Which PSoC board? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 08:55:49 pm
content: In another thread discussing the up and coming PSoC 6, there is a link to this video, 1 of what will eventually be 40:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefexHmf_Us&feature=youtu.beCool, I'm all in! Except the board won't be available for 6 months and, at my age, I don't make plans that far in advance.So, of the boards currently available, where should I start? Pretty poor question without some background so here goes:I want to get a headstart on the robotic arm project discussed in the video. I want as much useful stuff on the board as possible. I am not overly price sensitive but the $250 board might be a little over the the top. It's not necessarily out of the question, I just need to understand what the board does that makes it worth the money. I am NOT after the mythical $10 special. $100 or so is not an issue, more would need some justification.I have installed PSoC Creator (4.1) and it looks pretty nice. I experimented with a project using 4.2 but AFAICT, 4.2 only supports PSoC 6.So, for those who have used the Cypress boards, which do you recommend and why? Hopefully they will be boards supported by 4.1 and, with a little more luck, maybe there are kit files available. Those look sparse at the Cypress site. Maybe the boards come with kit files on a CD...The programming approach is unique. I like the idea of drag and drop of components. In the end, it's something new to learn.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 09:31:28 pm
content: Pioneer boards are the best ones to start learning and stick boards the best ones to develop your own prototype none available at this point in time for psoc6While waiting for psoc6 boards to be available you can play with prior versions like this one,

author: hendorog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 30, 2017, 09:34:18 pm
content: Looks like Creator 4.2 is in beta for the purpose of implementing the PSoC 6 support - so you will want to use 4.1 for their current production boards.Not used it myself, but if you want to play with BLE and robotics then check this out:http://www.cypress.com/products/psoc-4-ble-bluetooth-smarthttp://www.cypress.com/training/how-make-ios-app-control-robot-using-bluetooth-low-energy-blePSoC 5LP has better analog features, which you might not need. I believe the best kit for that is the $100 -50 one.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 01, 2017, 02:01:49 am
content: Wandering the Internet, I stumbled into PSOC 101:http://www.cypress.com/training/psoc-101-video-tutorial-series-how-use-arm-cortex-m0-based-psoc-4The presenter uses a -042 Pioneer board and since it is in stock at Digikey, I ordered one. It makes a lot of sense to follow the tutorial using the same board. Things like pin numbers and capabilities will line up.At least in the early stages, it seems as though the BLE apps are all for iOS and that's kind of a glitch for an Android user. I'll look into it further when I get through first 22 videos (17 tutorials + 5 add-ons).BLE will be interesting. In theory, I should be able to write an app on my Surface Book using <something> from Visual Studio. More research needed...My wife has an iPhone, maybe I can commandeer it! Yeah, that will go over well...

author: Mr. Scram
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2017, 05:57:20 pm
content: Quote from: rstofer on October 01, 2017, 02:01:49 amI accidentally ordered the 4.1 BLE Pioneer kit when I tried to order something elseIt happened to be very close to the Pioneer kit you ordered, but with BLE, so I just consider it a chance to tinker with a technology that I've never considered very interesting or appealing. I will mostly be using it in a non BLE capacity. Maybe I'll change my mind after seeing it in action. There do appear to be apps for Android, even though I haven't been able to get it to pair correctly yet. That might be the phone I'm using, I'm not sure. The series you refer to seems to be a fairly nice start, though the continuous sales pitch in lieu of actual content quickly gets old. Most people that make it past the first episode will already have bought the hardware and it discourages those who did to continue learning about the product.If you decide to order a similar pioneer kit, be sure to order the 4.2 kit, or whatever is better than that at that moment. The one I ordered is the 4.1 one, which isn't cheaper, yet less compatible.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2017, 06:59:16 pm
content: I don't know that I have a need for BLE either. WiFi would be nice.The battery on my cell phone died some time over the last month. I just noticed it today. I guess I'm not a big time user.I have a lot to learn about the entire infrastructure. I like the drag-and-drop schematic idea but I do wonder about the overhead. Even when inputs are hardwired to outputs, no code required, the tool generates about 1816 bytes of code and uses 1536 bytes of RAM. The RAM usage is understandable since they allocated 1024 bytes for the stack and 128 bytes for the heap. I don't know what the other 384 bytes are used for.This particular chip doesn't have much flash (32k) or ram (4k) when compared to other ARM chips but it will do for a start. I'll need to learn more about the family of devices as I go along.

author: ShowKemp
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 02, 2017, 07:14:10 pm
content: Quote from: Mr. Scram on October 02, 2017, 05:57:20 pmCypress did a blog posts series working with the PSoC4BLE kit, maybe it can help you to like BLE:100-projects-100-days.