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Electronics => Microcontrollers => Topic started by: CypressPSoC on December 04, 2015, 09:35:35 pm

Title: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 04, 2015, 09:35:35 pm
Many of you commented on our PSoC 4 Prototyping Kit and how it was useful for hobby projects.
A few of you even complained about the USB-to-Serial bootloader chip that was on that kit to allow you to bootload the PSoC chip, in albeit a bit painful method.

We've now upgraded the dev kit (well, made a new board really)!
For $10 you get a real debugger onboard (ARM SWD protocol) so you can program and step through your code like a pro!
We've also upgraded the PSoC chip to the new PSoC 4 M-Series with 128KB of flash and a bunch of new peripherals.

You can grab one here: www.cypress.com/cy8ckit-043 (http://www.cypress.com/cy8ckit-043)
and ofcourse, PSoC Creator IDE software is always free @ www.cypress.com/PSoCCreator (http://www.cypress.com/PSoCCreator)

Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: free_electron on December 04, 2015, 09:46:49 pm
FAN FREAKING TASTIC !!!! order placed
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: timb on December 04, 2015, 10:10:21 pm
Are the PSoC 4's still hugely gimped compared to the PSoC 5LP? Reading through the component documentation, it seems like the PSoC 4 always had a lot of limitations compared to the 3 and 5.

Don't get me wrong, I love the PSoC series! I used to be diehard TI fan, but now, if I need anything more than a simple MCU, the 5LP is my go to chip! In fact, I'm currently in the design stages of a PSoC5 based HMI LCD solution!

I guess my question is: Where do the PSoC 4 fit in, in the design spectrum?
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: ataradov on December 04, 2015, 10:23:28 pm
Does debugger chip use a CMSIS-DAP protocol, or something proprietary?
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 05, 2015, 01:03:52 am
8 DMA channels is a nice addition, any word on the cost and availability on the EZ-BLE PRoC module?
Also I guess the programmer is a PSoC5LP as used in the 5lp prototype board which I love.

I still think the 5lp prototype kit has more potential but I'll look at the offering because of the Bluetooth support when the module is available. 128K flash is nice as well.

Is there any chance you could post a picture of the bottom of the board so we can check how had it would be to add the EZ-BLE PRoC module?
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: MT on December 05, 2015, 02:37:16 am
For $10 you get a real debugger onboard (ARM SWD protocol) so you can program and step through your code like a pro!
We've also upgraded the PSoC chip to the new PSoC 4 M-Series with 128KB of flash and a bunch of new peripherals.

You can grab one here: www.cypress.com/cy8ckit-043 (http://www.cypress.com/cy8ckit-043)
and ofcourse, PSoC Creator IDE software is always free @ www.cypress.com/PSoCCreator (http://www.cypress.com/PSoCCreator)

So this is basically something very similar to a ST-Nucleo/Discovery board just plug in and code. Nice!
Just found out about Cypress soic8-16, cy8c4013sxi-400, brilliant!

Can these boards program Spansion (FM4 and Traveo) devices? cant find any info about they could!?
It would be very nice to have one Kit board to program all Cypress devices, like ST does.
Just installed Creator and Designer looks impressive although complex, designer do not seam to support all devices.. 
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: westfw on December 05, 2015, 03:06:12 am
Quote
it seems like the PSoC 4 always had a lot of limitations compared to the 3 and 5.
that's intentional, isn't it?   PSoC 3/5 are systems where you build most ofe your peripherals out of the programmable logic and analog blocks, while the PSoC4 are closer to conventional microcontrollers with dedicated fixed-function peripherals and sometimes a few programmable logic blocks to provide enhanced functions.
In theory, I like having the range of choices, and I like not having to create standard peripherals when that's all I need.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: ralphd on December 05, 2015, 03:19:23 am
Come back when you have choices for developing on Linux
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 05, 2015, 05:22:50 am
Are the PSoC 4's still hugely gimped compared to the PSoC 5LP? Reading through the component documentation, it seems like the PSoC 4 always had a lot of limitations compared to the 3 and 5.

Don't get me wrong, I love the PSoC series! I used to be diehard TI fan, but now, if I need anything more than a simple MCU, the 5LP is my go to chip! In fact, I'm currently in the design stages of a PSoC5 based HMI LCD solution!

I guess my question is: Where do the PSoC 4 fit in, in the design spectrum?

Lower power consumption would be my guess, but I'm still reading the preliminary datasheet for the new PSoC 4 M-Series.

Edit: corrected misspelling (datasheed)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: igendel on December 05, 2015, 08:58:34 am
What a coincidence  :) A few days ago I got the CY8CKIT 043 (mainly for the programmer), as well as two little "bare" PSoC 4 MCUs. You can see the Blink test here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7cUnbXCZg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7cUnbXCZg) ,
although the video is not very informative - The actual description of the project is in my Hebrew-language blog.

