Experience excellence in resistance measurement with MAX4208 and ATmega1284
Mastering resistance with Wheatstone's magic
Published Jul 09, 2024
Click board™
Wheatstone Click
Dev. board
EasyAVR v8
Compiler
NECTO Studio
MCU
ATmega1284
Discover the ultimate tool for precision resistance measurement – our Wheatstone bridge circuit solution is here to empower your journey towards accurate and reliable data.
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Hardware Overview
How does it work?
Wheatstone Click is based on the MAX4208, an ultra-low offset/drift, precision instrumentation amplifier, from Analog Devices. A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two branches of a bridge circuit, one branch of which includes the unknown component. The primary benefit of the circuit is its ability to provide extremely accurate measurements, in contrast with a simple voltage divider. The R2, R3, and R4 are resistors of known resistance (1k ohm), while the resistance R1 is brought to the terminal block and therefore it is changeable. With no resistance connected to the terminal block, the bridge on this Click board™ is in balance. At this point, the voltage between the two midpoints (IN- and IN+) will be zero. Therefore the ratio
of the two resistances in the known branch (R1 and R3) is equal to the ratio of the two resistances in the unknown leg (R2 and R4). If the external resistance is connected to the terminal block, bridge is unbalanced, and the voltage on the midpoints is proportional to the external resistor value. Wheatstone click is based around the MAX4208 IC, which is connected to an onboard Wheatstone bridge circuit, in order to precisely measure the resistance of an external element. The mentioned IC uses a spreadspectrum, autozeroing technique that constantly measures and corrects the input offset, eliminating drift over time and temperature and the effect of 1/f noise. This technique achieves less than 20μV offset voltage, allows ground-sensing capability, provides ultra-low CMOS input bias current and increased
common-mode rejection performance. It also provides high-impedance inputs, optimized for small-signal differential voltages (±100mV), which makes it ideal for an application such as wheatstone bridge disbalance measurement. This Click board™ also has TPL0501 onboard - 256-Taps, Single-Channel, Digital Potentiometer With SPI Interface, from texas instruments. It is connected to the MAX4208 in a way that it serves an gain adjust instead of with two external resistors The power supply voltage selection for the logic section is done by moving the SMD jumper labeled as VCC SEL to a desired position: left position to select 3.3V, right position to select 5V. This will allow both 3.3V and 5V MCUs to be interfaced with the Click board™ directly.
Features overview
Development board
EasyAVR v8 is a development board designed to rapidly develop embedded applications based on 8-bit AVR microcontrollers (MCUs). Redesigned from the ground up, EasyAVR v8 offers a familiar set of standard features, as well as some new and unique features standard for the 8th generation of development boards: programming and debugging over the WiFi network, connectivity provided by USB-C connectors, support for a wide range of different MCUs, and more. The development board is designed so that the developer has everything that might be needed for the application development, following the Swiss Army knife concept: a highly advanced programmer/debugger module, a reliable power supply module, and a USB-UART connectivity option. EasyAVR v8 board offers several different DIP sockets, covering a wide range of 8-bit AVR MCUs, from the smallest
AVR MCU devices with only eight pins, all the way up to 40-pin "giants". The development board supports the well-established mikroBUS™ connectivity standard, offering five mikroBUS™ sockets, allowing access to a huge base of Click boards™. EasyAVR v8 offers two display options, allowing even the basic 8-bit AVR MCU devices to utilize them and display graphical or textual content. One of them is the 1x20 graphical display connector, compatible with the familiar Graphical Liquid Crystal Display (GLCD) based on the KS108 (or compatible) display driver, and EasyTFT board that contains TFT Color Display MI0283QT-9A, which is driven by ILI9341 display controller, capable of showing advanced graphical content. The other option is the 2x16 character LCD module, a four-bit display module with an embedded character-based display controller. It
requires minimal processing power from the host MCU for its operation. There is a wide range of useful interactive options at the disposal: high-quality buttons with selectable press levels, LEDs, pull-up/pulldown DIP switches, and more. All these features are packed on a single development board, which uses innovative manufacturing technologies, delivering a fluid and immersive working experience. The EasyAVR v8 development board is also integral to the MIKROE rapid development ecosystem. Natively supported by the MIKROE Software toolchain, backed up by hundreds of different Click board™ designs with their number growing daily, it covers many different prototyping and development aspects, thus saving precious development time.
