - Drawing the character on the display
c7x10g_draw_number - Drawing the number on the display

Open Source

Code example

This example can be found in NECTO Studio. Feel free to download the code, or you can copy the code below.

/*!
 * @file main.c
 * @brief c7x10G Click example
 *
 * # Description
 * This demo example shows a drawing of pixels, characters and a number on the screen.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 *
 * ## Application Init
 * Configuring the click board.
 *
 * ## Application Task
 * Draws characters, numbers, and pixels to the display.
 *
 * @author Jelena Milosavljevic
 *
 */

#include "board.h"
#include "c7x10g.h"

// ------------------------------------------------------------------ VARIABLES

static c7x10g_t c7x10g;

// ------------------------------------------------------ APPLICATION FUNCTIONS

void application_init ( void ) {
    
    c7x10g_cfg_t c7x10g_cfg;  /**< Click config object. */

    //  Click initialization.

    c7x10g_cfg_setup( &c7x10g_cfg );
    C7X10G_MAP_MIKROBUS( c7x10g_cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    c7x10g_init( &c7x10g, &c7x10g_cfg );
}

void application_task ( void ) {
    
    c7x10g_pixel_t pixel;
    uint8_t cnt;
    uint8_t cnt_x;
    uint8_t cnt_y;
    
    // CHAR PROCEDURE
    for ( cnt = 'A'; cnt < 'Z'; cnt+=2 ) {
        
        c7x10g_draw_char( &c7x10g, cnt, C7X10G_DISPLAY_LEFT, C7X10G_DISPLAY_DELAY_50MS );
        c7x10g_draw_char( &c7x10g, cnt + 1, C7X10G_DISPLAY_RIGHT | C7X10G_DISPLAY_REFRESH, C7X10G_DISPLAY_DELAY_50MS );
       
        Delay_ms( 1000 );
    }

    // COUNTER PROCEDURE
    for ( cnt = 0; cnt < 15; cnt++ ) {
        
        c7x10g_draw_number( &c7x10g, cnt, C7X10G_DISPLAY_DELAY_50MS );
        
        Delay_ms( 500 );
    }
    
    // PIXELS PROCEDURE
    for ( cnt_x = 0; cnt_x <= 7; cnt_x++ ) {
        
        for ( cnt_y = 0; cnt_y <= 10; cnt_y++ ) {
            
            pixel.cord_x = cnt_x;
            pixel.cord_y = cnt_y;
            c7x10g_draw_pixel( &c7x10g, &pixel, C7X10G_DISPLAY_PIXEL_STORAGE, C7X10G_DISPLAY_DELAY_20MS );

            pixel.cord_x = cnt_x;
            pixel.cord_y = cnt_y + 1;
            c7x10g_draw_pixel( &c7x10g, &pixel, C7X10G_DISPLAY_PIXEL_REFRESH, C7X10G_DISPLAY_DELAY_20MS );
        }
    }
}

void main ( void ) {
    application_init( );

    for ( ; ; ) {
        application_task( );
    }
}

// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ END