PSoC 6 Introduction

Since I did the webinar several things have happened

1. Lesson 4: I fixed an error in the stack size for FreeRTOS
2. Lesson 5: The PSoC Creator BLE PDL has been upgraded to greatly simplify the notifyCapSense function

All of the projects are available at git@github.com:iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction.git or www.github.com/iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction

Project Description

This project is a PSoC 6 BLE extension of the previous project with CapSense and UART.

The BLE will:

• Advertise the device with the name “P6Intro” and as having the CapSense Service
• Will allow one connection (with no security)
• A BLE CapSense Service with the CapSense Slider characteristic as “notify”
• When the CapSense slider updates it will send a notification to any connected device

The CapSense will (same as before)

• BTN0 will set the intensity to 0%
• BTN1 will set the intensity to 100%
• CapSense slider will set the intensity (0-100) when touched

The UART will (same as before)

• UART Key ‘0’ turn the LED to intensity = 0%
• UART Key ‘1’ turn the LED to intensity = 100%
• UART Key ‘5’ turn the LED to intensity = 50%
• UART Key ‘?’ will printout help

How does it work?

This device will act as a GAP Peripheral with a GATT database server with the CapSense Service.  The PSoC 6 BLE component will allow you to split the BLE function onto the CM0+ (Controller) and the CM4 (Host and Profiles).  On the CM4 you will build an event handler which will act each time something happens in the Bluetooth world e.g. a connection, a disconnection, a read or write.

(same as previous project) You can control the intensity of an LED with a pulse width modulator and a high frequency input clock.  If the duty cycle is “small” then the intensity of the LED is low (meaning dim).  If the duty cycle is “big” then the intensity is “high”.  A 0% duty cycle will be off, a 50% duty cycle will be in the middle and 100% duty cycle will be all on.  To make this work I will set the input clock to 1 MHZ and the PWM Period to 100.  The PWM Compare value will then be set between 0 and 100 to represent brightness in percent.

(same as previous project) The Cypress CapSense block has two sensing modes, mutual capacitance and self-capacitance.   The CY8CKIT-062-BLE has two Mutual Capacitance buttons and a 5-Segment Self or Mutual Capacitance Slider.

The project will have four tasks

• BLE – Will act as a BLE GATT Peripheral that advertises the CapSense Service with the CapSense Slider.  The value of the slider will ‘Notify’
• UART – Read data from the keyboard and send messages to the PWM Task
• CapSense – Read finger positions from the slider and buttons and send messages to the PWM Task
• PWM – Will have an input queue, when a integer message is received it will set the PWM compare value to the integer received (0 >= msg <= 100)

How am I going to do it?

1. Copy, Paste and Rename the CapSense UART Project
2. Add and Configure the BLE Component
3. Fix the Interrupts
4. Update the main_cm0p. c to run the BLE radio
5. Add three global variables to main_cm4.c
6. Create a new task to process the BLE
7. Create an Event Handler
8. Make a Function to Send Notifications
9. Update the capSenseTask to Send Values
10. Add the bleTask to main function in main_cm4.c
11. Program and Test

Copy, Paste and Rename the CapSense UART Project

Right click on the PSoC-6-Introdution and Paste

Right click and rename the project to be CapSense_BLE

When is asks you to rename… do it

It should look like this now.

Add and Configure the BLE Component

Go to the Component Catalog and find the Bluetooth Low Energy component and drag/drop it into your design schematic.

Configure the component to be a “Dual Core …” and set the  number of connections to 1.

Add the Capsense service to your server by clicking “Load Service…”

And selecting the “CapSense.service” file.  I created this file to have the right UUIDs and characteristics.

You can now look at the CapSense Slider service and the CapSlider characteristic

Set the name of our peripheral in the “GAP Settings”.  In this case I will call it P6INTRO.

Configure the advertising settings to advertise the name of the device and the CapSense Service.

Fix the Interrupts

Almost all of the interrupt sources in the PSoC 6 can be connected to one or both of the Cortex cores.  I think that you are probably crazy to attach it to both.  In this case the BLE interrupt needs to be connected to the “ARM CM0+”

Update main_cm0p. c to Run the BLE Radio Controller

Add three global variables to main_cm4.c

The BLE Task will have a queue that the CapSense will use to send out changes in the CapSense Slider.

