The Circuit Design Blog

Shields, Breakout Boards and Modules in TINACloud

Nowadays, there are many opportunities to extend the capabilities of a microcontroller board, for example, shields, breakout boards and modules. All of these are open-source hardware, which means that the boards have detailed descriptions, schematics, PCB files, hookup guides and examples.

In this video, we will explain what these hardware devices are and how to use them with an Arduino Uno in TINACloud.

Arduino Shields

Arduino shields are boards that can be plugged on top of Arduino boards. They have the same pinout as the main board, and these pin names are represented on the PCB. The different shields have different capabilities (DC motor control shield, relay shield, LCD shield, etc.). Using them is time and cost effective.

Breakout Boards

The basic concept of breakout boards is to use just a single electrical component on each board. The pins of the component are wired out, and their names are represented on the board. This concept allows for easy usage and reusability. Breakout boards are usually smaller than shields. Usually, a breakout board represents a small functional circuit. These can be sensors, drivers, displays, etc. Breakout boards can be used with any microcontroller.

Modules

Some manufacturers produce breakouts that use the same x-pin header or connector on every board. These breakout boards are called modules.

You can place shields, breakout boards and modules in TINACloud from TINACloud’s Logic ICs-MCUs toolbar.

Let’s see how some of these examples work.

4 Relays Shield

The 4 Relays Shield provides a solution to control high power loads that cannot be controlled by the Arduino itself because of the limitations of the digital IO-s. The 4 Relays Shield has four relays, which are 2-pole changeover contacts in order to increase the current limit of the output. The main advantage of the Arduino system is that with the following simple program, which is included in the example, we can operate the relays and light up the LEDs sequentially.

Click the TR button to start the simulation. As expected, the LEDs light up one by one and then turn off one by one. Now let’s see how this looks with the real hardware.

LCD keypad shield

Open the next example, “LCD keypad shield-Arduino Uno.tsc,” from the same folder.

The Arduino LCD shield is fit for the Arduino Uno board. It contains a 16×2 LCD display and six momentary push buttons. Pins 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are used to interface with the LCD. Analog pin 0 is used to read the five push buttons.

The next example is a module example. You can find it in the Grove Modules folder in TINACloud.

Grove LED module

The Grove – LED module contains an LED light source. In addition, it has a potentiometer on-board to manage the power requirements of the LED.

Our last example is a breakout board example. Open it from the SparkFun Breakouts folder.

SparkFun 74HC595 Breakout board

The SparkFun 74HC595 breakout board contains the SOIC version of the 74HC595 shift register IC. The pins of the IC are wired out and marked on the board. The serial in and out pins are located on the opposite side of the board to allow easy chainable functionality.

The code will write the word HELLO sequentially on the 8-segment display.

In this video tutorial, we demonstrated two basic shields, a module and a breakout board for Arduino. Stay tuned to our YouTube channel to learn more about Arduino and its accessories.

To learn more please click  here.

You can learn more about TINA here: www.tina.com

You can learn more about TINACloud here: www.tinacloud.com

In this tutorial video we will show how to create a digital circuit and download it to a Digilent Basys 3 FPGA board by using TINACloud’s Schematic Editor.

In a similar way it is also possible to download digital circuits to the FPGA of DesignSoft’s LabXplorer.

The schematic design may contain gates or other built-in digital components in TINACloud. Also it may contain macros defining digital components with hardware description languages such as VHDL or Verilog.

In this video, we use a free Xilinx tool, Vivado, which is required for the FPGA in Digilent Basys 3.

As demonstration we use a half adder circuit which you can find in the Example folder of TINACloud.

Getting ready to test the circuit in real FPGA development board environment

Before testing our circuit in a real FPGA development board environment, we need to extend our schematic with FPGA Pin connectors. We add 2 Pin connectors to the inputs and 2 Pins to the outputs.

Next, we rename the FPGA input and output Pins (including their labels) accordingly as those on the FPGA boards.

Next, we present how to generate the source file for Xilinx Vivado.

Note that TINACloud always creates  vhd file from any type of
representation of the digital circuit. That is, schematic diagrams, VHDL, Verilog codes or their mix are always translated into a vhd file for Vivado.

The xdc – Xilinx Design Constraints – guides the Xilinx software on which physical pins on the FPGA will be the inputs and outputs. The xdc is made from the FPGA pin settings we made previously.

Creating the Vivado project and programming the hardware

Next, we need to create the Vivado project to produce downloadable content.

As soon as we finish programming the hardware we can start testing our simulated Half Adder circuit and see how it works along with the programmed Basys 3 hardware.

We will change the virtual switches in TINACloud by clicking them on the screen, and at the same time we will also change the real switches on the Basys 3 board.

• If both inputs are low, then Sum and Carry are also low. 
• If just one input is high, then Sum is high and Carry is low.
• If both inputs are high, then Sum is low and Carry is high.

As you can see, in all cases the results are exactly the same.

This is a great example of demonstrating the power of simulation since you can test and debug circuits even before realizing them, and in our case before downloading to FPGA, where if there were any issues it would be extremely hard to find the problem.

To watch our tutorial and learn more please click  here.

You can learn more about TINA here: www.tina.com

You can learn more about TINACloud here: www.tinacloud.com

In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to use the virtual oscilloscope in TINACloud.