Here's a beginners' question though. This simplest Blink, in either Debug or Release, takes 2KB of flash and 1.4KB SRAM, which is a lot. I guess that's the cost of using the nice visual programming; but personally I'd like to go deeper and do these things manually and economically. The easy-to-access datasheets only discuss the abstractions, not the low level. Where can I find information about the low level stuff, registers etc?
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: timb on December 05, 2015, 10:08:01 am

What a coincidence  :) A few days ago I got the CY8CKIT 043 (mainly for the programmer), as well as two little "bare" PSoC 4 MCUs. You can see the Blink test here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7cUnbXCZg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7cUnbXCZg) ,
although the video is not very informative - The actual description of the project is in my Hebrew-language blog.

Here's a beginners' question though. This simplest Blink, in either Debug or Release, takes 2KB of flash and 1.4KB SRAM, which is a lot. I guess that's the cost of using the nice visual programming; but personally I'd like to go deeper and do these things manually and economically. The easy-to-access datasheets only discuss the abstractions, not the low level. Where can I find information about the low level stuff, registers etc?

Grab the TRM for the PSoC; it should be all there.

As an aside, I've got to say I really love PSoC Creator. The information and reports it generates are very nice. Being able to access component data sheets with on click is awesome. The pin configuration is very nice. The whole thing has been a very pleasant experience.

Contrast this with, say, Code Composer Studio from TI, which is a buggy, bloated nightmare with hundreds of separate apps and packages you have to separately install and manage.

Normally I code with an editor in OS X and just use GCC to compile, but for the PSoC, I actually don't mind running Creator in a VM. (Though a cross-platform compiler only package would be nice; one that took C and VHDL.)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 05, 2015, 10:38:21 am
It's the penalty of using a full pwm module and support code to just blink an LED. I guess if you need to make it smaller you could trim the generated source and discard the pwm module and make your own module and code.

I know there are a lot of videos in their youtube channel but you can find a lot of information and examples:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CypressSemi/videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/CypressSemi/videos)

So if you just want to turn the LED on and off, nothing prevents you to use just a digital output port.

I wonder if this module could do what I could do with the PSoC5LP prototype board (http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-059-psoc-5lp-prototyping-kit-onboard-programmer-and) (also $10) using this $4 R2R DAC:
http://www.waveshare.com/product/VGA-PS2-Board.htm (http://www.waveshare.com/product/VGA-PS2-Board.htm)

More details here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/msg696341/#msg696341 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/msg696341/#msg696341)

PSoC5LP and VGA module:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=157374;image)

Digital Block Schematic including DMA that the older PSoC4's couldn't do:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=157450;image)

VGA video output some using the PSoC5LP 2KB EEPROM (Edit: for the fonts) that I think the new PSoC4 M-series doesn't have:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158243;image)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158176;image)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158174;image)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158247;image)


Also the PSoC 4 doesn't have as much SRAM and resources as the PSoC 5LP, so I'm not sure it could handle this task.

Also without the VGA module and driving a CGA monitor directly with just the 5LP prototype board:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158616;image)
and the corresponding video output.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158831;image)

So the new offer is good for low power devices, but the 5LP at the same cost runs circles around this. But then again having the capability to populate the Bluetooth pad brings other strengths so I'm tore if to order some of these kits. I'll loose USB HID but probably gain wireless via BT when the module is available for a BT display controller. Hmmm.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: timb on December 05, 2015, 11:07:01 am

It's the penalty of using a full pwm module and support code to just blink an LED. I guess if you need to make it smaller you could trim the generated source and discard the pwm module and make your own module and code.

I know there are a lot of videos in their youtube channel but you can find a lot of information and examples:
https://www.youtube.com/user/CypressSemi/videos (https://www.youtube.com/user/CypressSemi/videos)

So if you just want to turn the LED on and off, nothing prevents you to use just a digital output port.

I wonder if this module could do what I could do with the PSoC5LP prototype board (http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-059-psoc-5lp-prototyping-kit-onboard-programmer-and) (also $10) using this $4 R2R DAC:
http://www.waveshare.com/product/VGA-PS2-Board.htm (http://www.waveshare.com/product/VGA-PS2-Board.htm)

More details here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/msg696341/#msg696341 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/msg696341/#msg696341)

PSoC5LP and VGA module:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=157374;image)

Digital Block Schematic including DMA that the older PSoC4's couldn't do:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=157450;image)

VGA video output some using the PSoC5LP 2KB EEPROM (Edit: for the fonts) that I think the new PSoC4 M-series doesn't have:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158243;image)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158176;image)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158174;image)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158247;image)


Also the PSoC 4 doesn't have as much SRAM and resources as the PSoC 5LP, so I'm not sure it could handle this task.

Also without the VGA module and driving a CGA monitor directly with just the 5LP prototype board:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158616;image)
and the corresponding video output.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/make-use-of-an-old-cga-monitor/?action=dlattach;attach=158831;image)

So the new offer is good for low power devices, but the 5LP at the same cost runs circles around this. But then again having the capability to populate the Bluetooth pad brings other strengths so I'm tore if to order some of these kits. I'll loose USB HID but probably gain wireless via BT when the module is available for a BT display controller. Hmmm.