Create a new task to process the BLE

The. task will just start up the BLE processing on the CM4.  Then it will cause the BLE event manager to run.  If a new value of the CapSense slider is set, it will send out a notification using the “notifyCapSense” function

Create an Event Handler

You will need a task to handle the BLE processing on the CM4.  Each time a Bluetooth event occurs you will need to do “something”

Make a Function to Send Notifications

EDIT!!!!

If you look at the source code at GitHub you will find that I removed the variables “connected” and “notify” and I changed the notifyCapSense function.  This was done because the BLE PDL implementation was greatly improved and simplified. The new function iterates through the connections and sends the notification to all of them.  This was done to handle multiple connections.

Update the capSenseTask to Send Values

Inside of the capsenseTask you need to send new values of the slider to the BLE task via the Queue.  Meaning the BLE task needs to send out notifications, but it can only do that if the capsenseTask notifies it of changes.

Add the bleTask to main function in main_cm4.c

In the main function you need to start the BLE Task.

Program and Test

To test this project I will run the CySmart iOS App.  First, you can see all of the devices that are advertising

Scroll left (or right) to find the “CapSense Slider”

When you see it, Press on the CapSense Slider Icon

Then put your finger on the slider and you should see it change

Here is a picture of the whole system.

PSoC 6 Introduction

Since I did the webinar several things have happened

1. Lesson 4: I fixed an error in the stack size for FreeRTOS
2. Lesson 5: The PSoC Creator BLE PDL has been upgraded to greatly simplify the notifyCapSense function

All of the projects are available at git@github.com:iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction.git or www.github.com/iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction

Project Description

This project is a demonstration of a PSoC 6 running an RTOS using CapSense and the UART to control the intensity of the Red LED with a Pulse Width Modulator (PWM)

The CapSense will:

• BTN0 will set the intensity to 0%
• BTN1 will set the intensity to 100%
• CapSense slider will set the intensity (0-100) when touched

The UART will:

• UART Key ‘0’ turn the LED to intensity = 0%
• UART Key ‘1’ turn the LED to intensity = 100%
• UART Key ‘5’ turn the LED to intensity = 50%
• UART Key ‘?’ will printout help

How does it work?

You can control the intensity of an LED with a pulse width modulator and a high frequency input clock.  If the duty cycle is “small” then the intensity of the LED is low (meaning dim).  If the duty cycle is “big” then the intensity is “high”.  A 0% duty cycle will be off, a 50% duty cycle will be in the middle and 100% duty cycle will be all on.  To make this work I will set the input clock to 1 MHz and the PWM Period to 100.  The PWM Compare value will then be set between 0 and 100 to represent brightness in percent.

The Cypress CapSense block has two sensing modes, mutual capacitance and self capacitance.   The CY8CKIT-062-BLE has two Mutual Capacitance buttons and a 5 segment Self or Mutual Capacitance Slider.

The project will have three tasks

• UART – Read data from the keyboard and send messages to the PWM Task
• CapSense – Read finger positions from the slider and buttons and send messages to the PWM Task
• PWM – Will have an input queue, when a integer message is received it will set the PWM compare value to the integer received (0 >= msg <= 100)

How am I going to do it?

1. Create a new project by copy/paste the FreeRTOS-UART Project
2. Configure Schematic for Higher Frequency Clock and Change PWM Settings
3. Add a new PWM task and modify the UART
4. Program and Test
5. Edit the FreeRTOS.h and make a bigger heap
6. Add the CapSense Buttons to the Schematic and Set the Pins
7. Add the capsenseTask
8. Program and Test
9. Add the CapSense Slider to the Schematic and Set the Pins
10. Update the capsenseTask
11. Program and Test

Create a new Project by Copy/Paste of FreeRTOS-UART Project

Right click on the FreeRTOS-UART Project then select “Copy”

Then right click on the Workspace and select “Paste”

 

Right click on “FreeRTOS-UART-Copy01)” and rename it to “CapSense”

Click “Rename” (all of these files will be regenerated so it doesn’t really matter)

Close all windows by right clicking “Close All But This” on the start tab

Configure Schematic for Higher Frequency Clock and Change PWM Settings

If you blink the LED fast enough, you will not be able to see the “Blink” it will just appear to be bright or dim based on the duty cycle.  Start by changing the clock to 1 MHz.