In practice we very often use an oscilloscope to measure, analyze and debug circuits in the time domain. So, it seems obvious that a simulated oscilloscope can be used in circuit simulation as well. However there are a few important things you must know about.

Even if you analyze the circuits in the computer with a simulated oscilloscope it is still simulation. You should not consider it as measurement, unless you use real time data acquisition for obtaining the data.

The simulated oscilloscope is very useful when you want to adjust some component values of small circuits and want to see the effect of the changes immediately, in order to fine-tune your circuit.

We present the use of the virtual oscillator through an example: Collpitts Oscillator circuit.

• First load the Colpitts.tsc circuit from the TINA Examples folder of TINACloud.
• Next invoke the Oscilloscope from the T&M menu,
• then press the Run button.

As a result , the Out1 signal appears. By default, the oscilloscope is in the “Auto” i. e., free running mode.

To get a steady state image you should enable triggering as follows:

• Set the Trigger Mode to Normal
• next, set Trigger Source to Out1
• finally, set the Trigger Level to 300m.

Consequently, the waveform is stabilized.

With the controls of the Oscilloscope you can make a lot of changes on the displayed waveform.

Here are a few:

By default, on the Oscilloscope rising edge triggering is used, so the display starts when the signal rises above the Trigger level.

• You can also set this to falling edge triggering where the display starts when the signal falls below the Trigger level.

• You can also bring in the Vout signal by selecting Vout under Channel

Let’s have the same vertical settings for Vout as for Out1.

• Finally, you can export the display into a diagram by pressing the Export to Diagram button under Data.

To watch our tutorial and learn more please click  here.

You can learn more about TINA here: www.tina.com

You can learn more about TINACloud here: www.tinacloud.com

In this tutorial video, we will demonstrate and compare the tools available in TINACloud for analyzing circuits in time domain. In TINACloud, you can analyze circuits in time domain, employing two different tools:

• Transient analysis from the Analysis menu of TINACloud.
• Simulated virtual oscilloscope from the T&M menu of TINACloud.

Transient analysis

The Transient analysis calculates the time response of circuits and presents the results as diagrams or text.

Select Transient from the Analysis menu of TINACloud, then press the Run button.

It is also important to select an option related to the Start condition.

For oscillators, like our circuit, the Zero initial values option applies. For amplifiers and many other circuits, you should use the default “Calculate operating point” option. You can refine the diagram in several ways. Here are a few:

• Zoom into any part of the diagram.
• Run cursors on the curves of the diagram.
• Calculate the frequency of the oscillation.
• Mark a period of the signal with the cursors.
• You can also find the Local or Global Minimum or Maximum by clicking the actual value field of a curve.
• You can also enter values to set the cursors more precisely, or
• add Labels to the curves showing the name of the related output on the circuit.
• Separate the curves or collect them in one diagram.
• You can insert the diagram into the schematics and save them together.

Simulated Virtual Oscilloscope

Now, let’s learn to operate the simulated virtual oscilloscope.

The simulated oscilloscope is very useful when you want to adjust some component values of small circuits and want to see the effect of the changes immediately, in order to fine-tune your circuit.

Invoke the oscilloscope from the T&M menu. After pressing the Run button the Out1 signal appears.

Use the controls to make the curve bigger and more detailed.

By default, the oscilloscope is in the “Auto” i. e., free running mode.

To get a steady state image you should enable triggering as follows:

Set the Trigger Mode to Normal

Set Trigger Source to Out1

Set the Trigger Level to 300m.

Consequently, the waveform is stabilized.

With the controls of the oscilloscope you can make a lot of changes on the displayed waveform. Here are a few:

By default, on the oscilloscope rising edge triggering is used, so the display starts when the signal rises above the Trigger level.

• You can also set this to falling edge triggering where the display starts when the signal falls below the Trigger level.
• You can also bring in the Vout signal by selecting Vout under Channel
• Finally, you can export the display into a diagram by pressing the Export to Diagram button under Data.

To learn more please click  here.

You can learn more about TINA here: www.tina.com

You can learn more about TINACloud here: www.tinacloud.com

?TINACloud – כיצד להשתמש באוסצילוסקופ הווירטואלי ב

In this tutorial you can learn about how to use the virtual oscilloscope in TINACloud in Hebrew language.

We will analyze an oscillator circuit „Colpitts.tsc” which is included in the Example folder of TINACloud.

It is important to know that the simulated oscilloscope is very useful when you want to adjust some component values of small circuits and want to see the effect of the changes immediately, in order to fine-tune your circuit.

First, open the Colpitts. tsc from the File menu of TINACloud. After that invoke the Oscilloscope from the T&M menu. Then, press the Run button. The Out1 signal appears. Now, you can use the controls to make the curve bigger and more detailed.

By default, the oscilloscope is in the “Auto” i. e., free running mode. Therefore, we will show how to get a steady state image, as a result the waveform is stabilized.

We will also show how to switch the displayed signal into Falling Edge triggering, similarly how to bring in the Vout signal.

In addition, we will also explain how you can export the display into a diagram.

Finally, we will present how to fine-tune the circuit by changing the R resistor so that both Out1 and Vout are sinusoidal.

To watch our tutorial please click  here.

You can learn more about TINA here: www.tina.com

You can learn more about TINACloud here: www.tinacloud.com