The MAX7219 LED display controller – real or fake?

Introduction

If you’re experimenting with various Arduino or other projects and working with LED matrices or lots of LEDs – you may have come across the Maxim MAX7219 “Serially Interfaced, 8-Digit, LED Display Driver” IC. It’s a great part that can drive an 8 x 8 LED matrix or eight digits of seven-segment LED displays very easily. However over the last few years the price has shot up considerably. Supply and demand doing their thing – and for a while there was also the Austria Microsystems AS1107 drop-in replacement, which could be had for a few dollars less. But no more.

So where does the budget-minded person go from here? Charlieplexing? Lots of shift registers? Or dig a little deeper to find some cheaper units. With a MAX7219 heading north of US$10 in single units, they may turn to ebay or other grey-market suppliers in the Far East. Everyone likes to save money – and who can blame them? However with the proliferation of counterfeiting, “third shift” operations and other shifty practices – is buying those cheaper examples worth it?

A few people have been asking me of late, and there’s only one way to find out … so over the last month I ordered eight random “MAX7219s” from different suppliers on ebay and will compare them to the real thing using somewhat unscientific methods, then see how they work. The funny thing was that after five weeks only six of the eight arrived – so there’s risk number one: if it doesn’t come from a reputable supplier, it might not come at all. Funny stuff. Anyhow, let’s get started by looking at the differences between the real MAX7219 and the others.

Pricing differences

The easiest hint is the price. The non-originals are always cheaper. And if you wonder how much the real ones are in bulk, the quickest indicator is to check the Maxim website and that of a few larger distributors  For example the Maxim “sticker price” for 1000 units is US$4.18 each:

How much at Digikey? Lots of 500 for US$4.67 each:

And you wouldn’t buy just one from element14 at this price:

However in fairness to element14 they will price match if you’re buying in volume. So if you can get a “MAX7219″ delivered for US$1.50 – there’s something wrong. Moving on, let’s examine some of those cheap ones in more detail.

Visual differences

If you’ve never seen a real MAX7219 – here it is, top and bottom:

And here’s our rogue’s gallery of test subjects:

In a few seconds the differences should be blindingly obvious – look at the positioning of the printed bar across the part, the printing of the logo, and the general quality and positioning of the printing. Next, those circles embedded in the top of the body at both ends of the part, and the semi-circle at the top end. And if you turn them over, there’s nothing on the bottom. Furthermore, there isn’t a divot indicating pin 1 on the fakes, as shown on the real part:

Oh – did you notice the legs on the real one? Look closely again at the image above, then consider the legs on the others below:

Finally, the non-originals are shorter. The Maxim width can fall between 28.96 and 32.13 mm – with our original test MAX7219 being 32 mm:

and all the test subjects are narrower, around 29.7 mm:

Fascinating. Finally, I found the quality of the metal used for the legs to be worse than the original, they were easier to bend and had trouble going into an IC socket. You can find all the physical dimensions and other notes in the data sheet available from the Maxim website. Finally, this packaging made me laugh – knock-offs in knock-off tubes? (Maxim purchased Dallas Semiconductor a while ago)

Weight difference

Considering that they’re shorter, they must weigh less. In the following video I put the original on the scales, tare it to zero then place each test subject – you can see the difference in weigh. The scales are out a bit however the differences are still obvious:

However over time the manufacturers may go to the effort of making copies that match the weight, size and printing – so future copies may be much better. However you can still fall back to the price to determine a copy.

Do they actually work? 

After all that researching and measuring – did they work? One of the subjects came with a small LED matrix breakout board kit:

… so I used that with a simple Arduino sketch that turned on each matrix LED one at a time, then went through the PWM levels – then left them all on at maximum brightness.

#include "LedControl.h"
LedControl lc=LedControl(12,11,10,1); // data, clock, load, 1 MAX7219

void setup() 
{
 lc.shutdown(0,false);
 lc.setIntensity(0,15);
 lc.clearDisplay(0);
}

void single() {
 for(int row=0;row<8;row++) {
 for(int col=0;col<8;col++) {
 delay(25);
 lc.setLed(0,row,col,true);
 delay(25);
 for(int i=0;i

void loop() 
{ 
 single();
 for (int n=0; n<5; n++)
 {
 for (int z=0; z<16; z++)
 {
 lc.setIntensity(0,z);
 delay(100);
 }
 for (int z=15; z>-1; --z)
 {
 lc.setIntensity(0,z);
 delay(100);
 }
 }
 lc.setIntensity(0,15);
 do { }  while(1);
}

Here’s the real MAX7219 running through the test:

And test subjects one through to six running it as well:

Well that was disheartening. I was hoping and preparing for some blue smoke, dodgy displays or other faults. However the little buggers all worked, didn’t overheat or play up at all.

