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EVM430-FR6047: Adapting reference design to our product needs

Kenneth Scharf1
Prodigy 60 points
Part Number: EVM430-FR6047
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MSP430FR6047, MSP430FR6043, TIDA-01526, TMP116, TIDA-010002, MSP430F5528, TIDA-01002

We are looking at using the MSP430FR6047 or MPS430FR6043 ultrasonic controllers for a water/gas flow meter-heat meter for a water security system.

I am a software engineer working on this project, and my expertise is mostly in the low level interfacing area, and not in the higher level math and algorythms of measurement instruments.  With that in mind, we want to use as much of the hardware and software of the reference design presented in the EVM to build our solution.  The EVM board has three hardware function blocks that should not be required to use the MPS430FR6047 (or '43) in the function of a flow meter, IE: the FET-JTAG, USB hub, and HID hub.  I assume that these are solely for the purpose of debugging, and communication with the USS PC app for parameter adjustment.

Hardware wise, we would likely keep the LCD and button interface if a stand alone flow meter function independent of our target water security system was desired.  Otherwise, the readings from the flow meter would only be seen on the end user app, or only used for failure monitoring.  We would need to adapt the software to communicate flow readings to our security system, using one of the usual inter-processor interfaces (uart, spi, or i2c are all acceptable). 

I do have some questions on the EVM and the reference demo app, and will probably have more once I understand this system better.

The flow sensor pipe I've got connected to the board has two transducers (plugged into J8).  It has a plugged up port intended for a single temperature sensor (which I suppose could contain two actual elements).  I don't see any place on the EVM board to connect such a sensor (on an optional booster pack board maybe?).  Does the  MPS430FR6047EVM_USS_Water_Demo support the temperature sensor?  Is the sensor necessary for flow meter accuracy?  I know that it's possible to measure temperature from flow rate as the two interact at some level (but you can't solve for both unknowns at the same time?).

I've already seen an answer to the question of using the '6043 for water flow measurements.  The EVM board for that part has extra analog circuitry to support the gas measurements that need to be bypassed to run the water flow software, so in theory we could design a board to make both measurements, but might be able to only do one or the other depending on the hw configuration and software loaded.

Our desire is to be able to adapt the reference design for our needs without having to solve design problems with the actual ultrasonic measurements.  IE: Is the reference design hw and sw close enough to use after getting the configuration parameters fine tuned (using the USS application) for our selected transducers /piping?  We accept that we might have to convert between measurement systems or data presentations (such as flow rate vs flow volume, or liters vs gallons), and to modify UI and communications.

Thanks for any guidance. 

  • 0
    TI__Mastermind 34145 points

    Hi Kenneth,

    1. About the EVM, you can keep the FR6047/3 part as the flow meter. You do not need other parts on the EVM to build your meter. But it is better to reserve COMM_SDA, COMM_SCL and COMM_IRQ. These three pins are used to communicate with the GUI. And the using the GUI is much easier for us to help you analyze the measurement issue you might meet in the feature. 

    2. FR6047/3 both have LCD function, you can decide whether or not to use it.

    3. Some of the water meter has one temperature sensor on it. We do not have temperature port on our demo.It depends on the transducer's sensitivity to temperature. Usually for a low sensitivity transducer, we do not need a temperature sensor. Otherwise, we will use the temperature information for flow rate calibration.

    4. Your application is water meter, right? You can use the FR6043 for water meter application. About the hardware, you can just follow the exact same design on FR6047.

    5. The HW is fine, you do not need to change it. For SW, you may need to add your own applications code. For more requirements, you need to do some test on the flow rate calibration, We hope that we can provide our customer a perfect product, however, you still might see some flow measurement issues during your evaluation. But we always happy to help you solve these issues.

     Best regards,

    Cash Hao

  • 0 in reply to Cash Hao11
    Prodigy 60 points

    It seems that the COMM_SDA, COMM_SCL, and COMM_IRQ lines connect to the MSP430FR5528 communications HID Bridge controller.  I was thinking that we wouldn't need this part in our product, that the MSP430FR6047 (or MSP430FR6043) could talk directly to our system via one of the serial interfaces.  Also, I don't recall if the reference design application code included the source for the MSP430FR5528 part, although I would expect that this and the ezFET-JTAG processor are 'canned' applications.  Actually, I don't know what the function of the HID Bridge is, perhaps to multiplex several virtual comm channels into different USB end points?

    I was thinking we'd develop the measurement app on the EVM board, and once we had the parameters correct would transfer the working code to our 'stripped down' circuit on the actual product that would not have the HID Bridge (but could include the LCD / user interface buttons).  We would have a means to update parameters in the serial interface protocol between the flow meter and the system, IE: it would be two way operating in 'metering mode' and 'command mode'.

    Are there any documents that describe the function of the HID Bridge (I see it is used in several EVM designs)?

  • 0 in reply to Cash Hao11
    Prodigy 60 points

    And another thing:  I'm not at all sure about the heat sensor part of the design, or how to know if our sensors require this.

    How can we interface a heat sensor to the EVM board (and therefore to our ultimate product hw)?  Booster pack (which one)?  Or directly to processor pins?

    Questions asked by my supervisor, Can you comment?
    "So the MSP430FR6047 should work with the TIDA-01526 to measure the delta T.?I am not sure if the temperature sensors PT100. PT500 or PT 1000 are to place on the pipe or in contact with water. We should understand the differences among those temperature sensors.

    The TMP116 seems to be the TI device to enable to heat meter to M-Bus. This is also approved from the NIST, which is good, because already comply with the third party calibration company we should use.
    Few questions and comments:
    -          We need to clarify if is feasible to use the TIDA-010002.
    -          Does the TIDA-010002 needs the TIDA-01526  to operate?
    -          Seems that they did calibrate the temperature sensor with a Fluke calibration Baths that should be very expensive."

    The document tiduea0.pdf shows the TMP116 connected to the EVM board booster pack pins via the comm_scl and comm_sda pins, but these are already in use for the HID bridge (although the software can be rebuilt to use the comm_usart pins).  Is this a problem, does the reference app support this?  The I2C interface would have to be switched between master and slave?  Do you have the software for this application?

     

  • 0 in reply to Kenneth Scharf1
    TI__Mastermind 34145 points

    Hi Kenneth,

    Yes, you do not need the MSP430F5528 part in your board. However, you can leave these ports there on your board and while you debugging with your board you can connect your board to the EVM board through those pins. So you can use the GUI to debug. 

    Best regards,

    Cash Hao

  • 0 in reply to Kenneth Scharf1
    TI__Mastermind 34145 points

    You can interface a temperature sensor directly through the pins or the booster pack TIDA-01526. 

    Usually, TIDA-01002 do not need to add an external temperature sensor. What's your application requirement for operating temperature? From 5 deg C to 55 deg C? What's pipe size you are using (DN25?)?  You will need an external temperature only if the variation of the temperature has a great influence on your transducer performance. If your transducers is robust across temperature, you can use the abs TOF to estimate the water temperature. So you do not have to worry about the temperature sensor at this stage. 

    Best regards,

    Cash Hao 

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