PSOC 4200 (not DS, Not BLE)
The PSOC 4200 part, especially the CY8C4245 part, is *barely* a PSOC. It has 4 UDB’s in it, which will allow you to put in a 16 bit PWM and a Pulse Stretcher. This will cost 1/2 of the available UDB’s. It is still more than other vendor’s processors...
Simplicity Studio – Second Look & Open Source Rescue ? (Maybe)
After my experience with the Busy Bee developer board, I decided to create a project with their Arm based EFM32GG12 part. One word: Disaster. Their configurator does not work for the EFM32GG part, except for one or two random components. Forget any analog ADC, DAC, or other part. No...
Silicon Labs EMF8BB5x / Simplicity Studio
In the last post, I covered the Blinky project for the EMF8BB51 board. I currently believe that is a dead end project if you wish to use any of the tools that Simplicity Studio provides. However, it gets your feet wet. If you want to use any of the...
Silicon Labs EMF8BB5x and Simplicity
I purchased a “Busy Bee” EMF8BB51xxx processor test board (for around $15) (BRD2700A, Rev A01). That board has an EMF32GG12 on it, which is programmed with the Segger J-Link firmware, as well as a 20 pin QFN package 8051 Busy Bee processor. The EMF32 processor handles USB as well...
Ugh Post. Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, Atmel, and Infineon
You will see “ugh” sprinkled throughout this post. It expresses dissatisfaction with the state or direction of offerings from companies. Hopefully, some clear thinking individuals with foresight can address and fix these ughs in the future. I will not hold my breath, and at my age, I may stop...
dsPIC and PIC, Configurable Logic Cells
The Microchip family continues to surprise me. Their prices are excellent, they are in stock, and I have known of their use in our extreme temperature environments for a while. In addition to OpAmps, Comparators, A/D Units, DACS, they also have versions with USB controllers and Configurable Logic Cell...
PSOC5, PSOC3, and a Pic, dsPic Surprise
The Cypress branch of Infineon does not trumpet an interesting fact. A PSOC5LP package and a PSOC3 package are interchangeable. So, if you have a PSOC3, you can drop a PSOC5LP in its place and rewrite the code. Or, Vice Versa. The main problem you will have going back...
PSOC And Logic Analyzers
Sometimes the code you put into the PSOC does not work. And you can’t figure out why. Single stepping it with a debugger looks good. But it does not work. This problem has been around for a very long time. Many times we can cause the suspect code to...
Chip Shortages, Part Rescues, And The Green Tinkerer
The tinkerer is the hobbyiest (not a mythical character from the LOTR, woke though it has been morphed). We are talking about the person who loves to tinker and build new things with electronics. Recycling is the green way to go, after all. In addition, you can’t buy new...
World Wide Chip Shortage Means End Of Future Designs from Hobby Users?
The world wide greed for short term profits is eviscerating future designs. All manufacturing is geared towards the multi-million dollar customers. No capacity is left over for the million dollar customers. I counted over 50,000 PSOC5LP orders of various kinds for Mouser. That has a retail value of 1...