Double click on the PWM_1

Fix the Period to be 100 and the compare to be 50

The LED on the CY8CKIT-062-BLE is active low which means that when it is 0 the LED is on.  I want the opposite behavior so I can configure the PWM output to be inverted on the advanced tab.  Click the button next to “Invert PWM Output”

Add a new PWM Task and Modify the UART Task

Next, I will create the pwmTask function.  It will simply wait for someone to send a message to the pwmQueue.  The message is simply a uint32_t that represents the PWM compare value … aka the percent intensity of the LED.  When it gets the value, it will update the hardware.

Edit: In the comments below you can see that Charles asked that I clarify where these functions should go.  When I did this, I put them basically at the top of the file… just under the #includes.   The only thing that really matters is that they need to be put before they are used so that the compiler knows the function prototypes.  If you put them after they are used then you need to make forward declarations.

In the main function you need to start the pwmTask

Next, I will update the uartTask

• To not getchar’s unless there is something in the RX buffer of the UART (line 13).
• Create a message aka a uin32_t based on the key pressed and send it with xQueueSend
• If there was nothing there then taskYIELD to one of the other tasks (line 35)

Program and Test

Edit the FreeRTOS.h and make a bigger heap

The CapSense task is going to take more heap space that is currently allocated for FreeRTOS.  To fix this I need to edit the FreeRTOS.h and change the heap size to 48K (which I picked out of the air)

Add the CapSense Buttons to the Schematic and Set the Pins

In order to add CapSense to the design, you find the CapSense component in the Component Catalog. Then you drag it into your schematic.

The next thing to do is configure the CapSense block.  I start by re-naming it to “CapSense”.  Then I click on the plus and add two “Button”s to the design.

Then I change the configuration to “CSX (Mutual-cap).

On the CY8CKIT-062-BLE, there is a shared transmit line. This saves 1 pin.  You need to tell the CapSense component that you are using a shared Tx.  To do this click on Advanced -> Widget Details.  Then pick “Button1_tx” and set the Sensor Connection / Ganging to “Button0_Tx”

Once the CapSense is configured you need to Set the Pins.

Next you run “Generate Application” which will let PSoC Creator place and route the design plus bring in all of the required drivers.

Add the capsenseTask

Now create a new task function called capsenseTask it will

• Use 4 variables to hold the previous and current state of the buttons (line 81-84)
• Start the CapSense Block (line 88)
• Start CapSense Scanning (line 89)
• If the CapSense hardware is not busy then you can talk to it. (line 93)
• Start by turning the raw data into useable information (line 96)
• Read the state of the buttons (line 98-99)
• If the button state has changed, then send a message to the PWM Task (line 101-110)
• Save the state of the buttons (line 111-112)
• Update the baseline information (line 114)
• Start Scanning again (line 115)
• If the CapSense block is busy then yield to the other tasks (line 118)

And start the capSense task in main.

Program and Test

Add the CapSense Slider to the Schematic and Set the Pins

To make the slider work you need to add a LinearSlider widget by pressing the “+” and selecting LinearSlider

Once you have added the LinearSlider you need to set the pins for the new CapSense Slider

Update the capsenseTask to Include the Slider

The changes are small to make the LinearSlider work.  You just need to

1. Read the position of the slider (line 99)
2. The slider will be 0xFFFF if there is no touch… in which case ignore it (line 100)
3. If you got a touch, then make that a message and set it to the PWM (line 102-103)

Program and Test

PSoC 6 Introduction

Since I did the webinar several things have happened

1. Lesson 4: I fixed an error in the stack size for FreeRTOS
2. Lesson 5: The PSoC Creator BLE PDL has been upgraded to greatly simplify the notifyCapSense function

All of the projects are available at git@github.com:iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction.git or www.github.com/iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction

Project Description

This project will show you how to build a PSoC 6 project that is running FreeRTOS and printing information to the debugging UART

How does it work?

