A new open source controller has been created called the I²CDriver by Excamera Labs, specifically designed to provide easy control over I²C devices. Watch the demonstration video below for a overview of what can be accomplished using the new controller.
I²C is Everywhere It’s in every phone, in your embedded electronics, in every microcontroller, Raspberry Pi, and PC motherboard. It’s a mature technology – still going strong after 36 years. Because it’s everywhere, I²C is used by everyone from novices to embedded designers.
“But the common element of everyone’s I²C experience is struggle. Instead of being easy, I²C very often feels really difficult. Because there are so many ways for I²C to go wrong, things rarely “just work” and instead involve some painful debugging.
I²CDriver is an easy-to-use, open source tool for controlling I²C devices. It works with Windows, Mac, and Linux, and has a built-in color screen that shows a live “dashboard” of all the I²C activity. It uses a standard FTDI USB serial chip to talk to the PC, so no special drivers need to be installed. The board includes a separate 3.3 V supply with voltage and current monitoring.”
– Open hardware: the design, firmware and all tools are under BSD license
– Live display: shows you exactly what it’s doing all the time
– Fast transfer: sustained I²C transfers at 400 and 100 kHz
– USB power monitoring: USB line voltage monitor to detect supply problems, to 0.01 V
– Target power monitoring: target device high-side current measurement, to 5 mA
– I²C pullups: programmable I²C pullup resistors, with automatic tuning
– Three I²C ports: three identical I²C ports, each with power and I²C signals
– Jumpers: color coded jumpers included in each pledge level
– 3.3 output: output levels are 3.3 V, all are 5 V tolerant
– Supports all I²C features: 7- and 10-bit I²C addressing, clock stretching, bus arbitration
– Sturdy componentry: uses an FTDI USB serial adapter, and Silicon Labs automotive-grade EFM8 controller
– Usage reporting: reports uptime, temperature, and running CRC of all traffic
– Flexible control: GUI, command-line, C/C++, and Python 2/3 host software provided for Windows, Mac, and Linux
For more information on the new I²CDriver jump over to the Crowd Supply website where a campaign is running to raise the required funds to take the controller into production. Pledges are available from $29 for the core with worldwide delivery expected to take place around March 2019.
Source: Crowd Supply
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