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1

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / TinyZero, bootloader button and Arduino IDE

« on: November 20, 2019, 09:30:10 AM »

In case other people are having a similar issue: I was getting pretty annoyed at the serial port disappearing from the port selection menu and having to use the boot loader button on the TinyZero and thinking about giving up on it and going back to the TinyDuino. However, it now seems that it's (often at least, or all the time?) a simple matter of clicking out of the IDE and then clicking back into it. The serial port magically reappears. Maybe it's an IDE issue on the Mac (and PC?) and not the TinyZero issue I (we?) thought.
I've had a somewhat similar issue with a CAD program where selection tools start misbehaving and simply clicking to another tab window and back fixes it, so now I think to try this in other places, and it worked here. Pretty easy workaround. Two clicks, problem solved. Probably. I'd be interested to hear if someone's seen similar behavior.

2

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Analog read rate, TinyZero slower than TinyDuino ...??

« on: November 14, 2019, 10:18:59 AM »

I'm doing some testing with a simple loop that reads an input and stores to an integer array. I use micros() before and after the loop of say 10 readings, then after the timing loop I print out the time and the readings for inspection.
I'm getting MUCH faster reading time on the TinyDuino than on the TinyZero, which seems odd because it seems the TinyZero would be faster if anything, or the same if it's just the Analog input speed limit.

I get about 120 microseconds per reading on the TinyDuino
I get about 420 microseconds per reading on the TinyZero
I suppose it could be something different in the analog hardware, but the clock speed should be 8x on the Zero. I'm using default clock speeds and haven't changed any other settings if there are any.

I've tried different loop counts with about the same result. It shouldn't be anything about the serial port because I don't print anything until after the reading loop.
Anyone else know anything about different Analog Input rates for these processors?
What kind of reading speed do you see?

3

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Maximum IO pin input voltage

« on: November 02, 2019, 12:14:37 PM »

I've been searching the forum and the processor documentation but I can't seem to find the spec for the allowable input voltage on the digital IO pins. I saw one spot showing the Logic 0 and 1 levels for a 5V supply and a 3.3V supply setup, but not the maximum allowable.
Is it 5.5V, same as the max battery supply voltage? Does it depend on whether you're powering it from 3.3V or 5V (I doubt that)?
Someone telling me the value is somewhat helpful, but I'd like to know where it's listed officially.
Thanks.

4

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Conflict between SD card and Accelerometer interface?

« on: October 31, 2019, 09:36:13 AM »

There seems to be a conflict preventing me from opening a file and writing to it. I'm on a TinyZero but this might apply to all?

I can do it with just the SPI.h  and SD.h loaded, but when I add Wire.h and BMA250.h and the sensor reading code to the program it fails to open my data file for writing. I've copied the working code from the first case to the non-working second case, and put in a serial print statement to confirm my program's getting to the proper point where it tries to write to the card using the same pasted code that works without the Wire and BMA250 code for the sensor.

I found a couple posts related to a conflict like this with a display board, but nothing else.

Any clues would be appreciated.

Below are the header lines from the non-working program. Without the first two lines here, things are fine as discussed above.

#include <Wire.h>         // For I2C communication with sensor
#include "BMA250.h"       // For interfacing with the accel. sensor
#include <SPI.h>          // may not actually need this one
#include <SD.h>           // For SD card


const int chipSelect = 10;   // for TinyZero

5

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Using TinyZero with MicroSD shield

« on: October 25, 2019, 12:06:43 PM »

I'm looking at their example program "listfiles" (attached for reference, it's a small program) and it doesn't work with the TinyZero and MicroSD adapter as written. I think I need to set the proper pin as in the text below from the program:

  SD card attached to SPI bus as follows:
 ** MOSI - pin 11
 ** MISO - pin 12
 ** CLK - pin 13
 ** CS - pin 4 (for MKRZero SD: SDCARD_SS_PIN)

I haven't yet found which pin to use. Or a different way to talk to the SD card?

Anyone have any further information on this? Or a working example? It would be very helpful and appreciated.

6

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / USB shield and Proto Terminal Blocks don't fit together

« on: August 09, 2015, 09:55:36 AM »

I'm stacking a processor board, a USB board and the Terminal Block board for some Hall Effect sensor experimenting. When I do this stackup, a normal USB micro plug doesn't even come close to fitting into the available socket. I don't get what they were thinking. Or am I missing something? This seems like a very basic use of the products. Something they'd have designed for, and tested and/or lots of people would be running into this.

I cut away one side of the USB cable plug housing and ground down the excess pin and solder protrusions under terminal sockets 8, 9 and SS. Fortunately there was plastic material inside the USB plug right where it wants to contact those ground down pins so now everything works perfectly for me. Photo attached.

What are other people doing? And why did I have to do this?

-Jeff