The PSoC 6 is a very capable, fast dual Coretex-M MCU.  In order to manage your design complexity that can be attacked with this chip, we gave you the ability to use a Real Time Operating System – FreeRTOS.  With a few simple clicks it will startup for you.

The CY8CKIT-062-BLE has a KitProg-2 Debugger/Programmer on board.  In addition to Program/Debug it can also serve as a USB <–> UART bridge which will allow you to open a terminal program on your PC to do Input/Output with a UART in the PSoC 6.

How am I going to do it?

1. Copy “MyFirstDesign” to Start a New Project
2. Modify the Build Settings to add Debug Printing and FreeRTOS
3. Add the UART to the Schematic and Assign the Pins
4. Create the UART Test Firmware
5. Program and Test the Debug UART
6. Modify firmware for FreeRTOS
7. Program and Test
8. A Tour of PDL for the TCPWM

Copy “MyFirstDesign” to Start a New Project

Right click on “MyFirstDesign” and select “Copy”

Then right click on the workspace and select “Paste”

Then right click on “MyFirstDesign_Copy_01” and select rename.  Then type in a reasonable name like “FreeRTOS-UART”

PSoC Creator will ask you about some files.  Just click “Rename”

Now you will have three projects in your workspace.  I typically click “Program” which will build the copied project and program the development kit… just to make sure that stuff still works.

Modify the build settings to add debug printing and FreeRTOS

You can build massively complex systems with PSoC 6.  In order to help manage that complexity I like to turn on debug printing so that “printf” works.  I also like to use a Real Time Operating System (FreeRTOS).  PSoC Creator has both of these things built in.  We called the printf functionality “Retarget I/O” because you need to “target” the Input / Output of the printf … aka STDIN and STDOUT to a peripheral in the PSoC.  The best peripheral to use for printf is the UART that is attached to your computer via kitprog2.

To add printf and FreeRTOS to your project you need to: Right click on the project and select “Build Settings…”

Click on the Peripheral Driver Library and then select “FreeRTOS” and “Memory Management heap_4”.  Then select “Retarget I/O”.  When you build your project this will cause PSoC Creator to add both of these to your project.

Select Build->Generate Application and notice that PSoC Creator added a number of files to your project including the FreeRTOS, stdio_user.c/.h and retarget_io

Add the UART to the Schematic and Assign the Pins

In order to printf, getchar and putchar  you need to attach c standard library stdin and stdout to “something”.  The best “something” is the UART that is attached to the KitProg2 which is attached to your computer.  Then you can open a terminal program (like Putty) and read and write to the PSoC.

So, to do this you need to add a UART to your design schematic from the component catalog.  In the picture below I just typed “uart” in the search box.

What pins on the PSoC 6 BLE is the UART attached to?  Well… if you turn over your CY8CKIT-062-BLE you will find a little map that show that the PSoC 6 BLE UART is attached to the PSoC 5LP UART.  The PSoC 5LP is programmed with the KitProg2 firmware.

To attach those pins in your firmware you just double click on the “Pins” tab in the DWR.  Then you can select “Port” for the UART RX and TX.  Look at the picture below.

Now that I have all of that done, I run “Build->Generate Application” to get all of the new settings into my project.

Create the UART Test Firmware

The next step in making the printf work is to “retarget” it to the UART we just put in the schematic.  Open “stdio_user.h” and add “include <project.h>” (line 130) and change IO_STDOUT_UART and IO_STDIN_UART to be UART_1_HW.  The name “UART_1” on lines 136-137

Now edit your main_cm4.c to:

• Turn on the UART with UART_1_Start() on line
• Then a couple of printfs lines 24-25

Note that “\033[2J\033[H” is just a VT100 escape sequence for clear screen and go home.

