Fine-tune resistance or any other parameter in a circuit with PTA3043-2015CPB103 and PIC18F47K42

Precision in your hands: Redefine control with our mechanical slider

Published Oct 10, 2023

Click board™

Slider Click

Dev. board

EasyPIC v8

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

PIC18F47K42

Our mechanical slide potentiometer, equipped with built-in LEDs to visualize its position, is designed to revolutionize control and provide a smooth and accurate way to adjust various parameters while offering real-time visual feedback

Hardware Overview

How does it work?

Slider Click is based on two sections: the first section is the slider section itself, with the sliding potentiometer end terminals connected between GND and the VCC, and the wiper connected to the MCP3551 IC, which is a low-power, single-channel 22-bit delta-sigma ADC from Microchip. The slider acts as a voltage divider so that the voltage between the GND and the wiper position is determined by the slider position. This voltage is then applied to the input pin of the 22bit ADC converter and converted to a digital value. The MCP3551 has its SPI lines routed to the mikroBUS™ so that the values can be read easily

by the MCU. The second section of this Click board™ consists of the MAX6969, a well know 16-port, constant-current LED driver from Maxim Integrated, used to control the SMD LEDs. The MAX6969 IC uses the same SPI lines as the ADC, but to avoid data collision, different chip select (CS) line is used. While the ADC uses the CS line routed to the CS pin of the mikroBUS™, the LED driver uses the RST line of the mikroBUS™ as the chip select input. This allows to work with both ICs independently. MAX6969 output enable (OE) pin is routed to the AN pin of the mikroBUS™, making it easy to completely turn off the output stage

of the MAX6969, by setting this pin to a HIGH logic state. If left floating, this pin will be pulled down to the GND by the 10K resistor. The output LED current is constant and it is set to around 20mA by the resistor on the SET pin of the MAX6969. 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.

Features overview

Development board

EasyPIC v8 is a development board specially designed for the needs of rapid development of embedded applications. It supports many high pin count 8-bit PIC microcontrollers from Microchip, regardless of their number of pins, and a broad set of unique functions, such as the first-ever embedded debugger/programmer. 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, EasyPIC v8 provides a fluid and immersive working experience, allowing access anywhere and under any

circumstances at any time. Each part of the EasyPIC v8 development board contains the components necessary for the most efficient operation of the same board. In addition to the advanced integrated CODEGRIP programmer/debugger module, which offers many valuable programming/debugging options and seamless integration with the Mikroe software environment, the board 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 DEVICE, and CAN are also included, including the well-established mikroBUS™ standard, two display options (graphical and character-based LCD), and several different DIP sockets. These sockets cover a wide range of 8-bit PIC MCUs, from the smallest PIC MCU devices with only eight up to forty pins. EasyPIC 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

Architecture

PIC

MCU Memory (KB)

128

Silicon Vendor

Microchip

Pin count

RAM (Bytes)

8192

Used MCU Pins

mikroBUS™ mapper

LED Driver Output Enable

RA2

LED Driver SPI Chip Select

RE1

RST

ADC SPI Chip Select

RE0

SPI Clock

RC3

SCK

SPI Data OUT

RC4

MISO

SPI Data IN

RC5

MOSI

Power Supply

3.3V

Ground

GND

PWM

INT

SCL

SDA

Power Supply

Ground

GND

Take a closer look

Click board™ Schematic

Step by step

Project assembly

EasyPIC v8 front image hardware assembly

Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the EasyPIC 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.

GNSS2 Click front image hardware assembly

EasyPIC v8 Access DIPMB 1 - upright/background hardware assembly

NECTO Compiler Selection Step Image hardware assembly

Necto DIP image step 7 hardware assembly

Software Support

Library Description

This library contains API for Slider Click driver.

Key functions:

slider_read_adc_and_ready - Function calls slider_readADC function, but first checks is ADC conversion finished
slider_enable_led_output - Function enables LED output to shows output laches when state is low, and disables LED output when state is high
slider_enable_output_laches - Function enables output laches to monitor converted ADC value, when state is high

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 Slider Click example
 * 
 * # Description
 * This example detect even the smallest move, faithfully capturing the smoothness of 
 * the slider movement, while digitizing its position.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 * 
 * ## Application Init 
 * Initializes Click driver
 * 
 * ## Application Task  
 * Converts analog input voltage (VCC), witch value depends on the slider position,
 * to digital output value, shows result of conversion on LED and logs result on USB UART.
 * 
 * 
 * \author MikroE Team
 *
 */
// ------------------------------------------------------------------- INCLUDES

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "slider.h"

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

static slider_t slider;
static log_t logger;

static float adc_value;

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

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;
    slider_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_info( &logger, "---- Application Init ----" );

    //  Click initialization.

    slider_cfg_setup( &cfg );
    SLIDER_MAP_MIKROBUS( cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    slider_init( &slider, &cfg );
    Delay_ms ( 200 );

}

void application_task ( void )
{
    adc_value = slider_write_output( &slider );
    log_printf( &logger, "%.2f\r\n", adc_value );
    Delay_ms ( 100 );
}

int main ( void ) 
{
    /* Do not remove this line or clock might not be set correctly. */
    #ifdef PREINIT_SUPPORTED
    preinit();
    #endif
    
    application_init( );
    
    for ( ; ; ) 
    {
        application_task( );
    }

    return 0;
}


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