Conclusion

Six random samples from ebay – and they all worked. However your experience may vary wildly. Does this tell us that copies are OK to use? From my own personal opinion – you do what you have to do with respect to your own work and that for others. In other words – if you’re making something for someone, whether it be a gift or a commercial product, or something you will rely on – use the real thing. You can’t risk a fault in those situations.  If you’re just experimenting, not in a hurry, or just don’t have the money – try the cheap option. But be prepared for the worst – and know you’re supporting an industry that ethically shouldn’t exist. And at the end – to be sure you’re getting a real one – choose from a Maxim authorised source.

I’m sure everyone will have an opinion on this, so let us know about it in the moderated comments section below.  And if you made it this far – check out my new book “Arduino Workshop” from No Starch Press.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Book – “Arduino Workshop – A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects”

Over the last few years I’ve been writing a few Arduino tutorials, and during this time many people have mentioned that I should write a book. And now thanks to the team from No Starch Press this recommendation has morphed into my new book – “Arduino Workshop“:

Although there are seemingly endless Arduino tutorials and articles on the Internet, Arduino Workshop offers a nicely edited and curated path for the beginner to learn from and have fun. It’s a hands-on introduction to Arduino with 65 projects – from simple LED use right through to RFID, Internet connection, working with cellular communications, and much more.

Each project is explained in detail, explaining how the hardware an Arduino code works together. The reader doesn’t need any expensive tools or workspaces, and all the parts used are available from almost any electronics retailer. Furthermore all of the projects can be finished without soldering, so it’s safe for readers of all ages.

The editing team and myself have worked hard to make the book perfect for those without any electronics or Arduino experience at all, and it makes a great gift for someone to get them started. After working through the 65 projects the reader will have gained enough knowledge and confidence to create many things – and to continue researching on their own. Or if you’ve been enjoying the results of my thousands of hours of work here at tronixstuff, you can show your appreciation by ordering a copy for yourself or as a gift

You can review the table of contents, index and download a sample chapter from the Arduino Workshop website.

Arduino Workshop is available from No Starch Press in printed or ebook (PDF, Mobi, and ePub) formats. Ebooks are also included with the printed orders so you can get started immediately.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Review – Schmartboard SMT Boards

In this article we review a couple of SMT prototyping boards from Schmartboard.

Introduction

Sooner or later you’ll need to use a surface-mount technology component. Just like taxes and myki* not working, it’s inevitable. When the time comes you usually have a few options – make your own PCB, then bake it in an oven or skillet pan; get the part on a demo board from the manufacturer (expensive); try and hand-solder it yourself using dead-bug wiring or try to mash it into a piece of strip board; or find someone else to do it. Thanks to the people at Schmartboard you now have another option which might cost a few dollars more but guarantees a result. Although they have boards for almost everything imaginable, we’ll look at two of them – one for QFP packages and their Arduino shield that has SOIC and SOP23-6 areas.

QFP 32-80 pin board

In our first example we’ll see how easy it is to prototype with QFP package ICs. An example of this is the Atmel ATmega328 microcontroller found on various Arduino-compatible products, for example:

Although our example has 32 pins, the board can handle up to 80-pin devices. You simply place the IC on the Schmartboard, which holds the IC in nicely due to the grooved tracks for the pins:

The tracks are what makes the Schmartboard EZ series so great – they help hold the part in, and contain the required amount of solder. I believe this design is unique to Schmartboard and when you look in their catalogue, select the “EZ” series for this technology. Moving forward, you just need some water-soluble flux:

then tack down the part, apply flux to the side you’re going to solder – then slowly push the tip of your soldering iron (set to around 750 degrees F) down the groove to the pin. For example:

Then repeat for the three other sides. That’s it. If your part has an exposed pad on the bottom, there’s a hole in the centre of the Schmartboad that you can solder into as well:

After soldering I really couldn’t believe it worked, so probed out the pins to the breakout pads on the Schmartboard to test for shorts or breaks – however it tested perfectly. The only caveat is that your soldering iron tip needs to be the same or smaller pitch than the the part you’re using, otherwise you could cause a solder bridge. And use flux!  You need the flux. After soldering you can easily connect the board to the rest of your project or build around it.

Schmartboard Arduino shield

There’s also a range of Arduino shields with various SMT breakout areas, and we have the version with 1.27mm pitch SOIC and a SOT23-6 footprint. SOIC? For example:

This is the AD5204 four-channel digital potentiometer we used in the SPI tutorial. It sits nicely in the shield and can be easily soldered onto the board. Don’t forget the flux! Although the SMT areas have the EZ-technology, I still added a little solder of my own – with satisfactory results:

The SOT23-6 also fits well, with plenty of space for soldering it in. SOT23? Example – the ADS1110 16-bit ADC which will be the subject of a future tutorial:

Working with these tiny components is also feasible but requires a finer iron tip and a steady hand.

