The Deft Dynamics engineering team needed a way to rapidly assembly circuit prototype before committing to custom-made PCBs. It should be compatible with Segger (SES) development environment for Nordic Semiconductors, should require minimal soldering in a compact format. Existing solutions like Sparkfun QIIC don’t provide consistent, compact sizes and professional grade ICs. The neoPLC designs are matched to proprietary c++ drivers and to eagleCAM design blocks so that the can get a prototype hardware together quickly and immediately focus on the application loop. This concept led to neoPLC, with benefits of:
- Easy wiring – all our boards use i2c serial, so no matter how many boards are in use, they share the same four wires – so you can be connected and running in no time
- Easy chaining – the boards share the same serial wires– allowing trouble-free connection of multiple boards – even boards with different functions!
- No ‘extra’ pins are broken out – you never have to dig through datasheets to connect these boards
- The boards can be stacked for easy testing, or soldered edge-to-edge creating a professional rapid-prototype for demonstration and small production products
- All code is contained in a single (open-source) library, but only the code you need is compiled to your micro-controller, saving space and increasing speed
- All boards operate from 3 to 5.5 V – safe with most common micro-controllers
- Uniform pricing – all boards of all functions are $20 – easily estimate total project costs
- Every board is tested for performance before shipping
One of the key benefits of the neoPLC boards is the simple wiring. Nearly all modern microcontrollers include a dedicated i2c (pronounced ‘eye-squared-see’) port. Standing for ‘inter-integrated-circuit’, i2c is clever as allows many integrated circuits to share the same communication and power lines – the ‘bus’. The SCL clock is controlled by your microcontroller, it provides a steady march of pulses while communicating to ensure no data is missed by either component. While the SCL steadily pulses, the microcontroller and neoPLC board take turns sending and receiving data over the SDA bus. Each board has a name in i2c called its ‘slave address’. When the microcontroller sends a specific board’s name out on the SDA bus, that board alone will respond. So, many boards can share the same SCL and SDA bus, but only if they have unique addresses – otherwise everyone gets confused about who should be speaking! To allow multiple identical boards on the same bus, we provide adjustable address ‘pads’ on most boards: by cutting the same trace near A0,A1,etc. and putting a small dab of solder on the other side of the pad, the address is changed. Multiple combinations of cut/uncut traces allows several boards to be connected.