Wow, this is amazing! I'm totally going to try it out. Is your code on Github?

I want to add a frame buffer using some external SDRAM, which the PSoC actually has a component for. This should make it able to do sprites etc.

By the way, if you're using the IMO as a clock source, it can be off by a few percent. If you use an external clock or oscillator then the PLL and clock tree should be able to give you a clock frequency with the same accuracy as your input clock. This could have been the issue behind your pixel clock being off.

Anyway, awesome project!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 05, 2015, 12:54:14 pm
Wow, this is amazing! I'm totally going to try it out. Is your code on Github?

I want to add a frame buffer using some external SDRAM, which the PSoC actually has a component for. This should make it able to do sprites etc.

By the way, if you're using the IMO as a clock source, it can be off by a few percent. If you use an external clock or oscillator then the PLL and clock tree should be able to give you a clock frequency with the same accuracy as your input clock. This could have been the issue behind your pixel clock being off.

Anyway, awesome project!
Thank you, getting a praise from you (no disrespect intended) is actually a big deal.

No github but I will have to dig the project and post it here. I do have perforce and I know I did save often enough but no warranties it will work out of the box because maybe I only started to check the project in while doing the CGA code.

It's late right now and I can barely type (almost 7am and I hope I don't wake my wife up when I go to bed).

Yes I'm using the IMO but I do have an OXCO 26MHz oscillators (no XTALs on hand I'm affraid)

VGA output didn't give me any trouble other than the color pixel being late as the images shows, CGA on the other hand had some flakiness using the internal clock. I added more buffers as I recall after posting that. Not sure if I did solve it. And an external ram might not help because it wasn't a lack of resources as I recall.

I did think about expanding this to use an external ram for a proper full frame buffer, but I didn't have the memory at hand so I used the EEPROM as a proof of concept.

Would be fun to make a pong game using the capsense cypress tech, and probably expand even more. It wasn't a full project since I just wanted to show a proof of concept, got a bit overboard but a PSoC5LP prototype board could easily replace a CGA controller board as I left it last time (a while back and around half a year ago).

Anyways and no promises, I'll have to search for that code which I'm sure I still have it laying around. Maybe I don't have the VGA code anymore and only the CGA code since that was my target.

What I would want is a dual ported memory video memory module (by video I mean it could handle the pixel clock rate, maybe even twice the size of the framebuffer so I could implement a dual buffer display). My need for dual ported is so I could use this prototyping board as a display buffer (with external memory help) and use a 2nd module or whatever to drive it.

Do get the VGA module, it's fantastic. I have a better one that is a 330MHz capable video DAC (8 bits per color) but for this type of thing is an overkill and I don't think I would be able to drive that with the PSoC 5LP I do reserve that higher end board to my FPGA's.

I'm thinking these new modules could do what I did with the 5LP specially with external memory.

In any event I have no problem releasing the code if I'm able to find it which I'm pretty sure I will. But maybe before I do release it I want to make sure it works on VGA mode or at least it's capable to drive an LCD display, since my later iteration was to drive a CGA monitor and that's not going to help many.

If I do release it (and I will but I need sleep 1st) I only ask that you post pictures of the outcome and code so I can experience your code as well. I would say to give me a couple of days to gather things but might take a week but I hope it won't take that long.

As for sprites, the 5LP has 2K of EEPROM that you could put other sprites than the CGA ones I used. Also you could sacrifice one bit form the red channel to do a blink or even implement a full CGA controller card but outputing to a VGA monitor, It should be fairly easy.

Well, I'm going to bed soon because it's late but I'll see what I can dig out quickly during the weekend (doesn't help my wife doesn't work this weekend but I might be able to pull it out, time permitting).

BTW the PSoC is great at doing this because it's mostly implemented by hardware. the ARM processor is just filling in the buffer and the DMA and hardware takes care of the rest transparently.

Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 05, 2015, 01:18:30 pm
BTW if it's difficult to order from waveshare directly they do have an Ebay store, that would cost you $3 more
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VGA-PS2-Board-Accessory-Test-Module-for-VGA-PS2-Control-Connector-Interfaces-/251031101624?hash=item3a729ea0b8 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VGA-PS2-Board-Accessory-Test-Module-for-VGA-PS2-Control-Connector-Interfaces-/251031101624?hash=item3a729ea0b8)

I recall it was difficult to order directly from their website. Had to order via e-mails and not automated at all, but they might have changed things by now. I did ordered other things from them so the combined shipping wasn't that bad.