Once the SMT component(s) have been fitted, you can easily trace out the matching through-hole pads for further connections. The shield matches the Arduino R3 standards and includes stacking header sockets, two LEDs for general use, space and parts for an RC reset circuit, and pads to add pull-up resistors for the I2C bus:

Finally there’s also three 0805-sized parts and footprints for some practice or use. It’s a very well though-out shield and should prove useful. You can also order a bare PCB if you already have stacking headers to save money.

Conclusion

If you’re in a hurry to prototype with SMT parts, instead of mucking about – get a Schmartboard. They’re easy to use and work well.  Full-sized images available on flickr.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

The boards used in this article were a promotional consideration supplied by Schmartboard.

*myki

Exploring the TI Stellaris platform with Energia Arduino-compatible IDE

Introduction

In the same manner as their MSP430 development board, Texas Instruments also have another LaunchPad board with their powerful Stellaris LM4F120H5QR microcontroller. It’s an incredibly powerful and well-featured MCU – which offers an 80 MHz, 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 CPU with floating point, 256 Kbytes of 100,000 write-erase cycle FLASH and many peripherals such as 1MSPS ADCs, eight UARTs, four SPIs, four I2Cs, USB & up to 27 timers, some configurable up to 64-bits.

That’s a bucket of power, memory and I/O for not much money – you can get the LaunchPad board for around $15. This LaunchPad has the in-circuit debugger, two user buttons, an RGB LED and connectors for I/O and shield-like booster packs:

and the other side:

However the good news as far as we’re concerned is that you can now use it with the Energia Arduino-compatible IDE that we examined previously. Before rushing out to order your own Stellaris board, install Energia and examine the available functions and libraries to make sure you can run what you need. And if so, you’re set for some cheap Arduino power.

Installation

Installation is simple, just get your download from here. If you’re running Windows 7 – get the USB drivers from here. When you plug your LaunchPad into the USB for the first time, wait until after Windows attempts to install the drivers, then install drivers manually after download via Device manager … three times (JTAG, virtual serial port and DFU device). Use the debug USB socket (and set the switch to debug) when installing and uploading code. If you get the following warning from Windows, just click “Install this driver software anyway”:

Once the drivers are installed, plug in your LaunchPad, wait a moment – then run Energia. You can then select your board type and serial port just like the Arduino IDE. Then go ahead and upload the “blink” example…

Awesome – check out all that free memory space. In the same manner as the MSP430, there are some hardware<>sketch differences you need to be aware of. For example, how to refer to the I/O pins in Energia? A map has been provided for front:

… and back:

As you can imagine, the Stellaris MCUs are different to an AVR, so a lot of hardware-specific code doesn’t port over from the world of Arduino. One of the first things to remember is that the Stellaris is a 3.3V device. Code may or may not be interchangeable, so a little research will be needed to match up the I/O pins and rewrite the sketch accordingly. For example, instead of digital pins numbers, you use PX_Y - see the map above. So let’s say you want to run through the RGB LED… consider the following sketch:

int wait = 500;

void setup() 
{ 
 // initialize the digital pin as an output.
 pinMode(PF_1, OUTPUT); // red 
 pinMode(PF_3, OUTPUT); // green
 pinMode(PF_2, OUTPUT); // blue
}

void loop() 
{
 digitalWrite(PF_1, HIGH); 
 delay(wait); 
 digitalWrite(PF_1, LOW); 
 digitalWrite(PF_3, HIGH); 
 delay(wait); 
 digitalWrite(PF_3, LOW); 
 digitalWrite(PF_2, HIGH); 
 delay(wait); 
 digitalWrite(PF_2, LOW); 
}

Which simply blinks the red, green and blue LED elements in series. Using digital inputs is in the same vein, and again the buttons are wired so when pressed they go LOW. An example of this in the following sketch:

void setup() 
{ 
 // initialize the digital pins
 pinMode(PF_1, OUTPUT); // red 
 pinMode(PF_3, OUTPUT); // green
 pinMode(PF_2, OUTPUT); // blue

 pinMode(PF_4, INPUT_PULLUP); // left - note _PULLUP
 pinMode(PF_0, INPUT_PULLUP); // right - note _PULLUP 
}

void blinkfast() 
{
 for (int i=0; i<10; i++)
 {
 digitalWrite(PF_1, HIGH); 
 delay(250); 
 digitalWrite(PF_1, LOW); 
 digitalWrite(PF_3, HIGH); 
 delay(250); 
 digitalWrite(PF_3, LOW); 
 digitalWrite(PF_2, HIGH); 
 delay(250); 
 digitalWrite(PF_2, LOW); 
 }
}

