Messages

91

TinyLily / Re: Pinout documentation

« on: June 29, 2013, 10:22:42 PM »

Sorry for taking so long to get better documentation up.  We're getting a number of new things up over the next week or two, one of the first ones is for the TinyLily Motor board documentation and some examples of how to use it.  Here's our first draft of this, we plan to update this with some photos and a video early next week. 

http://tiny-circuits.com/learn/tinylily-motor-board/

Thanks,

Ken

92

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Re: Proto Board pins

« on: June 29, 2013, 08:23:38 PM »

Donny,

The Arduino pin numbering can definitely be confusing, the most important thing to realize is that a 'pin' as defined by Arduino doesn't actually match up with the physical pin on the processor.  So the Arduino "pin 1" is not the same as the real pin 1 on the processor.

From the Arduino view point, all of the 'pins' are based on the shield connectors and shield signals.  So digital pins go from 0 - 13, and analog pins from A0 - A5.

On the TinyDuino it's the same as on the Arduino, although we show the IO as well, so "IO0 = Arduino pin 0", "IO1 = Arduino pin 1", etc.

So from the software side of things, if you want IO0 to be set to a logic-high (a '1'), you would write:

Code: [Select]

pinMode(0, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(0, HIGH);

Again, the important thing is to ignore the actual pin numbers of the processor that you see on the schematic when you are writing your software.  Just focus on the numbers after the IO and you should be good.

Thanks,

Ken

93

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Re: Accelerometer Shield

« on: June 28, 2013, 02:45:22 PM »

Thanks for putting this up!  You beat me to it!  I'm updating the website with better instructions and examples for all the new boards, should have this up by this weekend.

Thanks!

Ken

94

New Product Ideas / Re: Inertial Measurement Unit shield

« on: June 28, 2013, 11:33:30 AM »

IMU it is, we have the design completed for one based on the MPU9150, and it should be available for general sale on the webstore in late July / early Aug.  We also have a few others that will be available at the same time if you don't need the full 9-axis, like a compass shield and gyro shield (in addition to the existing accelerometer shield). 

Although there aren't 10 votes yet, I say we have a winner for the "Free Stuff" suggestion on this one and will hook jcarey5225 with a free one when it's available.  And for everyone else who voted on this (Weirdarm, amnipar, akhub, tomcUT and jordyjoe1), we'll give you $10 off coupon to use in the webstore. 

Thanks!

Ken

95

New Product Ideas / Re: Temperature, Humidity and Pressure

« on: June 28, 2013, 11:27:01 AM »

Sure, this would be possible to do on one board.  If there are sensors for other systems (like from Sparkfun or Adafruit) you should definitely be able to interface them with the TinyLily or TinyDuino systems. 

Regarding temperature, humidity and pressure, we are working on some new sensor boards that will officially announced in late July that will help with this

Thanks,

Ken

96

New Product Ideas / Re: How to deal with VCC on Tiny Shields

« on: June 28, 2013, 11:25:09 AM »

Hi Michael,

It's a great question, and the 3 vs 5V issue has long been a problem with Arduino shields in general.  We have taken the approach that all of our TinyShields will support 3 - 5V operation.  So to do this, we include a local power supply and level translators if necessary on the shields.  We're using the TI TXS0102 and TXB0104 translators, and in bulk these are cheap enough to not have much of an impact on the final shield cost.   

So the nice thing from a TinyDuino user, is that any of the shields we offer will work with your system powered from 3 - 5V, and you don't need to worry about the voltage of a particular shield, or the possibility of blowing up an SD card due to powering it a 5V, etc. 

Thanks,

Ken

97

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Re: Round Board

« on: June 28, 2013, 11:17:58 AM »

Most of the TinyDuino boards themselves are designed to be either square or round - a square version can be made round by just cutting off the corners using a small handheld cutter, then can be filed by hand.  Some of the newer boards (like the Bluetooth, WiFi, etc) will not be able to be rounded, but most of the core ones (like the processor, USB, Protos, LEDs) can be made round.

We originally were going to sell these in either a round or a square version, but realistically we determined that the mounting holes and screws to hold the boards together are needed in most applications where there are a few boards stacked together.

Thanks,

Ken

98

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Re: Proto Board pins

« on: June 28, 2013, 11:13:33 AM »

Hi Navic,

Sorry for the confusion - yes the pins map directly to the same ones on an Arduino Uno:

IO0 = 0, I01 = 1, etc.

AD0 = A0, AD1 = A1, etc.

SS = 10, MOSI = 11, MISO = 12, SCK = 13.

The three RSV pins are reserved for future use, and currently are not used on any boards. 

Thanks,

Ken

99

General Discussion / Re: I2C interface - How and where?