Although you can probably order from wayegineer but that will cost you a minimum of $4.20 for shipping plus $3 for the module.

http://www.wayengineer.com/wx-vga-ps2-board-testing-vga-ps2-interfaces-p-2292.html#.VmLirfmrSUk (http://www.wayengineer.com/wx-vga-ps2-board-testing-vga-ps2-interfaces-p-2292.html#.VmLirfmrSUk)

So not sure if Ebay would be cheaper than wvshare or less hassle, but via wayengineer it seems it's more pricey.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: igendel on December 05, 2015, 02:04:28 pm
Grab the TRM for the PSoC; it should be all there.

As an aside, I've got to say I really love PSoC Creator. The information and reports it generates are very nice. Being able to access component data sheets with on click is awesome. The pin configuration is very nice. The whole thing has been a very pleasant experience.

Thanks, I'll take a look at the Technical Reference Manual. It's my first ARM and my first visual programming experience (for MCUs), so it's all still kind of vague :-)

I used PWM for Blink per Cypress' introduction videos. Of course I could toggle the pin in a software loop, or let it be because "ïf you only need the blink, who cares how much RAM it takes on the chip". I just want to know what goes on under the hood.

From the very little work I did so far, PSoC Creator does look promising.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: Brutte on December 05, 2015, 03:23:12 pm
Not sure about peripherals of mentioned uCs but the M0 core is hopeless for learning and debugging. It is a stripped version of M3/M4 and lacks most of debugging resources.
Just my $0.02
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: c4757p on December 05, 2015, 03:31:34 pm
Debugging maybe, but useless for learning? People have done an awful lot of learning on chips with zero to almost zero debugging support. To this day I find myself only very rarely needing an embedded debugger.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: ataradov on December 05, 2015, 07:27:23 pm
It is a stripped version of M3/M4 and lacks most of debugging resources.
What debug resources are missing in M0 compared to M3/4? They are exactly the same as far as debugging goes.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: Neganur on December 05, 2015, 08:06:55 pm
which one of the cy8c42XX chips is on the board? the same as the kit-049? (i.e. the 4245axi ?)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 05, 2015, 09:02:14 pm
which one of the cy8c42XX chips is on the board? the same as the kit-049? (i.e. the 4245axi ?)

It's a CY8C4247AZI-M485 for the target board and a CY8C5868LTI-LP039 (PSoC5LP) for the kitprog part of the board (same as the 5LP prototyping board kitprog part I believe).

The OP's link has access to the documents, as well as all the rest of the files if you are logged in.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: bson on December 06, 2015, 01:02:20 am
It's a CY8C4247AZI-M485 for the target board and a CY8C5868LTI-LP039 (PSoC5LP) for the kitprog part of the board (same as the 5LP prototyping board kitprog part I believe).
Yeah, my 5LP -059 kit has the same chip on the prog as the prototype board.  I thought that was pretty cool. :)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 08:10:28 pm
FAN FREAKING TASTIC !!!! order placed

awesome! excited to see what you'll use it for. be sure to post back here when you have something to showoff or tweet us @CypressSemi
thanks!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 08:13:22 pm
Are the PSoC 4's still hugely gimped compared to the PSoC 5LP? Reading through the component documentation, it seems like the PSoC 4 always had a lot of limitations compared to the 3 and 5.

Don't get me wrong, I love the PSoC series! I used to be diehard TI fan, but now, if I need anything more than a simple MCU, the 5LP is my go to chip! In fact, I'm currently in the design stages of a PSoC5 based HMI LCD solution!

I guess my question is: Where do the PSoC 4 fit in, in the design spectrum?

You're correct, the PSoC 3 and PSoC 5LP are larger chips with more capabilities. The PSoC 4 series was designed to offer PSoC-features, but at standard MCU prices. You can buy PSoC 4 chips for $1 all day long, a price-point the 5LP can not meet due to much larger die size.
That being said, we've expanded the PSoC 4 series all the way from 16KB flash options to 256KB. We've got a lot more upcoming, check out our product roadmap @ http://www.cypress.com/psocroadmap (http://www.cypress.com/psocroadmap)

good luck with the PSoC 5LP HMI solution!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 08:14:03 pm
Does debugger chip use a CMSIS-DAP protocol, or something proprietary?

ARM SWD (Single Wire Debug) on the debugger chip, with KitProg v1
KitProg v2 adds CMSIS-DAP too!!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: ataradov on December 07, 2015, 08:45:50 pm
KitProg v2 adds CMSIS-DAP too!!
I can't find any info on v2. Is it available yet?

I'm working on a debugging tool and I'm interested in testing with as many debuggers form as many vendors as I can find, but for now I'm only interested in CMSIS-DAP interface.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: Brutte on December 07, 2015, 08:53:28 pm
What debug resources are missing in M0 compared to M3/4? They are exactly the same as far as debugging goes.
Quote from: ARM ARMv6-M Architecture Reference Manual
C1.1 Introduction to ARMv6-M debug
(..)The features that the Debug Extension provides are a subset of those available in the ARMv7-M profile.
Here (http://sourceforge.net/p/embsysregview/patches/12/) is the ARMv7-M view of the core with expanded SCS.
It is enough to point out ARMv6-M does not implement MemManage, BusFault, UsageFault or DebugMonitor exceptions. Compare Architecture Reference Manuals of v6M and v7M for details.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: ataradov on December 07, 2015, 09:00:36 pm
It is enough to point out ARMv6-M does not implement MemManage, BusFault, UsageFault or DebugMonitor exceptions.
Well, OK, v7m is more advanced architecture on its own, so it obviously has more stuff exposed to the debuggers.

