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Post by relayer on Apr 10, 2008 12:16:27 GMT -5
Last year, I got in on the giveaway Cypress had on the PSoC Express kit. It's been sitting on my workbench until recently (honestly, I thought it was a gimmick at the time) when I needed a rapid developing uC system to create a demonstration for my son's science project.
I was going to use PIC stuff to drive a Hitachi based LCD display when I saw the Cypress stuff sitting there and started exploring. The mini board it came with, prewired for an LCD display, is perfect. I understand the PSoC concept now and find it quite versatile, even though their component parts are pricier than the competition.
Here I am now, PSoC Designer installed without a functioning C compiler for it. Sure, I could use Assembler, but time constraints forbid me to get up to speed on general Assembler programming practices. I need to do quick math and bin->dec conversions, outputting the results straight to the display.
The price for the Cypress compiler license is way out of my budget. I understand there is a free "lite" C compiler alternative. Has anybody found it and got it to work?
Thanks, Jeff
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Post by jsaily on Apr 11, 2008 23:45:56 GMT -5
Hi, I also got the promotion kit last year and started to test it out a couple of weeks ago. I found out that the latest PSoC Express software from Cypress does indeed allow you to code in C. I don't remember the limitations, but you can at least modify the generated driver code to suit your needs.
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Post by relayer on Apr 12, 2008 10:37:01 GMT -5
I finally got something working on it. I found and downloaded the Hi-Tech C Lite compiler. There's some restrictions to it. None that I discovered yet, or at least discovered the limitations of. It compiled projects I made with PSoC Express. I don't remember where I downloaded it from, I just searched for it on the Cypress website, followed links to the Hi-Tech vendor's website, and searched for it there. I did find a PIC version of the Hi-Tech Lite compiler at first. It confused me for a moment, but then I finally found the one for the Cypress tools. I don't have the direct link, sorry. If I do find the link, I'll post it.
Anyhow. I did get something working. Just a proof of concept for me. I did have to change the project properties from the default C compiler to the Hi-Tech one, but it did work. My project was simple. The Express evaluation board had a potentiometer on board, so with the PSoC express software running, I added a "pot" user module from the Input list to my project. I had a 4 digit common anode LED display in my parts kit. I figured out the pinouts and then added the 4 digit LED display user module from the Output list to my project.
I used the Transfer function to take the value from the pot, Input_1 (a 0 to 100 value) and send it to the LED module, Output_1. I ran the simulation to see if the transfer connection worked. It did. Then I hit F6 to build the project and create the HEX file.
I wired my board as described by the compiled project schematic, loaded up the programmer software and programmed the new HEX file onto the PSoC. I plugged in a battery on the board and the project worked!!!
I turn the potentiometer and I get a value on the display showing the percentage of turn in 1/10 resolution. I'm happy now. Time to do some real work with it. I did figure out where in PSoC Express you can modify the auto-generated C or ASM code and tweak it for your needs. It's in the Application pane.
Because of the complex collection of analog components on a PSoC chip that can be configured as needed, these chips appear to be like a Snap Kits kit "on a chip". With the I2C interface ability, many of these can talk to each other for increased usefulness.
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Post by gmoon on Apr 21, 2008 12:48:43 GMT -5
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