...it's here, it's the BOOSTXL SENSORHUB from  texaS instrumentS        

This is an add-on board designed to fit the Tiva™ C Series TM4C123G

LaunchPad along with all of TI’s MCU LaunchPads.

This is how the device looks unplugged:

boostXL SensorHub

                  This device is a brilliant and genius combination of about seven7 digital sensors, which we all know is the interest and heart of any embedded and autonomous systems.The Sensor Hub BoosterPack is an evaluation platform for use with  ARM® Cortex™-M4-based TM4C devices in sensor fusion applications.

 

Among others, the package features the InvenSense MPU-9150 which is an improvement and incomparable to the other 9 Degrees of Freedom. The 9 axis functions are:

• 3-axis gyro
• 3-axis accelerometer
• 3-axis compass

The above functionalities are made use of in robotics, whereby the gyro measures the tilt, the accelerometer will determine motion in the x-y-z axis while the compass as is determines the direction that the device under test has taken. Consider this application to balance the bot unmanned.

Other sensors that are included in the package are:

Bosch Sensortec BMP180 pressure sensor

Sensirion SHT21 humidity and ambient temperature sensor

Intersil ISL29023 ambient and infrared light sensor

TI's TMP006 non-contact infrared temperature sensor

            We need to take note of the above sensor, it has the capability to measure object temperature when just brought in close range. There is no need for touching the surface of the sensor. This further protects the sensor's surface from mechanical damage.

MOUNTING

Without having to give too much info, this is how the BoosterPack connects to the Tiva C launchPad or the Stellaris as it is also hardware com partible.

The Male JTAG header pins of the two Launchpad versions are such that they fit into the female grooves of the booster pack. By the way this is another cool feature with TI boosterpacks, the architecture eliminates the needs for excessive wiring and jumper cables. The following video link shows the use of the above sensorhub.

The Sensor Hub BoosterPack is supported by TivaWare™ for C Series Driver Library and is compatible with these toolchains:

• Code Composer Studio™ IDE
• Keil™ RealView®
• IAR Systems Embedded Workbench®
• Mentor Embedded Sourcery CodeBench™ 

 

 By Mozart Alea