But original point was that this limitation will somehow hinder your ability to debug code, and that's just not the case. Most debuggers will have very limited support for those things anyway.

All the stuff you actually need, like reading/writing the core registers, memory and periphrals, setting breakpoints are still there.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 09:29:02 pm
8 DMA channels is a nice addition, any word on the cost and availability on the EZ-BLE PRoC module?
Also I guess the programmer is a PSoC5LP as used in the 5lp prototype board which I love.

I still think the 5lp prototype kit has more potential but I'll look at the offering because of the Bluetooth support when the module is available. 128K flash is nice as well.

Is there any chance you could post a picture of the bottom of the board so we can check how had it would be to add the EZ-BLE PRoC module?


Thanks, our apps engineers LOVE that we now have DMA on the PSoC 4!

--
One model of the EZ-BLE PRoC is already in production, priced at $6.xx for 1k units and lower as you go higher volumes.
get it here: http://www.cypress.com/part/cyble-022001-00 (http://www.cypress.com/part/cyble-022001-00)

We also have the newer EZ-BLE PSoC modules in sampling now and mass-production soon.
more here: http://www.cypress.com/products/ez-ble-module-bluetooth-smart (http://www.cypress.com/products/ez-ble-module-bluetooth-smart)

--
here's pic of the rear side of the board, you can see the footprint for the EZ-BLE PRoC module on the left side: http://imgur.com/BfNpSS1 (http://imgur.com/BfNpSS1) (sorry for potato quality, just used my phone to snag a pic)
more details here in section 4.2.7 of the kit's userguide: http://www.cypress.com/file/193101/download (http://www.cypress.com/file/193101/download)
the module has UART and I2C lines wired to the PSoC
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: Brutte on December 07, 2015, 09:30:13 pm
All the stuff you actually need,
YMMV
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 09:34:55 pm
Can these boards program Spansion (FM4 and Traveo) devices? cant find any info about they could!?
It would be very nice to have one Kit board to program all Cypress devices, like ST does.
Just installed Creator and Designer looks impressive although complex, designer do not seam to support all devices..

This kit can not program the ex-Spansion chips as yet, but we're working on it! You're absolutely right about having just one low-cost universal programmer for ALL devices that Cypress sells. Stay tuned!

PSoC Creator is the current and future tool, use that for everything.
Don't use PSoC Designer unless you're working on a PSoC 1 chip, that is a legacy tool for our 1st gen PSoCs only.

Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 09:36:22 pm
Come back when you have choices for developing on Linux

we're working on it, soon...!

In the meanwhile, have you tried the "Export to IDE.." feature in PSoC Creator? You can do your initial hardware schematic in PSoC Creator (windows) then export the entire project to Keil uVision/Eclipse etc. and continue firmware development in those tools under Linux platforms.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 09:37:14 pm
Are the PSoC 4's still hugely gimped compared to the PSoC 5LP? Reading through the component documentation, it seems like the PSoC 4 always had a lot of limitations compared to the 3 and 5.

Don't get me wrong, I love the PSoC series! I used to be diehard TI fan, but now, if I need anything more than a simple MCU, the 5LP is my go to chip! In fact, I'm currently in the design stages of a PSoC5 based HMI LCD solution!

I guess my question is: Where do the PSoC 4 fit in, in the design spectrum?

Lower power consumption would be my guess, but I'm still reading the preliminary datasheet for the new PSoC 4 M-Series.

Edit: corrected misspelling (datasheed)

yes of course, much better power consumption on the Cortex-M0 devices (PSoC 4) compared to the 8051 (PSoC 3) and Cortex-M3 (PSoC 5LP)!!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 09:37:55 pm
What a coincidence  :) A few days ago I got the CY8CKIT 043 (mainly for the programmer), as well as two little "bare" PSoC 4 MCUs. You can see the Blink test here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7cUnbXCZg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ7cUnbXCZg) ,
although the video is not very informative - The actual description of the project is in my Hebrew-language blog.

Here's a beginners' question though. This simplest Blink, in either Debug or Release, takes 2KB of flash and 1.4KB SRAM, which is a lot. I guess that's the cost of using the nice visual programming; but personally I'd like to go deeper and do these things manually and economically. The easy-to-access datasheets only discuss the abstractions, not the low level. Where can I find information about the low level stuff, registers etc?

excellent work!
share your project with the community at www.hackster.io/cypress (http://www.hackster.io/cypress)
thanks!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 07, 2015, 09:52:11 pm
KitProg v2 adds CMSIS-DAP too!!
I can't find any info on v2. Is it available yet?

