PGA460: Interface

Robert Charbine

Part Number: PGA460

Hi There,

PGA460 has 4 interfaces – TWI, single line UART, asynchronous TXD/RXD UART and synchronous USART. I want to use the asynchronous UART

Does the async UART allow read and write all registers and implement all functionality so don’t to use any of the other interfaces?
The customer is short on serial ports on the MCU. He is going to connect both of these chips on the buggy side to a single async UART on the MCU, and switch the UART between each PGA460. It seems the PGA460 will only return data to the MCU when the MCU requests it ie it doesn’t constantly stream data back like a modem chip or something like that. For this reason, the customer believe this will work as the aerial port on the MCU does not need to listen for data constantly.

Looking forward for your reply.

over 2 years ago

+1 Isaac Lara over 2 years ago

TI__Mastermind 23045 points

Hello Robert,

Thanks for posting to the sensors forum!

1. Async UART does allow you to read and write all registers and implement all the device functionality, the other interfaces are simply other options for different applications but they all contain the same level of functionality.

2. That is correct the device is not continuously feeding information, the user has to command a measurement be taken the read back the data after the measurement period has elapsed. The PGA460 does allow you to connect 8 devices to the same bus since you can program different addresses to each device. Although there have been instances where if the data returned from the device looks like the start of a communication packet it can render the other devices on the same bus unresponsive. So if they have a way to switch the UART between each device then this would be ideal.

Here is a thread that talks about this issue on the shared bus and provides a workaround but for these instances but if the customer has a way to not share the same bus between devices that would be my recommendation: https://e2e.ti.com/support/sensors-group/sensors/f/sensors-forum/1000369/pga460-q1-i-o-communication-issue-with-5-sensors?tisearch=e2e-sitesearch&keymatch=PGA460%252525252525252520AND%2525252525252525200x55#

I hope this helps!

Best,

Isaac

0 Robert Charbine over 2 years ago in reply to Isaac Lara

Prodigy 170 points

Thanks for your support. That fixed the issue. You can close the case.

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PGA460: Interface