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PGA450Q1EVM-S and Tiger Board

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: PGA450Q1EVM, PGA450-Q1, CD74HC4067

Hi, Today our PGA450Q1EVM-S eval arrived as well as several PGA450Q in order to develop our parking and blind-spot detection board.  How can we can get our hands on a Tiger board ?

Jan Dekkers

  • Hello Jan,

    You only need the TI-GER board if you intend to utilize the PGA450Q1EVM GUI. As noted in the Description of the EVM-S, The TI-GER board is exclusively bundled with the full scale PGA450Q1EVM (www.ti.com/.../pga450q1evm) and cannot be sold separately.

    You can use any 5V logic level enabled MCU to communicate with the PGA450Q1EVM-S board by sending the predefined commands listed in the EVM-S User's Guide. We typically recommended that you start evaluation using the full scale EVM before moving to the EVM-S, especially if ultrasonic is new to the user.

    What is it you are trying to achieve by using the TI-GER board? If you don't mind sharing which MCU you are using, I can provide guidance as to how to enable your MCU with the EVM-S. If you are using a 3.3V logic level MCU, you will need to use a logic level translator.
  • Hi Akeem, I didn't read the datasheets in full detail yet hence the question about the TI GER so that we can evaluate this faster. I did buy the EVM-S because of its 1/4 price compared to the EVM, did I make a mistake?  I am using a PIC32MX which some pins are 5v tolerant. While I got your attention here some questions:

    Are the PGA450Q1 pre-programmed or do the need programming after soldered to the board?

    Can the PGA450Q1 be programmed by UART from the PIC32 without modifying the TI code too much?

    Is the UART code to interface with them generic so it can be used without too much fiddling on other MCUs?

    One of the PGA450Q1 negatives is that SPI is limited and when we need to control a max of 12 Ultrasonic Transducers we most likely need to use LIN to communicate with 12 PGA450Q1's or somehow 1 PGA450Q1 switching to 12 different Ultrasonic Transducers (the latter being cheaper). Any advice you can give me here?

     

  • Jan,

    No mistakes were made on your part. The PGA450Q1EVM-S is intended to serve multiple purposes:
    1) To quickly integrate an ultrasonic sensor module to your system, with the understanding that the ability to modify the PGA450-Q1's ESFRs and threshold profile will be limited to the eight pre-defined commands burned to the OTP memory. The majority of the feature extensions made available on the GUI can be performed using the pre-defined commands. A custom UART based GUI can even be created. (See "UART Command Listing" of EVM-S User's Guide for pre-defined command details.)
    2) Phase II of the PGA450-Q1 evaluation process, whereby the user starts with the full scale EVM, then moves to the EVM-S for system level integration and custom firmware development/programming.

    The PGA450-Q1 IC that you purchased separately from the EVM-S is pristine, and not programmed to either DEVRAM or OTP. Note, once a memory space is selected and programmed to for the first time, you can not change to the other memory space. For example, the PGA450-Q1 on the EVM-S is programmed to OTP, and cannot be reprogrammed to DEVRAM.

    To program the PGA450-Q1's internal 8051, SPI must be used. Either the TI-GER board can be used for small scale developmental programming, or a mass production tool can be purchased from our industry partner Y&Y. I can provide you their contact information if interested. UART is strictly reserved for communication, not programming.

    The UART interface is generic enough to be used at 19.2kBaud. Refer to "UART Command Listing" for example hex string commands you must send from the master MCU.

    If you will be incorporating 12 sensors in your system, UART or LIN will be easier to implement in software since the address can be referenced in EEPROM. It is possible to use SPI, but it will likely require handshaking and chip select coordination between the master MCU and the PGA450-Q1's 8051 (more software overhead). We are still investigating the feasibility of switching between multiple transducers while using only one PGA450-Q1 device. In the meantime, you can view the "Automatic Slave Node Position Detection (SNPD) for PGA450-Q1" App Note for guidelines on how to implement a multi-PGA450 based system in software.
  • Akeem,

    Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful reply. In respect to the SPI programming, I assume the code TI provides for programming can be easily ported over to a PIC32 or other MCU's "I don't have a TI GER board at my disposal", is that a correct statement?

    For switching the transducers  I'm looking into a MUX solution such as TI's CD74HC4067 which will be controlled by the PIC32.  Is the CD74HC4067 a good solution or do you have a better solution?

  • Hi Jan,

    The code TI provides is not for external MCUs. The code is for the PGA450-Q1's internal 8051 MCU, and the examples available are for UART and LIN specifically. The SPI source code for the TIGER board is not available, and is not intended to be since it is an evaluation tool, rather than an example. The PGA450-Q1 datasheet does provide communication guidelines on how to use SPI. Most customer find the datasheet's "Table 15. SPI Protocol Transfer Widths" to be of most help.

    For your MUX solution using the CD74HC4067, could you provide more detail on where this device would be implemented in the schematic? If you have a schematic you'd like to share, let me know, and we can discuss further on a private channel. Keep in mind that you want to maintain a very low R_DS_(On) resistance in your Mux solution. Resistive losses are a major factor to consider when Muxing ultrasonic channels.
  • Hi Akeem, I will be ordering the full scale PGA450Q1EVM (www.ti.com/.../pga450q1evm) so we can better evaluate and make measurements to determine the best MUX to use. I don't have schematics handy at this time but as soon we are putting things on the drawing board I will share them.  Any chance you know the acceptable R_DS (On) resistance and min and max voltages requirements to select a MUX?