void blinkslow() 
{
 for (int i=0; i<5; i++)
 {
 digitalWrite(PF_1, HIGH); 
 delay(1000); 
 digitalWrite(PF_1, LOW); 
 digitalWrite(PF_3, HIGH); 
 delay(1000); 
 digitalWrite(PF_3, LOW); 
 digitalWrite(PF_2, HIGH); 
 delay(1000); 
 digitalWrite(PF_2, LOW); 
 }
}

void loop()
{
 if (digitalRead(PF_4)==LOW) { blinkslow(); }
 if (digitalRead(PF_0)==LOW) { blinkfast(); }
}

And for the non-believers:

Where to from here? 

Sometimes you can be platform agnostic, and just pick something that does what you want with the minimum of time and budget. Or to put it another way, if you need a fast CPU and plenty of space but couldn’t be bothered don’t have time to work with Keil, Code Composer Studio, IAR etc – the Energia/Stellaris combination could solve your problem. There’s a growing Energia/Stellaris forum, and libraries can be found here. At the time of writing we found an I2C library as well.

However to take full advantage of the board, consider going back to the TI tools and move forward with them. You can go further with the tutorials and CCS etc from Texas Instruments own pages.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Review: GorillaBuilderz LeoShield

Introduction

Some of you may be using an Arduino Leonardo board, taking advantage of the newer ATmega32U4 microcontroller for various reasons. And rightly so – there’s the extra analogue I/O, virtual USB and the microUSB socket so you can use your phone charger cable. However with the new microcontroller comes a few changes to the board pinouts – I2C and SPI have moved. So if you have a nice Ethernet shield or something using I2C – you’re basically out of luck… until now. The problem has been solved nicely by the team at GorillaBuilderz have created their LeoShield:

Use

You simply place it on the Leonardo, and then the older legacy shield on top. The LeoShield redirects the I2C pins back to A4 and A5, and also sends the SPI lines back to D11~D13. For example, our Ethernet shield:

The ICSP pins are also extended from the Leonardo to the LeoShield, for example:

however when inserting the LeoShield into your Leonardo, take care lining up all the pins before pushing the shield down. There is also the large prototyping area which has 5V , 3.3V and GND rails across the full width for convenience. The sticker on the rear of the shield is to insulate against any large items that may come in contact from the host board, however you can peel it off to realise the complete prototyping space.

Conclusion

It’s simple and it works – so if you need to use an older Arduino shield with a Leonardo the choice is simple – get yourself a Leoshield.

Disclaimer - The Leoshield was a review product received from GorillaBuilderz.

Thanks for reading tronixstuff.com. I’ve got some new tutorials coming up very soon, and a lot of existing posts are curently being updated – so follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column. And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn

Review: Agilent U1177A IR to Bluetooth Adaptor

In this review we examine the new Agilent U1177A infra-red to Bluetooth adaptor for the Agilent  U1272A DMM. You can also use the adaptor with the U1240-series DMMs with the optional adaptor. With some PC or Android device software you can monitor or log data from up to three DMMs. So let’s have a look and see what it’s all about.

Introduction

The adaptor arrives in a small box:

… with the following contents:

It was a relief to see the AAA cells included as we didn’t have any in stock. The yellow document is the China RoHS sheet, and the instructions are short but well detailed. The unit itself is quite small:

To fit the battery or reset the device, the front cover slides open revealing the innards to some degree:

and the rear:

The unit clips soundly to the rear of the DMM, however it does stick out quite a lot:

If you need to leave the meter unattended, you’ll need a level and vibration free surface, as the adaptor can be knocked out relatively easily from the top. The adaptor also blocks the hole at the back which some users may use with a hook or loop for positioning the DMM.

Software and Operation

You can use the U1177 with two platforms – Android and Windows, and we tested both. I’m sure if you have Mac Parallels, etc., that there may be some success there but I haven’t tested them. There are two applications available for Android devices – the mobile logger and mobile meter. You can download them both from the Google Play app – just search for ‘agilent‘, and the results should be

The third app is a game that is somewhat entertaining. We tried the applications on two Android devices – a HTC Velocity running Android 4.0.3 (which failed miserably, the software kept freezing) and a Motorola Xoom MZ601 with Android 3.2. I would say now that the software is marked “Beta” so caveat emptor. The data logging software worked on the Xoom but not the “Agilent Mobile Meter”. Moving forward, the logging software is quite good – you can display a graph, table or statistical value of the incoming data from up to three separate DMMs.

