TMP117EVM: need programming guide to create Windows C# app to read temperatures from the EVM

Hi Doug,

The Code Generator code is not intended to be used with the TMP117EVM. It is intended to help customers get started with their firmware development. The TMP117EVM GUI Code Generator has been superseded by ASCStudio. https://dev.ti.com/sysconfig/index.html?product=ascstudio&module=/ti/sensors/tempsensor/TMP117

TI does not support the use of TMP117EVM with other software. The purpose of the TMP117EVM is to evaluate the TMP117 device using the GUI Composer software provided.

thanks,

ren

Hi Doug,

The Aardvark from Total Phase has the best driver library that I've personally seen for USB-to-I2C hardware. It's possible that it is dated now. National Instruments sells hardware that we use in our labs, but it's not likely to be of interest to you. Since I2C is a bus that is used internally to a product or PCB, accessed by an embedded MCU, there aren't a lot of products in the market to interface I2C with Windows. The software, like our ASCStudio, is geared towards embedded applications. 

There are a lot of Arduino-like products sold and lots of Arduino-like software projects available freely on the internet. These projects require that you prepare some firmware to perform the I2C transactions and pass the result upstream through a USB COM port. You can view the COM port with a terminal application, and send characters over the link interactively. Most programming languages are capable of accessing the COM port. This is the most straight-forward way of accomplishing your goal. As I alluded to previously, it is possible to write firmware that does this on the EVM hardware you have. The MSP430 would not be as user-friendly as Arduino and you would need to have a LaunchPad to connect to the EVM for flashing. 

There are also single board computers like Beagle Bone and Raspberry Pi which run the Linux operating system while offering I2C. It would be possible to access linux utilities for I2C on a board like this. A typical desktop computer or laptop has I2C inside it that is not accessible, so running Linux there would not help you connect your TMP117. This would get you a low-cost desktop experience with I2C, just not in Windows.

This is all the Arduino (or Energia) code needed to do what I'm describing:

#include <Wire.h>

void setup() {
  Wire.begin();
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("My TMP117 USB Demo");
}

void loop() {
  Wire.beginTransmission(0x48);
  Wire.write(0); // write pointer 0 to TMP117
  Wire.endTransmission();
  Wire.requestFrom(0x48, 2);
  long bytes = Wire.read() << 8;
  bytes |= Wire.read();
  float celsius = bytes * 0.0078125;
  Serial.println(celsius);
  delay(1000);
}

The output produced on the COM port looks like this on a terminal:

My TMP117 USB Demo
24.02
24.02
24.02
24.02
24.02
24.03
24.03

thanks,

ren