Improve reliability through continuous VCP analysis using INA239 and TM4C129ENCZAD

Your circuit's guardian: VCP monitoring for peak performance

Published Sep 30, 2023

Click board™

VCP Monitor 4 Click

Dev Board

UNI Clicker

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

TM4C129ENCZAD

Our VCP monitoring solution is designed to provide you with precise and real-time measurements of voltage, current, and power parameters, ensuring the optimal operation of your electronic circuits

Hardware Overview

How does it work?

VCP Monitor 4 Click is based on the INA239, a digital current sense amplifier with a 4-wire serial digital interface from Texas Instruments. It measures shunt and bus voltage and internal temperature while calculating the power necessary for accurate decision-making in precisely controlled systems. The input stage of the INA239 is designed such that the input common-mode voltage can be higher than the device supply voltage. It operates from mikroBUS™ power rails but can measure voltage and current as high as 85V, making it well-suited

for high- and low-side current measurements. Its integrated 16-bit ADC allows for selectable conversion times from 50μs to 4.12ms and sample averaging from 1x to 1024x, which further helps reduce the noise of the measured data. It also features low offset and gain-drift and low input bias current, which reduces the current consumed in both Active and Shutdown operational states. Another benefit of low bias current is that it allows the use of larger current-sense resistors (in this case, onboard R4 shunt 25MΩ resistor), thus providing accurate current measurements in

the micro-amp range. Besides it can also measure the temperature through the integrated temperature sensor. This Click board™ can operate with either 3.3V or 5V logic voltage levels selected via the VCC 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.

VCP Monitor 4 Click hardware overview image

Features overview

Development board

UNI Clicker is a compact development board designed as a complete solution that brings the flexibility of add-on Click boards™ to your favorite microcontroller, making it a perfect starter kit for implementing your ideas. It supports a wide range of microcontrollers, such as different ARM, PIC32, dsPIC, PIC, and AVR from various vendors like Microchip, ST, NXP, and TI (regardless of their number of pins), four mikroBUS™ sockets for Click board™ connectivity, a USB connector, LED indicators, buttons, a debugger/programmer connector, and two 26-pin headers for interfacing with external electronics. Thanks to innovative manufacturing technology, it allows you to build

gadgets with unique functionalities and features quickly. Each part of the UNI Clicker development kit contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. In addition to the possibility of choosing the UNI Clicker programming method, using a third-party programmer or CODEGRIP/mikroProg connected to onboard JTAG/SWD header, the UNI Clicker board also includes a clean and regulated power supply module for the development kit. It provides two ways of board-powering; through the USB Type-C (USB-C) connector, where onboard voltage regulators provide the appropriate voltage levels to each component on the board, or using a Li-Po/Li

Ion battery via an onboard battery connector. All communication methods that mikroBUS™ itself supports are on this board (plus USB HOST/DEVICE), including the well-established mikroBUS™ socket, a standardized socket for the MCU card (SiBRAIN standard), and several user-configurable buttons and LED indicators. UNI Clicker is an integral part of the Mikroe ecosystem, allowing you to create a new application in minutes. Natively supported by Mikroe software tools, it covers many aspects of prototyping 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

RST

SPI Chip Select

PE7

SPI Clock

PA2

SCK

SPI Data OUT

PA5

MISO

SPI Data IN

PA4

MOSI

Power Supply

3.3V

Ground

GND

PWM

Alert Interrupt

PB4

INT

SCL

SDA

Power Supply

Ground

GND

Take a closer look

Schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

UNI Clicker front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the UNI Clicker as your development board.

GNSS2 Click front image hardware assembly

SiBRAIN for STM32F745VG front image hardware assembly

GNSS2 Click complete accessories setup image hardware assembly

UNI Clicker Access MB 1 - upright/background hardware assembly

Necto No Display image step 8 hardware assembly

Debug Image Necto Step hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output

After loading the code example, pressing the "DEBUG" button builds and programs it on the selected setup.