Below is a rough video of using the Xoom with data logging. We first make the Bluetooth connection, then measure resistance of a 1k ohm logarithmic pot, change the view to data table, then stop the logging and email the data. The app can email a .csv file which can be opened with any spreadsheet, etc. Using the app you can label each DMM feed to avoid confusion with the data files in the future.

Using the U1177A with a Windows 7 x64 machine was a lot more successful. You can download the Windows-based software from here (97 MB). After pairing the adaptor with the bluetooth connection software, the Agilent software loads but does not connect. You need to alter the data speed to 19200bps and select the COM port from the drop-down list in the “communication settings” on the left-hand side of the window, as shown below:

You can also use terminal software and AT commands to change the parameters of the U1177A, which is described in the user manual. Moving forward, once connected you can measure and log to your heart’s content. You can display a virtual meter:

Or choose a graphing display mode:

Note the short drop in value to zero as the graph increased on the far-right of the measurement in the image above. This occurs when the meter is changing range, just as the LCD will blink off then on due to the same phenomenon. Finally, you can also display the data as a table, for example:

Finally, you can export the data to a .csv file which can be opened with the usual spreadsheet or text editing software:

Using Windows OS Remote Multimeter Use Data Logging Other connection – hyperterminal etc. 

Conclusion

For data logging to a PC that is in Bluetooth range, the U1177A fits the bill. Although you can get a serial to IR cable (and early U1272A owners should have received one when the firmware update was released), the Bluetooth module will certainly be useful when moving around a worksite, or taking remote measurements from extreme temperature or NVH environments. The Android apps need to move out of beta stage – however due to the variety of devices and OS versions in the market this may be a long journey. However considering the price (~Au$52) it is inexpensive enough to keep around just-in-case.

Note – the U1177A was purchased by myself and reviewed without notice. Residing in Australia, ours was purchased from element14.com.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Arduino meets Las Vegas with the Freetronics DMD

Updated 30/01/2013

Time once more to have some fun, and this time by examining the new Freetronics DMD “Dot Matrix Display”. We will look at the setup and operation of the display. In a nutshell the DMD comprises of a board measuring approximately 320mm across by 160mm which contains 16 rows of 32 high-intensity red LEDs. For example, in the off state:

Connection of the DMD to your Arduino-compatible board is quite simple. Included with each DMD is a 2×8 IDC cable of around 220mm in length, and a PCB to allow direct connection to the Arduino digital pins D6~13:

Finally the cable connects to the left-hand socket on the rear of the DMD:

You can also daisy-chain more than one display, so a matching output socket is also provided. Finally, an external power supply is recommended in order to drive the LEDs as maximum brightness – 5V at ~4 A per DMD. This is connected to a separate terminal on the rear of the board:

Do not connect these terminals to the 5V/GND of your Arduino board!

A power cable with lugs is also included so you can daisy chain the high-intensity power feeds as well. When using this method, ensure your power supply can deliver 5V at 4A  for each DMD used – so for two DMDs, you will need 8A, etc. For testing (and our demonstration) purposes you can simply connect the DMD to your Arduino via the IDC cable, however the LEDs will not light at their full potential.

Using the display with your Arduino sketches is quite simple. There is an enthusiastic group of people working on the library which you will need, and you can download it from and follow the progress at the DMD Github page and forks. Furthermore, there is always the Freetronics forum for help, advice and conversation. Finally you will also need the TimerOne library – available from here.

However for now let’s run through the use of the DMD and get things moving. Starting with scrolling text – download the demonstration sketch from here. All the code in the sketch outside of void loop() is necessary. Replace the text within the quotes with what you would like to scroll across the display, and enter the number of characters (including spaces) in the next parameter. Finally, if you have more than one display change the 1 to your number of displays in #define DISPLAYS_ACROSS 1.

Here is a quick video of our example sketch:

Now for some more static display functions – starting with clearing the display. You can use

dmd.clearScreen( true );

to turn off all the pixels, or

dmd.clearScreen( false );

to turn on all the pixels.

Note: turning on more pixels at once increases the current draw. Always keep this in mind and measure with an ammeter if unsure. 

Next some text. First you need to choose the font, at the time of writing there were two to choose from. Use

dmd.selectFont(System5x7);

for a smaller font or

dmd.selectFont(Arial_Black_16);

for a larger font. To position a single character on the DMD, use:

dmd.drawChar(  x,  y, 'x', GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

which will display the character ‘x’ at location x,y (in pixels – starting from zero). For example, using

dmd.drawChar(  10,  5, 'A', GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

results with:

Note if you have the pixels on ‘behind’ the character, the unused pixels in the character are not ‘transparent’. For example:

However if you change the last parameter to GRAPHICS_NOR, the unused pixels will become ‘transparent’. For example:

You can also use the parameter GRAPHICS_OR to overlay a character on the display. This is done with the blinking colon in the example sketch provided with the library.