Program and Test the Debug UART

You need to figure out which com port that the KitProg2 is attached to.  To do this run the device manager by pressing the “windows” button then typing “device manger”

Click on ports.  Then you can see that the programmer is “KitProg2” and that the UART is attached to COM9 (everyone will have a different number)

Run Putty (or  your favorite terminal program)

Press the program button on PSoC Creator and you should see your test print

Modify firmware for FreeRTOS

When I look out the output window from the previous step you can see that there is a warning message from FreeRTOS.  Lets fix that warning (by deleting line 83).  While we are at it, lets change the heap size to 48K (48*1024)

Now lets turn on FreeRTOS. Double click on main_cm4.c to open it in the code editor.

Add the following firmware to your project.

The uartTask is function that FreeRTOS uses to create a Task.  This task will control the uart. (which is amazingly enough why I named it uartTask)

• The function call “setvbuff” turns of buffering on stdin… which means every character will immediately come through to your program
• getchar just gets a character from the terminal
• the ‘s’ and ‘S’ will start and stop the PWM (more to follow)

In main I

• Create a task for the uartTask (line 56)
• Start FreeRTOS (line 57)

How did I figure out how to start/stop the PWM?  To find the documentation for “PDL” aka the Peripheral Driver Library, you can right click on the component in the schematic and select “Open PDL Documentation”

Or you can open “Help –> Documentation –> Peripheral Driver Library”

In the documentation I can see all kind of functions, including “Cy_TCPWM_PWM_Disable”

Program and Test

A Tour of PDL for the TCPWM

How did I figure out that the TCPWM_Type *base should be “UART_1_HW”?  ….. well …. You might ask yourself, “What does PWM_1_Start()” do?  It just calls PDL start function.  OK… so what does that do?  To find out you can right click on the “PWM_1_Start” function and select “Go To Definition” which will take you to the source code.

You will end up in a file called “PWM_1.c”.  This file was created for you automatically by PSoC Creator.   This function is really simple.

• If it has never been initialized then it calls init (lines 15-19)
• Then it enables the TCPWM (line 22)
• Then if there not an external pin on the PWM, then it causes a software trigger (line 25)

So, you might ask yourself what is “PWM_1_HW”?  Well this is just the base address of the registers for the PWM_1.  Lets follow that.  Right click on it and go to definition.

This will take you to PWM_1.h and you will see PWM_1_HW is setup as PWM_1_TCPWM_HW.  What is that?  Well do the right click thing again and find out.

This will take you to “cyfitter.h” which is the output of the place and route.  It tell you that PWM_1_TCP is really TCPWM0

 

Summary

This is the top level web page for a two hour class about getting started with PSoC 6.  I was initially a bit worried about how much could be covered in only two hours… then I remembered how awesome PSoC Creator is at getting people going.  Originally, I was planning on writing a lab manual document describing all of the getting started exercises, but upon reflection, I decided to make a series of IoT Expert articles so that the content could be live.

I believe strongly that hands-on is best for real learning, so this class is built as four lab exercises for you to do by following along with my instructions.  I supplement the lab exercises with a survey of the PSoC 6 ecosystem… meaning all of the resources you can use to get help and learn.

You will need a few things for the class:

• PSoC Creator 4.2
• Copies of the example projects. GitHub or zip
• PSoC 6 BLE Pioneer Kit (CY8CKIT-062-BLE)
• A Terminal Program like Putty
• A desire to be awesome! (instead of lame) by making amazing products

Todays virtual workshop agenda is as follows:

PSoC 6 Introduction

Since I did the webinar several things have happened

1. Lesson 4: I fixed an error in the stack size for FreeRTOS
2. Lesson 5: The PSoC Creator BLE PDL has been upgraded to greatly simplify the notifyCapSense function

All of the projects are available at git@github.com:iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction.git or www.github.com/iotexpert/psoc-6-introduction

PSoC Creator 4.2

The class is built on PSoC Creator 4.2 which is currently in beta.  Here is a screenshot (of the class workspace) that includes the example projects (which you can download).  It also shows that some of the components are still prototypes.  Don’t worry, Cypress will be releasing production silicon and final development software soon.

CY8CKIT-062-BLE

The class is built for the CY8CKIT-062-BLE.  Here is a picture of my development kit taken from the table at Starbucks where I am finishing the material for this class.

And here is the nice picture from our website (that the marketing guys made me use)