I'm working on a debugging tool and I'm interested in testing with as many debuggers form as many vendors as I can find, but for now I'm only interested in CMSIS-DAP interface.

its available today!
i was wrong about the version number, its actually KitProg v2.14 that added support for CMSIS-DAP.
see details here: http://www.cypress.com/file/141116/download (http://www.cypress.com/file/141116/download) (PSoC Programmer latest Release Notes)

CMSIS-DAP and Drag-n-Drop support in Pioneer Kits
Starting from FW ver 2.14, all PSoC 4 Pioneer kits will support CMSIS-DAP and Drag-n-Drop features.
These kits are CY8CKIT-042/-040/-042-BLE/-044/-046. Presumably, future Pioneer kits will support these
features as well.

CMSIS-DAP is an ARM proprietary FW interface (HID-based), which allows using the kits in third party
IDEs such as MDK-ARM and IAR. So, theoretically you can use the Pioneer kit, even without any
Cypress tool (PSoC Creatoror PSoC Programmer). CMSIS-DAP supports programming and debugging of
the on-board PSoC 4 targets. The minimum version of MDK-ARM supporting Cypress Pioneer kits is

The Drag-n-Drop feature uses a Mass-Storage USB interface for programming of target. In this case,
Windows recognizes KitProg as a Mass Storage device and you can copy the Hex file on it using any File
Manager (for example, File Explorer). If the Hex file does not match the target, then its Flash will be
erased and the STATUS.txt file will indicate the error message (located in the drive’s root folder). If
programming succeeds, then this file will be updated correspondingly and new FW will start.


To switch to CMSIS-DAP and Drag-n-Drop modes, press the Reset button for 5+ seconds; then the
device will exit the KitProg mode and load alternate USB configuration. For returning to the KitProg mode,
repeat this procedure with the Reset button. Note that even if the USB cable (power cycle) is re-plugged,
the Pioneer kit restores its last USB configuration (the current mode is stored in EEPROM).
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: MT on December 07, 2015, 11:51:09 pm
PSoC Creator is the current and future tool, use that for everything.
Don't use PSoC Designer unless you're working on a PSoC 1 chip, that is a legacy tool for our 1st gen PSoCs only.
OK, thanks for info!
Quote
This kit can not program the ex-Spansion chips as yet, but we're working on it! You're absolutely right
about having just one low-cost universal programmer for ALL devices that Cypress sells. Stay tuned!
This would be a blast since some distributors seams to sell Spansion (e.g MB9BF566) at a lot lower cost then similar ST!
Title: Re: PSoC5LP prototype board and VGA module project
Post by: miguelvp on December 10, 2015, 02:17:42 am
Regarding the VGA project for the 5LP, I haven't forgotten.

I'm planning to make a tutorial from beginning to end and post on another thread with the full code. I would link that thread in here and on the CGA thread. The project I had is mostly all CGA TTL level only and I added ADC modules so I don't want to undo that one.

But just a basic tutorial that might even work with this new prototype board other than the memory limitation and no Eeprom for the fonts. I'll probably do it this weekend if my wife is at work so I can do it uninterrupted.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: MT on December 10, 2015, 08:41:51 pm
How do your wife ISR look like? :)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 10, 2015, 09:19:50 pm
How do your wife ISR look like? :)

Pretty much the wife ISR is the highest priority and I will soft lock and starve any other tasks until I'm done handling that interrupt request.

I used to just set a flag on the handler so I could use decent time slices for the task but that cause segmentation faults requiring to do the full task when the wife ISR is raised and don't let any other task progress regardless on how many cores are available.

Other than that she works on Sunday so I can pull the pin high to avoid that interrupt to be triggered since it uses negative logic ;)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: alexanderbrevig on December 11, 2015, 10:54:39 am
 :-DD
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: igendel on December 11, 2015, 01:45:28 pm
What a coincidence  :) A few days ago I got the CY8CKIT 043 (mainly for the programmer), as well as two little "bare" PSoC 4 MCUs. You can see the Blink test here [...]

excellent work!
share your project with the community at www.hackster.io/cypress (http://www.hackster.io/cypress)
thanks!

I doubt a standard Blink is such a worthy project  ;) But I am going to study these PSoCs further, and I'll upload more interesting projects when I have them.