Next, to draw a string (group of characters). This is simple, just select your font type and then use (for example):

dmd.drawString( 0,0, "Hello,", 5, GRAPHICS_NORMAL );
dmd.drawString( 2,9, "world,", 5, GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

Again, the 5 is a parameter for the length of the string to display. This results in the following:

Next up we look at the graphic commands. To control an individual pixel, use

dmd.writePixel(  x,y, GRAPHICS_NORMAL,1); // turn on a pixel at location x,y

And changing the 1 to a 0 turns off the pixel. To draw a circle with the centre at x,y and a radius r, use

    dmd.drawCircle( x,  y,  r, GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

To draw a line from x1, y2 to x2, y2, use:

    dmd.drawLine(  x1, y1, x2, y2, GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

To draw a rectangle from x1, y2 to x2, y, use:

dmd.drawBox(x1, y1, x2, y2, GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

And to draw a filled rectangle use:

dmd.drawFilledBox(x1, y1, x2, y2, GRAPHICS_NORMAL );

Now let’s put those functions to work. You can download the demonstration sketch from here, and watch the following results:

Update – the DMD will also be available in other colours, such as white:

So there you have it, an inexpensive and easy to use display board with all sorts of applications. Although the demonstrations contained within this article were rather simple, you now have the knowledge to apply your imagination to the DMD and display what you like. For more information, support and conversation visit the Freetronics product page and support forum.

Disclaimer – The parts reviewed in this article are a promotional consideration made available by Freetronics.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Review: Mayhew Labs “Go Between” Arduino Shield

Hello readers

In this article we examine one of those products that are really simple yet can solve some really annoying problems. It is the “Go Between” Arduino shield from Mayhew Labs. What does the GBS do? You use it to solve a common problem that some prolific Arduino users can often face – how do I use two shields that require the same pins?

Using a clever matrix of solder pads, you can change the wiring between the analogue and digital pins. For example, here is the bare shield:

Now for an example problem. You have two shields that need access to digital pins 3, 4 and 5 as also analogue pins 4 and 5. We call one shield the “top shield” which will sit above the GBS, and the second shield the “bottom” shield which will sit between the Arduino and the GBS. To solve the problem we will redirect the top shield’s D3~5 to D6~8, and A4~5 to A0~1.

To redirect a pin (for example D3 to D6), we first locate the number along the “top digital pins” horizontal of the matrix (3). Then find the destination “bottom” pin row (6). Finally, bridge that pad on the matrix with solder. Our D3 to D6 conversion is shown with the green dot in the following:

Now for the rest, diverting D4 and D5 to D7 and D8 respectively, as well as analogue pins 4 and 5 to 0 and 1:

The next task is to connect the rest of the non-redirected pins. For example, D13 to D13. We do this by again bridging the matching pads:

Finally the sketch needs to be rewritten to understand that the top shield now uses D6~8 and A0~1. And we’re done!

Try not to use too much solder, as you could accidentally bridge more pads than necessary. And you can always use some solder wick to remove the solder and reuse the shield again (and again…). Now the genius of the shield becomes more apparent.

The only downside to this shield is the PCB design – the days of square corners should be over now:

It is a small problem, but one nonetheless. Hopefully this is rectified in the next build run. Otherwise the “Go Between” Shield is a solution to a problem you may have one day, so perhaps keep one tucked away for “just in case”.

While we’re on the subject of Arduino shield pinouts, don’t forget to check out Jon Oxer’s shieldlist.org when researching your next Arduino shield – it is the largest and most comprehensive catalogue of submitted Arduino shields in existence.

[Note - the "Go Between" Shield was purchased by myself personally and reviewed without notifying the manufacturer or retailer]

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Initial Review: Akafuino-X Microcontroller Board

Hello Readers

Time to get back to work for 2012 and in doing so we review another interesting product from a new company based in Japan – akafugu. From their website:

Akafugu Corporation is a small electronics company that operates out of Tokyo, Japan. We specialize in fun and easy to use electronic gadgets. Our goal is to provide products that not only make prototyping faster and easier, but are also perfect for incorporation in finalized products.

