...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

 

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS-SHAPE THE WORLD [LAB 6 CODE]                            

Here is a short clip of the lab in operation. It's as easy as it seems. There's those of you who jumped in with so much optimism that this was going to be as easy, life is proofing difficult for you thou. Worry not, I have placed the code that I used with description of the major parts.

 

 As you can see from the above, the Blue LED (PF2) is on by default, but blinks at an interval of 100ms when SW1 (PF4) is pressed. Apparently, I had complaints from some of you guys that the code I had posted is in violation of  the EDX code of Honor, my bad. It's no longer available for download.

Therefore, I will only post other material apart from the solutions for the UTX course. 

Thank you

Also check out this link: NetSkills  

                                                MOZART ALEA

What is shown on the left is a simple interface of the TIVA C series, TM4c123GXL Launchpad from Texas Instruments.

Its a cheap microcontroller kit (Programmer plus chip) that can be bought from Texas Instruments Online Store at just about  10 USD.

What am here to talk about is what we all want:

  ..."HOW TO PROGRAM THE TIVA-C TM4C123GXL MICROCONTROLLER"...

I would advise you guys, especially the freshmen in microcontroller programming, visit:
this link at edx.org.

There's a lot of start-up info for you there, libraries etc by Valvano and Ramesh Yerraballi. But worry not, you could have my tutorials step by step and you'll be up and running. I will be posting tutorials  here on a weekly basis, as well as explain those offered at EDX.
I like video tutorials better than gazing at my PC scrolling, here is the link to my video_tutorials.

As you can see, the kit is quite small in size, Extra Light! It comes with a USB cable to help interface to your PC, Mac or any other USB device. This can be helpful especially for Wireless Projects - You only need to get a small USB power bank like the ones listed on this page at Ebay.

experience...

Within the first two days after receiving the kit, I was already coding things into it. 

Check out my youtube channel as well: Tech Mogul Africa