P.S. It's always nice to see company representatives genuinely involved in forums. Well done Cypress!
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 11, 2015, 09:42:36 pm
Cypress, you are holding out kits from us:

You should have also mentioned this kit:

http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-044-psoc-4-m-series-pioneer-kit (http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-044-psoc-4-m-series-pioneer-kit)

Quote
The kit features a set of on-board sensors, including an Ambient Light Sensor, a 3-Axis Accelerometer and a Temperature Sensor. The kit also has an on-board RGB LED, a user-button and a 1-Mbit Cypress F-RAM device.
Additionally, the kit has headers compatible with Raspberry Pi, Arduino Uno and Digilent Pmod hobbyist ecosystems enabling you to use a variety of 3rd party modules.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: CypressPSoC on December 11, 2015, 10:38:55 pm
Cypress, you are holding out kits from us:

You should have also mentioned this kit:

http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-044-psoc-4-m-series-pioneer-kit (http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-044-psoc-4-m-series-pioneer-kit)

Quote
The kit features a set of on-board sensors, including an Ambient Light Sensor, a 3-Axis Accelerometer and a Temperature Sensor. The kit also has an on-board RGB LED, a user-button and a 1-Mbit Cypress F-RAM device.
Additionally, the kit has headers compatible with Raspberry Pi, Arduino Uno and Digilent Pmod hobbyist ecosystems enabling you to use a variety of 3rd party modules.

Oops! not the intention at all. The $25 PSoC 4 M Pioneer Kit is in fact one of my favorites with all of the onboard sensors, almost deserves its own post!
Here's a fun project that lets you use a RaspberryPi with this Pioneer Kit serving as a pretty neat sensor hub: https://www.hackster.io/gaganluthra/psoc-4m-rasberrypi-sensor-hub-52470e?ref=platform&ref_id=831_trending___&offset=3 (https://www.hackster.io/gaganluthra/psoc-4m-rasberrypi-sensor-hub-52470e?ref=platform&ref_id=831_trending___&offset=3)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: neslekkim on December 11, 2015, 11:08:36 pm
Cypress, you are holding out kits from us:

You should have also mentioned this kit:

http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-044-psoc-4-m-series-pioneer-kit (http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-044-psoc-4-m-series-pioneer-kit)

I bought that one back in April, or have they revised it?

The new webpages are not good though, with the old web, one could read one simple page to see new products and revisions, now it's a duck hunt..
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 11, 2015, 11:29:37 pm
Not related to the PSoC 4 M, but for the Arduino fans out there Sparkfun is offering a PSoC 5LP kits called the FreeSoC2 with Arduino support:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13229 (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13229)

The Creator 3.3 Arduino project is here:

https://github.com/sparkfun/PSoC_Arduino_Support (https://github.com/sparkfun/PSoC_Arduino_Support)

And it should be pretty easy to run that on the $10 5LP prototyping board sold by Cypress:
http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-059-psoc-5lp-prototyping-kit-onboard-programmer-and (http://www.cypress.com/documentation/development-kitsboards/cy8ckit-059-psoc-5lp-prototyping-kit-onboard-programmer-and)

I don't do Arduino much so I haven't had the need to try that.

@neslekkim I do agree that trying to find a kit from their almost 400 offered is a pain in the rear.
They do however have this:
http://www.cypress.com/new-development-kits (http://www.cypress.com/new-development-kits)

And this:
http://www.cypress.com/cypress-store (http://www.cypress.com/cypress-store)

However the rest of the store only shows links, unless you go to a specific family, for example PSoC 4 and on the bottom you choose  the kits tab.

But the store can use some organization and polishing.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: neslekkim on December 12, 2015, 11:06:21 am
cool, I think your first link is similar to the page that was gone, where one could see the new stuff, except that it now have only an selection, not the old long list.
The old list suited my impulse better.. so it's better withouth it, so I don't end up with too many projects again ;)

Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 14, 2015, 02:13:43 am
How do your wife ISR look like? :)

Pretty much the wife ISR is the highest priority and I will soft lock and starve any other tasks until I'm done handling that interrupt request.

I used to just set a flag on the handler so I could use decent time slices for the task but that cause segmentation faults requiring to do the full task when the wife ISR is raised and don't let any other task progress regardless on how many cores are available.

Other than that she works on Sunday so I can pull the pin high to avoid that interrupt to be triggered since it uses negative logic ;)

Been working on it but did hit a problem.

Just doing the PWM for now for the HSync and VSync it looks like something broke on the newer PWM modules V3.30 and I was getting this for HSync (Yellow trace) and VSync (Blue trace).
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/grab-a-psoc-4-m-series-proto-kit-for-$10/?action=dlattach;attach=187171;image)

Nothing seemed to work right and after a lot of head scratching I went to an older version of the PWM module V3.0 and now I'm getting more or less what I was expecting. (not changing a thing other than the version of the module)
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/grab-a-psoc-4-m-series-proto-kit-for-$10/?action=dlattach;attach=187169;image)

Note the 10.0V, that's because I forgot to change the channels to 1X and I'm using a VGA to BNC cable to capture the signals, like this picture:
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/grab-a-psoc-4-m-series-proto-kit-for-$10/?action=dlattach;attach=187181;image)
White cable is HSync, Black is VSync. Connecting with a T connector and 75 Ohm terminators as required by VGA (and video in general).
Edit, HSync and VSync are TTL levels, so I guess I didn't need to terminate them. RGB signals on the other hand do need to be 75 Ohm terminated.

But I won't start the thread until I have a good summary and 1st part with an explanation on how it will progress. I'm working on the write up now and will do a post with reserved post to expand each step.