And with this in mind we examine the Akafuino-X microcontroller board:

The observant among you will notice the similarity to our usual Arduino Uno and compatible boards. However there are some differences which bring changes and improvements over the original Arduino design. The biggest point of difference is the microcontroller, the Akafuino uses an Atmel XMega32A4. The benefit of this over the normal ATmega328 is:

• Speed! 32 MHz – twice as fast as the ATmega328;
• Two-channel DAC (digital to analogue) converter – output analogue signals between 0V and Vcc straight from the board. A library is included with the new IDE to control them. The DAC uses digital pins seven and eight;
• Not one, two or even four, but five UARTs;
• Two I2C buses;
• Sixteen PWM pins – great for LED effects…

Thankfully the designers have detailed the extra I/O pins and other useful information on the rear of the board:

Other changes include:

• It’s a 3.3V board – so no 5V supply for you. However the inputs are tolerant to 5V;
• On-board real time clock. You can also add an optional 32.768 kHz crystal to increase accuracy – see the space on the board near the reset pin;
• A very refreshing red colour (note that ‘aka(i)’ ** is red in Japanese) and a happy puffer fish (‘fugu’) on the silk-screening
• And libraries for other Akafugu products such as the TWI Display module are available.

Getting started is easy, however due to the difference in hardware the Arduino IDE needs modification. But don’t panic – instead of modifying your existing v1.0 Arduino IDE – download and install the Akafuino-X version from here and run your usual and the Akauino-X IDE on the same machine (it’s ok to do this). You should also review the usage instructions here and note that this is a derivative of the v1.0 IDE. Furthermore at the time of writing the software side of things is still in beta, and can be monitored via Github - however don’t let this put you off, as the Akafuino-X has a lot of potential.

If you find any bugs in use the issue tracker in Github to let the team know.

In the meanwhile we’ve conducted a quick speed test – by running the same sketch on an Arduino Uno and also the Akafuino-X. The test is a whole lot of multiplication, nothing too scientific. At the end the duration of the exercise is shown in milliseconds. Here’s the code:

// Arduino Uno test
//
void setup()
{
 Serial.begin(9600);
}

unsigned long a,b,c,d,e;

void loop()
{
 a=millis();
 for (c=1; c<1000000; c++)
 {
   d=sq(c);
 }
 b=millis();
 e=b-a;
 Serial.print("Duration: ");
 Serial.print(e);
 Serial.println("ms");
 do {} while (1>0);
}

And here are the results of running the sketch four times on each board (click image to enlarge):

Our Akafuino-X beta only took 2704ms versus the Arduino Uno taking 4212ms. Very good so far.

Update! The team at akafugu have been experimenting with overclocking the Akafuino-X. And also check out the errata page. 

So there you have it, another contender in the Arduino-compatible board stakes. Considering the extra  I/O, PWM and bus connectivity the Akafuino-X is a very capable board. I look forward to the evolution of the IDE and will return with the Akafuino-X in an upcoming project. And we also have one to give away. So stay tuned! In the meanwhile the Akafuino-X and other goodies are available directly from akafugu.jp. 

Disclaimer – The parts reviewed in this article are a promotional consideration made available by akafugu.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

** Yes I know it’s an i-type adjective

Initial Review – Arduino v1.0 IDE

Hello Readers

Recently the Arduino team have released version 1.0 of the IDE (integrated development environment) that we all know and love. This is a significant milestone as the IDE has previously been in alpha release since 2005. For the platform to have survived and thrived this long is a credit to the community and especially to the Arduino team themselves.

Arduino? Not sure where to start? There’s a couple of tutorials right here!

Moving forward, let’s have a look and see what has changed:

Installation is quite simple. As always, download the IDE from the Arduino website. Before installing the new version, copy and backup your sketchbook folder and the entire folder system of your current IDE installation. This shouldn’t take long as … I’m sure everyone does this on a regular basis. The move to v1.0 is a major one, and you will still need to use the older IDE – so don’t delete it from your computer.

Once installed, copy over the contents of your ../arduino-002x/libraries folder to the new ../arduino-1.0/libraries folder. When your operating systems pauses and asks what to do with duplicate folders, click “skip”. That is, don’t overwrite the new libraries with old ones.

Now run the new IDE, and you will be presented with the following (note we have already loaded the “blink” example):

The cosmetic changes in the design of the tool bar are slight yet refreshing. The buttons in order are: verify (we used to call this “compile”), upload sketch, file new, file open, file save and the serial monitor button has been moved across to the far right.

At the very bottom-right of the IDE window the board type and port connection is displayed – which is great if you are working with more than one Arduino board at once – a nifty feature. Furthermore when verifying and uploading a sketch, a progress bar appears at the top right of the message window, for example:

The last cosmetic change that became apparent is the automatic creating of hyperlinks in the sketch when the IDE detects a correctly-formatted URL, for example:

Cosmetic changes are all well and good, however that is only the tip of the iceberg. For starters, the file extension for sketches compatible with v1.0 is now .ino.

