Beginner
10 min

Achieve accurate and reliable line tracking with QRE1113 and PIC32MZ2048EFM100

On the right track: Elevate your app's capabilities

Line Follower Click with Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF

Published Sep 19, 2023

Click board™

Line Follower Click

Dev. board

Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

PIC32MZ2048EFM100

Seamlessly integrate line following into your application to enhance automation processes, improving efficiency and reducing errors

A

A

Hardware Overview

How does it work?

Line Follower Click is based on the QRE1113, a miniature reflective object sensor from ON Semiconductor. The array of the QRE1113 sensors is close to each other and points in the same direction, thus covering the more expansive space completely. The QRE1113 sensor is a no-surface contact sensing device and uses a phototransistor for output. By default, the sensor outputs a high logic level until it encounters a white surface, which changes the output signal to a low

logic state. Since there are five adjacent sensors, you can deduce the position or thickness of the white line from the combination of their outputs. The best results this Click board™ achieves are at a few millimeters from the surface to the sensors. The Line Follower Click communicates with the host MCU by sending logical states to the corresponding pins of the mikroBUS™ socket. Each QRE1113 sensor has its own digital output; each routed through a single mikroBUS™ pin: U1,

U2, U3, U4, and U5 (in place of default mikroBUS™ pins RST, AN, PWM, RX, and TX, respectively). 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.

Line Follower Click hardware overview image

Features overview

Development board

Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF development board is a fully integrated 32-bit development platform featuring the high-performance PIC32MZ EF Series (PIC32MZ2048EFM) that has a 2MB Flash, 512KB RAM, integrated FPU, Crypto accelerator, and excellent connectivity options. It includes an integrated programmer and debugger, requiring no additional hardware. Users can expand

functionality through MIKROE mikroBUS™ Click™ adapter boards, add Ethernet connectivity with the Microchip PHY daughter board, add WiFi connectivity capability using the Microchip expansions boards, and add audio input and output capability with Microchip audio daughter boards. These boards are fully integrated into PIC32’s powerful software framework, MPLAB Harmony,

which provides a flexible and modular interface to application development a rich set of inter-operable software stacks (TCP-IP, USB), and easy-to-use features. The Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF development board offers expansion capabilities making it an excellent choice for a rapid prototyping board in Connectivity, IOT, and general-purpose applications.

Curiosity PIC32MZ EF double side image

Microcontroller Overview

MCU Card / MCU

default

Architecture

PIC32

MCU Memory (KB)

2048

Silicon Vendor

Microchip

Pin count

100

RAM (Bytes)

524288

Used MCU Pins

mikroBUS™ mapper

Output 2
RPB4
AN
Output 1
RA9
RST
NC
NC
CS
NC
NC
SCK
NC
NC
MISO
NC
NC
MOSI
Power Supply
3.3V
3.3V
Ground
GND
GND
Output 5
RPE8
PWM
NC
NC
INT
Output 4
RPD10
TX
Output 3
RPD15
RX
NC
NC
SCL
NC
NC
SDA
Power Supply
5V
5V
Ground
GND
GND
1

Take a closer look

Click board™ Schematic

Line Follower Click Schematic schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

Curiosity PIC32MZ EF front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF as your development board.

Curiosity PIC32MZ EF front image hardware assembly
Thermo 28 Click front image hardware assembly
Prog-cut hardware assembly
Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF MB 1 - upright/background hardware assembly
Necto image step 2 hardware assembly
Necto image step 3 hardware assembly
Necto image step 4 hardware assembly
Necto image step 5 hardware assembly
Necto image step 6 hardware assembly
Curiosity PIC32 MZ EF MCU Step hardware assembly
Necto No Display image step 8 hardware assembly
Necto image step 9 hardware assembly
Necto image step 10 hardware assembly
Debug Image Necto Step hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output

1. Application Output - In Debug mode, the 'Application Output' window enables real-time data monitoring, offering direct insight into execution results. Ensure proper data display by configuring the environment correctly using the provided tutorial.

2. UART Terminal - Use the UART Terminal to monitor data transmission via a USB to UART converter, allowing direct communication between the Click board™ and your development system. Configure the baud rate and other serial settings according to your project's requirements to ensure proper functionality. For step-by-step setup instructions, refer to the provided tutorial.

3. Plot Output - The Plot feature offers a powerful way to visualize real-time sensor data, enabling trend analysis, debugging, and comparison of multiple data points. To set it up correctly, follow the provided tutorial, which includes a step-by-step example of using the Plot feature to display Click board™ readings. To use the Plot feature in your code, use the function: plot(*insert_graph_name*, variable_name);. This is a general format, and it is up to the user to replace 'insert_graph_name' with the actual graph name and 'variable_name' with the parameter to be displayed.

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for Line Follower Click driver.

Key functions:

  • linefollower_data_track - Get status of all pin function

Open Source

Code example

The complete application code and a ready-to-use project are available through the NECTO Studio Package Manager for direct installation in the NECTO Studio. The application code can also be found on the MIKROE GitHub account.

/*!
 * \file 
 * \brief Line Follower Click example
 * 
 * # Description
 * Line Follower click carries an array of five QRE1113 
 * miniature reflective object sensors,
 * reading staus of AN, RST, PWM, TX and RX pins and reading tracking data.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 * 
 * ## Application Init 
 * Application Init performs logger and click Initialization.
 * 
 * ## Application Task  
 * Application Task shows the functionality of the Line Follower click.
 * Each one of the QRE1113 sensors consist of an
 * infrared transmitter and infrared receiver. 
 * By default the sensor output a Logic Level 1, until they encounter a 
 * white surface which changes the output signal to 0.
 * 
 * \author Nenad Filipovic
 *
 */
// ------------------------------------------------------------------- INCLUDES

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "linefollower.h"

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

static linefollower_t linefollower;
static log_t logger;

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

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;
    linefollower_cfg_t cfg;

    /** 
     * 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_printf( &logger, "----------------------\r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " - Application Init -\r\n" );

    //  Click initialization.
    linefollower_cfg_setup( &cfg );
    LINEFOLLOWER_MAP_MIKROBUS( cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    linefollower_init( &linefollower, &cfg );
    
    log_printf( &logger, "----------------------\r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " Line Follower  Click \r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, "----------------------\r\n" );
}

void application_task ( void )
{
    linefollower_direction_t data_track;
    
    linefollower_data_track ( &linefollower, &data_track );
    
    log_printf( &logger, " %u\t%u\t%u\t%u\t%u\r\n", 
                (uint16_t) data_track.u1, 
                (uint16_t) data_track.u2, 
                (uint16_t) data_track.u3, 
                (uint16_t) data_track.u4, 
                (uint16_t) data_track.u5);
    
    Delay_ms ( 100 );
}

void main ( void )
{
    application_init( );

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


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

Additional Support

Resources

Love this project?

'Buy This Kit' button takes you directly to the shopping cart where you can easily add or remove products.