Also I will open a support ticket with Cypress with the first example to see what has changed from V3.0 to V3.10 and on (Tried 3.30, 3.20, 3.10 and they all where misbehaving for this use and downgrading all the way to V3.0 fixes the problem).
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: cypress.pmad on December 14, 2015, 05:16:03 am
Does debugger chip use a CMSIS-DAP protocol, or something proprietary?
By default, the kit comes with a proprietary protocol. CMSIS-DAP support has been released with the latest version of PSoC Programmer. With the latest version of the PSoC Programmer software, you can update the KitProg firmware to add support for CMSIS-DAP and Drag-n-Drop programming.

-Pushek
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: cypress.pmad on December 14, 2015, 05:25:15 am
Can these boards program Spansion (FM4 and Traveo) devices? cant find any info about they could!?
It would be very nice to have one Kit board to program all Cypress devices, like ST does.
Just installed Creator and Designer looks impressive although complex, designer do not seam to support all devices..
At the moment, no this cannot program Spansion device. We are adding support for Spansion device and the updated version should be available sometime next quarter.

Thanks,
Pushek
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: poorchava on December 14, 2015, 07:08:49 am
How to get it in EU? When i click something like 'estimate shipping costs' it redirects me to a meaningless page listing distributors (non of which have the kit or are known to be willing to sell anything to a private person for that matter). Is this another US-only offer?
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: Neganur on December 14, 2015, 11:57:27 am
No it's not US only. I paid $25 for shipping & handling (FedEx) to Finland. Mind, VAT comes on top of it too.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: neslekkim on December 14, 2015, 04:54:56 pm
No it's not US only. I paid $25 for shipping & handling (FedEx) to Finland. Mind, VAT comes on top of it too.

And since Cypress newer declare the cost of shipping, FedEx in Norway are guessing on shippingcost, so you end up paying VAT on guestimated shippincosts around $100-150 :(
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: poorchava on December 15, 2015, 06:29:00 am
Ok, screw that devkit. I guess I'll wait until they have it in Farnell (who btw is listed on Cypress website and don't carry any stock of that devkit)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: neslekkim on December 15, 2015, 03:55:20 pm
Ok, screw that devkit. I guess I'll wait until they have it in Farnell (who btw is listed on Cypress website and don't carry any stock of that devkit)

It's too new, takes some time, but eventually they get there, and prices seems to be fair also, have bought some from them instead of joking with Fedex.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 15, 2015, 04:21:00 pm
Find chips shows availability at other places, not a lot of stock yet and not sure about cost to Europe from those.

PSoC 4 M-Series Prototype board.
http://www.findchips.com/search/cy8ckit-043 (http://www.findchips.com/search/cy8ckit-043)

PSoC 4 M-Series Pioneer kit.
http://www.findchips.com/search/cy8ckit-044 (http://www.findchips.com/search/cy8ckit-044)
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: gmb42 on December 15, 2015, 05:49:42 pm
Octapart also show availability elsewhere:

CY8CKIT-043 (https://octopart.com/search?q=cy8ckit-043)
CY8CKIT-044 (https://octopart.com/search?q=cy8ckit-044)

Digi-Key have UK stock, but their free delivery minimum charge is £50, OK I suppose if you're combining with another order.  On it's own they want an eye-watering £12 to deliver it.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: neslekkim on December 15, 2015, 11:08:23 pm
Digikey/Mouser have been $30 for shipping, not checked the last year though.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: poorchava on December 16, 2015, 09:12:32 pm
This is the first time I hear that DK has any stock outside of the US. I'll probably be placing a bigger order in near future, so I might try with DK.

OT:
That is: if the idiots who won presidential and parliment elections here a month ago don't turn my country into another North Korea by that time and USD exchange rate won't change from 4.0 to 8.0 :/.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 18, 2015, 08:24:26 am
Some progress on the PSoC 5LP video controller, might even work with the 4-M series.

I did switch to program the UDBs directly instead of wasting resources.

Also with this approach I can make a component that you just can plug in the frequency and inputs for what mode you want to do.
Title: Re: Grab a PSoC 4 M-Series Proto Kit for $10
Post by: miguelvp on December 20, 2015, 03:07:46 am
Some progress on the PSoC 5LP video controller, might even work with the 4-M series.

I did switch to program the UDBs directly instead of wasting resources.

Also with this approach I can make a component that you just can plug in the frequency and inputs for what mode you want to do.

So I changed my mind and decided to go with Verilog instead:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/no-bitbanging-necessary-or-how-to-drive-a-vga-monitor-on-a-psoc-5lp-programmabl/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/no-bitbanging-necessary-or-how-to-drive-a-vga-monitor-on-a-psoc-5lp-programmabl/)

Not sure if the PSoC 4 M Series would have the needed resources as in UDB elements. But if not, I might be able to optimize the implementation to target the UDB data paths directly instead of letting Creator do it for me.