FDC2214EVM: Work with FDC2212

Hello, 

If you are developing a custom board, then we generally recommend also using your own MCU. If you want to try to use a custom board with the same MCU and GUI solution as the EVM, there are a few concerns to consider: 

• The custom board will need to have the same connection as J3 to ensure there aren't any errors when the MCU board tries to talk to the FDC device. 
• The MCU board has firmware available for the FDC2114 and FDC2214. Given this, the FDC2212 may still connect to the GUI but will throw errors when it tries to get data from the non-existing channels. 
• You mention 12 bit version, so if you are using the FDC2112, then you will want to make sure the MCU board is flashed with the FDC2114 firmware for best results. Similarly, the FDC2214 firmware would be the best option for the FDC2212. This is because the FDC2212 and FDC2214 share the same device ID: 
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• We don't have any guarantee on a custom board working with the MCU board that we provide and can only provide best recommendations for it to work.

Is there a reason you want to do a custom board rather than testing with only 2 channels of the FDC2214EVM? They are functionally similar besides the channel difference. 

Best Regards, 

Justin Beigel

Hello Justin,

We want to make a sensor board that we can connect to the EVM and our own microcontroller solution, we are a bit low on software resources at the moment so the EVM + GUI is a good option for evaluation.

We want to use our own sensor board because of some constraints, size, connectors,  and I need to add a driven shield as well.

Only reason for using the FDC2212 was that in the end we only will need 1 channel, and maybe one channel for temperature compensation. 

But If you recommend to use the 4-channel options to connect to the EVM then we will first use the FDC2214/FDC2114 on our boards.  

Hello, 

The FDC2214EVM could be used to prototype if you wanted to avoid building a custom board. However, if you need active shielding, have you considered the FDC1004? It has built in active shielding for reduced measurement noise. 

Best Regards, 
Justin Beigel

Hello,

We have considered the FDC1004 (we use it in other applications) but in this application we have a large part of the sensor unshielded. 

And it needs to work at higher radiated immunity fields. 

The "current injection" at higher EMI fields will give a change in capacitance with the FDC1004. 

I want to test if the FDC2214 works better in this sitaution. 

Best regards,

Thomas