The next thing is to review the update release notes, also listed below with my own notes – where a lot of surprises can be found. As listed below, several functions and libraries have changed in behaviour or existence. Therefore some work may be required to convert sketches from v23 IDE to v1.0. At the current time I can’t see any reason to do this, and if you have any projects relying on existing libraries – make a backup copy of your existing environment in case the original source of the library disappears. The Arduino team have mentioned the idea of a centralised repository for libraries, however this has not been finalised at the time of writing this article.

[core / libraries]

* Serial transmission is now asynchronous - that is, calls to
  Serial.print(), etc. add data to an outgoing buffer which is transmitted
  in the background. Also, the Serial.flush() command has been repurposed
  to wait for outgoing data to be transmitted, rather than dropping
  received incoming data.

* The behavior of Serial.print() on a byte has been changed to align it
  with the other numeric data types. In particular, it will now print
  the digits of its argument as separate ASCII digits (e.g. '1', '2', '3')
  rather than a single byte. The BYTE keyword has been removed. To send a
  single byte of data, use Serial.write() (which is present in Arduino 0022
  as well).

The new Serial.print() behaviour is interesting. Let’s compare the output of the following sketch:

void setup()
{
   Serial.begin(9600);
}

byte a=0;

void loop()
{
 for (a=38; a<48; a++)
 {
   Serial.print(a);
   Serial.print(" ");
 }
 do {} while (1>0);
}

Using IDE v23, the output from the serial monitor is:

However when we run the same sketch in IDE v1.0, the output is:

So if you need the actual ASCII characters represented by the BYTE variable, use Serial.write() not Serial.print().

* The Serial class (as well as other classes inheriting from Stream, like
  EthernetClient, SoftwareSerial, Wire and more) now contains functions
  for parsing incoming data, based on the TextFinder library by Michael
  Margolis. They include find() and findUntil() to search for data,
  parseInt() and parseFloat() for converting incoming characters into
  numeric values, and readBytes() and readBytesUntil() for reading
  multiple bytes into a buffer. They use a timeout that can be set with the
  new setTimeout().

Well this is interesting. The ability to parse incoming serial data will make using that nefarious GSM shield easier…

* The SoftwareSerial class has been reimplemented, using the code originally
  written for the NewSoftSerial library by Mikal Hart. This allows for
  multiple simultaneous instances, although only one can receive at a time.

One less library to worry about…

* Support has been added for printing strings stored in flash (program
  memory) rather than RAM. Wrap double-quoted strings in F() to indicate
  that they should be stored in flash, e.g. Serial.print(F("hello world")).

This should help us use memory more efficiently…

* The String class has been reimplemented as well, by Paul Stoffregen. This
  new version is more memory-efficient and robust. Some functions which
  previously returned new string instances (e.g. trim() and toUpperCase())
  have been changed to instead modify strings in place.

* Support for DHCP and DNS has been added to the Ethernet library, thanks
  to integration by Adrian McEwen. Most classes in the Ethernet library
  have been renamed to add a "Ethernet" prefix and avoid conflicts with
  other networking libraries. In particular, "Client" is now
  "EthernetClient", "Server" is "EthernetServer", and "UDP" is
  "EthernetUDP". A new IPAddress class makes it easier to manipulate
  those values.

Frankly I’m not a genius when it comes to the Internet area, however clearer naming is a plus

* The UDP API has been changed to be more similar to other libraries.
  Outgoing packets are now constructed using calls to the standard write(),
  print(), and println() functions – bracketed by beginPacket() and
  endPacket(). The parsePacket() function checks for and parses an
  incoming packet, which can then be read using available(), read(), and
  peek(). The remoteIP() and remotePort() functions provide information
  about the packet’s origin. (Again, thanks to Adrian McEwen for the
  implementation.)

* The Wire library has also been modified to use the standard read() and
  write() functions instead of send() and receive(). You can also use
  print() and println() for outgoing data.

Looks like another mental note to make when working with I2C and v1.0

* The SD library now supports multiple simultaneous open files. It also
  provides the isDirectory(), openNextFile(), and rewindDirectory()
  functions for iterating through all the files in a directory. (Thanks
  to Limor Fried.)

Well this is a win, now multiple forms of data can be logged into separate files.

As mentioned at the start, this is an initial review and by all means not complete. Feel free to leave your comments or notes for others to review as well, and as always if you find any errors please let us know.

For now the new IDE is an interesting juncture in the Arduino evolution. For new sketches and development in general there wouldn’t be any reason not to use it, as you can happily run several versions of the IDE on a single computer. However – there is a lot of published material that will not work with the new IDE – and all this will need to be updated, or at least noted by the authors concerned telling people to use an older IDE. And for this I am not too happy – the Arduino world has had a virtual “axe” chopped through it, breaking a lot of things which will take some time to move forward from.

So in the meanwhile, backup your existing libraries, your older IDE software, and be prepared to run two IDE systems in parallel for the near future.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.