5 items are tagged with psoc:

In the last article I ended with the question whether to move on on the PSoC4 and add some features, or to move over to the PSoC5 before doing so. Since I would need a DAC for the next stepping (adding a comparator with variable trigger level), I took a deeper look at the PSoC4 data sheet.

It comes with two DACs, but since they are current output DACs, I would need an external resistor. Since the LCD shield doesn’t leave me with a way of adding components on top of the Pioneer kit, I decided to move the project over to the PSoC5 (which has two voltage output DACs).

So in the first part we have seen that the PSoC can implement nearly anything you can draw as schematic from logic gates (or analog building blocks, though I didn’t use any). But the solution I implemented doesn’t make use from any of the PSoC-specific features. So in this part of the series, I will show what we can use and how it makes out life easier.

Time to get started with the PSoC series. In this first article, I will look the simplest frequency counter implementation - using a gated timer. I will show how a project is set up using PSoC Creator (I’m using version 2.2 here still, but you might also use the newly-released version 3.0).

This simple form of frequency meter is born by the definition of frequency: it just counts the number of pulses which can be detected in a time period of one second. So we need:

• a source for a one second pulse
• a counter (counting the pulses)
• a gate which starts, stops and resets the counter

One can implement this in pure hardware, but this will end up in a kind of “TTL grave” because you need oh so many ICs… So I will show how to transfer this kind of frequency counter in a single PSoC.

I already mentioned the Cypress PSoC family of chips several times in this blog, but I never came around to explain a little more about them. But since I’m currently working on my frequency meter project which will get implemented with a PSoC5, I figured I can use this as a good example. So this posting will be start of a series. It will start with an overview - what are the Cypress PSoCs, which families are available, and what can be done with them. I choose the frequency counter already used before as an example. The first part will be an implementation as known to most people, which I will then further refine.

So, what is the PSoC?

You might already know Schmartboard for their SMD breakout boards. If you do, you might also know about their line of development boards (e.g. for PICs, Parallax Propellers). And they are so nice to give away some of their boards in a monthly drawing. And it was this drawing where I got my hands on a PSoC5LP board.

So a while ago a small package arrived at my doorstep - but it spend about two weeks or so in the local customs office before it got delivered. That meant it arrived me too late to be a birthday present, But I was happy nonetheless - I like PSoCs quite a lot.

The board itself is smaller than I expected (this happens to me all the time - I always expect large bulky stuff because I forget how small all this stuff has shrunk in the last few years…). It looks quite nice - its not very dense populated. Some components are not aligned perfectly, but the soldering is without flaws.