Provide superior illumination with CAT3224 and PIC18LF27K42

Your beacon of light in the dark

Published Nov 01, 2023

Click board™

LED Flash Click

Dev Board

EasyPIC v8

Compiler

NECTO Studio

MCU

PIC18LF27K42

With a focus on innovation and illumination, our purpose is to empower individuals with a cutting-edge LED flashlight solution that ensures longer-lasting and brighter light when you need it most

Hardware Overview

How does it work?

LED Flash Click is based on the CAT3224, a flash LED driver from ON Semiconductor. The click is designed to run on a 5V power supply. It communicates with the target microcontroller over the following pins on the mikroBUS™ line: AN, RST, PWM, and INT. The CAT3224 is a very high−current integrated flash LED driver which also supports the charging function for a dual−cell supercapacitor applications. Ideal for Li−ion battery−powered systems, it delivers up to 4A LED flash pulses, far beyond the peak current capability of the battery. Dual−mode 1x/2x charge pump charges the stacked supercapacitor to a nominal voltage of 5.4 V, while an active balance control circuit ensures that both capacitor cell voltages remain matched. The driver also features two matched current sources. External resistors

provide the adjustment for the maximum flash mode current (up to 4 A) and the torch mode current (up to 400 mA). A built−in safety timer automatically terminates the flash pulse beyond a maximum duration of 300 ms. The CAT3224 has a shutdown mode that is so low that ON Semiconductor can safely call it "zero" mode. In this mode, it typically uses only 1μA. On the LED Flash click there are three different LED indicators, here is how they operate: CHARGE — When this LED is on the driver is in charge mode; READY — When this LED is on it indicates that the supercapacitor is fully charged; PWR — Indicates if power is present. FLAG is an active−low open−drain output that notifies the microcontroller that the supercapacitor is fully charged by pulling the output low (pin 15 in the

mikroBUS). When using FLAG, this pin should be connected to a positive rail via an external pull−up resistor. TORCH is the torch mode enable pin. When high, the LED current sources are enabled in torch mode. FLASH is the flash mode enable pin. When high, the LED current sources are enabled in flash mode. If FLASH is kept high for longer than 300 ms typical, the LED channels are automatically disabled. LEDA, LEDB are connected internally to the current sources and must be connected to the LED anodes. Each output is independently current regulated. These pins enter a high−impedance ‘zero’ current state whenever the device is placed in shutdown mode or FLASH and TORCH are low.

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

Supercapacitor Charge Enable

RA3

Flash Enable

RA0

RST

SCK

MISO

MOSI

3.3V

Ground

GND

Torch Enable

RC1

PWM

Flash Ready Flag

RB1

INT

SCL

SDA

Power Supply

Ground

GND

Take a closer look

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.

Rotary B 2 Click front image hardware assembly

EasyPIC v8 28pin-DIP - upright/background hardware assembly

NECTO Compiler Selection Step Image hardware assembly

Necto DIP image step 7 hardware assembly

Track your results in real time

Application Output via UART Mode

1. Once the code example is loaded, pressing the "FLASH" button initiates the build process, and programs it on the created setup.

2. After the programming is completed, click on the Tools icon in the upper-right panel, and select the UART Terminal.

3. After opening the UART Terminal tab, first check the baud rate setting in the Options menu (default is 115200). If this parameter is correct, activate the terminal by clicking the "CONNECT" button.

4. Now 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 LED Flash Click driver.

Key functions:

ledflash_char_supcap_enable - Charge Supercapacitor Enable function
ledflash_flash_enable - Flash Enable function
ledflash_flash_rdy_flag - Check Flash Ready Flag function

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 
 * \brief LED Flash Click example
 * 
 * # Description
 * This application switching on and off led flash.
 *
 * The demo application is composed of two sections :
 * 
 * ## Application Init 
 * Initialization driver enables GPIO, starts write log and issues a warning.
 * 
 * ## Application Task  
 * This example demonstrates the use of LED Flash Click board by flashing
 * with LEDs when ever supercapacitor is at a full voltage.
 * 
 * \author MikroE Team
 *
 */
// ------------------------------------------------------------------- INCLUDES

#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "ledflash.h"

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

static ledflash_t ledflash;
static log_t logger;

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

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;
    ledflash_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.

    ledflash_cfg_setup( &cfg );
    LEDFLASH_MAP_MIKROBUS( cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    ledflash_init( &ledflash, &cfg );
    Delay_ms( 100 );
    
    log_printf( &logger, "----------------------------------\r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " LED Flash Click \r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, "----------------------------------\r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, "/////////////////\r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " WARNING!!! \r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " DO NOT LOOK \r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " INTO THE LEDS, \r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, " WHILE THAY ARE ON!!! \r\n" );
    log_printf( &logger, "/////////////////\r\n" );
    Delay_ms( 1000 );
}

void application_task (  )
{
    uint8_t state;
    
    log_printf( &logger, " Charge Supercapacitor Enable \r\n" );
    ledflash_char_supcap_enable( &ledflash );
    Delay_ms( 1000 );
    state = ledflash_flash_rdy_flag( &ledflash );

    if ( state == 0 )
    {
        log_printf( &logger, " Flash ON! \r\n" );
        ledflash_flash_enable( &ledflash );
    }
    else
    {
        log_printf( &logger, " Flash OFF! \r\n" );
        ledflash_flash_disable( &ledflash );
    }
    log_printf( &logger, "----------------------------------\r\n" );
}

void main ( void )
{
    application_init( );

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

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