Microcontroller Overview
MCU Card / MCU
Architecture
AVR
MCU Memory (KB)
128
Silicon Vendor
Microchip
Pin count
40
RAM (Bytes)
16384
Used MCU Pins
mikroBUS™ mapper
Take a closer look
Click board™ Schematic
Step by step
Project assembly
Start by selecting your development board and Click board™. Begin with the EasyAVR v8 as your development board.
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 Wheatstone Click driver.
Key functions:
wheatstone_set_potentiometer- Set potentiometer ( 0 - 100k )wheatstone_read_an_pin_voltage- This function reads results of AD conversion of the AN pin and converts them to proportional voltage level.
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 Wheatstone Click example
*
* # Description
* This example demonstrates the use of Wheatstone click board by measuring the input
* resistance.
*
* The demo application is composed of two sections :
*
* ## Application Init
* Initializes the driver and logger and sets the default potentiometer (gain) level.
*
* ## Application Task
* Reads the AN pin voltage and calculates the input resistance from it.
* All data are being displayed on the USB UART where you can track their changes.
*
* @note
* The following formulas you may find useful:
* AN_PIN(V) = ( ( 1kOhm + R_INPUT(kOhm) ) / ( 1kOhm + 2*R_INPUT(kOhm) ) - 1/2 ) * VCC(V) * GAIN
* VOUT(V) = AN_PIN(V) / GAIN
* R_INPUT(kOhm) = ( VCC(V) * GAIN - 2*AN_PIN(V) ) / ( 4*AN_PIN(V) )
* R_INPUT(kOhm) = ( VCC(V) - 2*VOUT(V) ) / ( 4*VOUT(V) )
*
* \author MikroE Team
*
*/
// ------------------------------------------------------------------- INCLUDES
#include "board.h"
#include "log.h"
#include "wheatstone.h"
// ------------------------------------------------------------------ VARIABLES
static wheatstone_t wheatstone;
static log_t logger;
// ------------------------------------------------------ APPLICATION FUNCTIONS
void application_init ( void )
{
log_cfg_t log_cfg;
wheatstone_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.
wheatstone_cfg_setup( &cfg );
WHEATSTONE_MAP_MIKROBUS( cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
wheatstone_init( &wheatstone, &cfg );
wheatstone_set_potentiometer ( &wheatstone, WHEATSTONE_POT_MAX );
log_info( &logger, " Application Task " );
}
void application_task ( void )
{
float an_pin_v = 0;
float vout = 0;
float r_kohm = 0;
if ( WHEATSTONE_OK == wheatstone_read_an_pin_voltage ( &wheatstone, &an_pin_v ) )
{
vout = an_pin_v / wheatstone.gain;
if ( 0 != vout )
{
r_kohm = ( WHEATSTONE_VCC_5V - 2 * vout ) / ( 4 * vout );
}
log_printf( &logger, " VCC : %.3f V\r\n", WHEATSTONE_VCC_5V );
log_printf( &logger, " GAIN : %.3f\r\n", wheatstone.gain );
log_printf( &logger, " AN_PIN : %.3f V\r\n", an_pin_v );
log_printf( &logger, " VOUT : %.3f V\r\n", vout );
log_printf( &logger, " R_INPUT : %.3f kOhm\r\n\n", r_kohm );
Delay_ms( 1000 );
}
}
void main ( void )
{
application_init( );
for ( ; ; )
{
application_task( );
}
}
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------ END
Additional Support
Resources
Category:Measurements