« on: June 28, 2013, 11:07:04 AM »

Hi Fermil,

Yes, I2C is definitely supported, as are all the signals from the standard Arduino Uno.  The I2C signals are the AD5/SCL (I2C Clock) and AD4/SDA (I2C Data).  You can get access to these signals from some of the Prototyping boards for your application.

These signals are also available on the TinyLily Mini. 

Thanks!

Ken
TinyCircuits

100

TinyDuino Processors & TinyShields / Re: Programmer not responding

« on: April 21, 2013, 05:06:48 PM »

Hi Steven,

Is it the same USB TinyShield used in both cases?  If so, make sure the connector between the USB TinyShield at the processor board are well connected.   If it continues, I'd suspect that there is an issue on the TinyDuino processor board with the connection.  If so, we'll replace this board and get you out a new one, just email me directly at kburns@tiny-circuits.com and let me know.

Thanks,

Ken Burns
TinyCircuits

101

General Discussion / Re: USB & ICP board mosfet question

« on: April 17, 2013, 08:07:39 PM »

Keith,

We are planning on a power shield, which would allow an external power supply to be used (like a wall wart). 

You are correct about the coin cell - if you have a shield that needs higher voltage than this, you need a different power source.  Keep in mind that the coin cell option is for low power type applications since a coin cell is fairly limited in the amount of power it can deliver.  Keep in mind that you can always just supply external power to the VBATT pins on the TinyDuino (there are two solder holes in the bottom right of the board), so you can easily hook up a larger battery pack and not use the coin cell, and have much more power available.

Thanks,

Ken

102

General Discussion / Re: USB & ICP board mosfet question

« on: April 16, 2013, 11:07:49 PM »

I really need to put a good description on this on the website under the product pages, so I apologize for the confusion.  Here's a brief overview of the power architecture on the TinyDuino / USB Shield:

The are 5 power supply rails that are supported on the TinyShield connector, however some of these are for legacy reasons or for future boards, and aren't used with the current generation of TinyDuinos.  VIN, +5V,+3V3, IOREF (which we also call VCC) are rails that are supported on the standard Arduino, and we add a VBATT rail for the TinyDuino.  The TinyDuino processor and TinyShields don't currently use VIN or +3V3, but these could be supplied later with a power adapter TinyShield.  On the standard Arduino, VIN is 7 - 20 V (or roughly around that range), and is used to create the +5V and +3V3 supplies.  It's assumed that if VIN is present, then a power adapter TinyShield is supplying power to the +5V and +3V3 rails.  Using this architecture, it's possible to interconnect TinyDuino and standard Arduino boards (we may eventually have an adapter for this if there is interest). 

VCC is the power rail that the main processor and the voltage the I/Os of the processor run at.  The TinyDuino processor boards supports two options for supply the VCC power:  VBATT is the battery voltage, and can range from 2.7V to 5V.  The +5V rail can also be used.  The power circuitry on the TinyDuino processor board (namely Q1 and Q2) controls which one is used, these transistors form a basic Ideal Diode circuit, and will supply the higher voltage to VCC (without a diode drop), by switching the appropriate FET on. 

So basically the TinyDuino will run on VBATT, unless +5V is present.  If so, it will run off of the +5V supply and not draw power from the battery. 

+5V could come from multiple places, such as an external power supply TinyShield, or from the USB TinyShield.

On the USB TinyShield, the transistor Q1 serves the purpose of not connecting the USB supplied +5V to the TinyShield connector unless VIN isn't present.  If VIN is present, then we are assuming there is an external power supply attached that is supplying +5V already. 

Again, I apologize for the lack of documentation about this, we are planning on creating and posting all this.  But in the meantime if you have any other questions, please just ask in the forums.

Thanks!

Ken






The TinyDuino processor board uses two voltage rails, +5V and Vbatt.

103

General Discussion / Re: How secure does this forum have to be?

« on: April 16, 2013, 10:30:50 PM »

Sorry for the crazy amount of security, we were getting massive amounts of spam and bots trying to register (about 500 bots per day), so I cranked up all the anti-spam stuff to max for now.  We'll be doing some more forum maintenance and may tweak this down in the next few weeks.

Ken

104

General Discussion / Re: TinyUSB FTDI chip

« on: December 01, 2012, 02:36:54 PM »

Mike,

No, the FTDI USB chip does not need to be programmed.  The ICSP 6-pin connection you see there allows you access to the ICSP programming on the main Atmel microcontroller on the processor board, however most people will likely just use the Arduino bootloader to program their TinyDuino's.  We will ship all of the TinyDuino's with the Arduino bootloader preprogrammed.

Thanks,

Ken

105

New Product Ideas / Re: Accelerometer

« on: October 15, 2012, 12:03:00 PM »

We just announced an accelerometer TinyShield for the TinyDuino on the Kickstarter campaign.  We'll definitely do a cheaper one for the TinyLily soon, but not in time for the Kickstarter campaign.

Thanks,

Ken