After programming is completed, a header with buttons for various actions available in the IDE appears. By clicking the green "PLAY "button, we start reading the results achieved with Click board™.

Upon completion of programming, the Application Output tab is automatically opened, where the achieved result can be read. In case of an inability to perform the Debug function, check if a proper connection between the MCU used by the setup and the CODEGRIP programmer has been established. A detailed explanation of the CODEGRIP-board connection can be found in the CODEGRIP User Manual. Please find it in the RESOURCES section.

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for VCP Monitor 4 Click driver.

Key functions:

vcpmonitor4_get_vbus - Get BUS voltage
vcpmonitor4_get_current - Get Current
vcpmonitor4_get_power - Get Shunt voltage.

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 VCPMonitor4 Click example
 *
 * # Description
 * This example application showcases ability of Click board
 * to be configured for different readings and read temperature, 
 * voltage, current and power.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 *
 * ## Application Init
 * Initialization of communication modules (SPI, UART) and 
 * additional alert pin. Reads Manufacturer and Device ID,
 * Configurates device for reading all device measurements.
 *
 * ## Application Task
 * In span of 500ms reads and calculates data for IC temperature,
 * Bus voltage in V, Shunt voltage in mV, and current and power for device.
 *
 * @author Luka Filipovic
 *
 */

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "vcpmonitor4.h"

static vcpmonitor4_t vcpmonitor4;
static log_t logger;

float current_lsb;

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;  /**< Logger config object. */
    vcpmonitor4_cfg_t vcpmonitor4_cfg;  /**< Click config object. */

    /** 
     * Logger initialization.
     * Default baud rate: 115200
     * Default log level: LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG
     * @note If USB_UART_RX and USB_UART_TX 
     * are defined as HAL_PIN_NC, you will 
     * need to define them manually for log to work. 
     * See @b LOG_MAP_USB_UART macro definition for detailed explanation.
     */
    LOG_MAP_USB_UART( log_cfg );
    log_init( &logger, &log_cfg );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Init " );

    // Click initialization.
    vcpmonitor4_cfg_setup( &vcpmonitor4_cfg );
    VCPMONITOR4_MAP_MIKROBUS( vcpmonitor4_cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    err_t init_flag  = vcpmonitor4_init( &vcpmonitor4, &vcpmonitor4_cfg );
    VCPMONITOR4_SET_DATA_SAMPLE_EDGE
    if ( SPI_MASTER_ERROR == init_flag )
    {
        log_error( &logger, " Application Init Error. " );
        log_info( &logger, " Please, run program again... " );

        for ( ; ; );
    }
    
    uint32_t temp_data = 0;
    vcpmonitor4_generic_read( &vcpmonitor4, VCPMONITOR4_REG_MANUFACTURER_ID, &temp_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Manufacturer ID: \t0x%.4X\r\n", temp_data );
    
    vcpmonitor4_generic_read( &vcpmonitor4, VCPMONITOR4_REG_DEVICE_ID, &temp_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Device ID: \t\t0x%.4X\r\n", temp_data );
    
    vcpmonitor4_default_cfg ( &vcpmonitor4 );
    Delay_ms( 1000 );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Task " );
}

void application_task ( void )
{
    float read_data;
    vcpmonitor4_get_temperature( &vcpmonitor4, &read_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Temperature:\t%.2f \r\n", read_data );
    
    vcpmonitor4_get_vbus( &vcpmonitor4, &read_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Vbus[V]:\t%.2f \r\n", read_data );
    
    vcpmonitor4_get_vshunt( &vcpmonitor4, &read_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Vshunt[mV]:\t%.2f \r\n", read_data );
    
    vcpmonitor4_get_current( &vcpmonitor4, &read_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Current[A]:\t%.2f \r\n", read_data );
    
    vcpmonitor4_get_power( &vcpmonitor4, &read_data );
    log_printf( &logger, " > Power[W]:\t%.2f \r\n", read_data );
    log_printf( &logger, "*************************\r\n" );
    
    Delay_ms( 500 );
}

void main ( void )
{
    application_init( );

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

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