Designing in-home display units with Atmel tech

In-home display (IHD) units play a critical role in helping customers reduce their energy usage by providing relevant stats in real-time. Indeed, IHD units are typically designed to acquire and display information via a sensor with built-in RF and/or PLC. A more effective method? Transmitting information from a smart meter using a home area network.

“IHD units vary in complexity, from simple wall-mounted segment LCD displays, up to battery-operated products with color TFT displays and touchscreens,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “Advanced IHDs can display not only consumption information, but energy consumption advice from energy providers. They can also support a variety of additional functions such as home automation.”

To be sure, IHD units typically support displays, connectivity via USB and RF, as well as low power and touch buttons or screens for a fully interactive user interface (UI). And that is why Atmel offers a wide range of versatile microcontrollers (MCUs) for IHDs, from entry-level 8-bit AVRs to a sophisticated ARM9 core with embedded LCD graphics display controllers.

“In short, Atmel’s MCUs help facilitate flexible touch solutions, from buttons and wheels to sophisticated touch-screens, all providing support for a wide range of user interface features and capabilities,” the Atmel engineering rep explained.

“Meanwhile, power line communications (PLC) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions with full digital implementation deliver best-in-class sensitivity, high performance and high temperature stability. Plus, our CryptoAuthentication lineup provide a cost-effective, easy-to-implement security solution that is critical for wireless communication between meters and  IHD units.”

In terms of power efficiency, Atmel offers a number of advanced capabilities, including 1 µA watchdog and brown-out, picoPower tech for extended battery life, an event system to allow measurement while CPU is in SLEEP mode, support for true 1.6V operation, low-power RF transceivers for connectivity and the lowest power 32 kHz crystal oscillator (650nA RTC).

“In-house display units can range from a basic segment LCD to a more sophisticated color TFT. Depending on the display choice drivers and required  processing power, the primary microcontroller can be either an entry-level 8- or 32-bit MCU, scaling up to a more powerful embedded MPU with on-chip TFT LCD controller,” the engineering rep added.

“As products become more sophisticated, so will the UI. Atmel touch technology provides robust support for state of the art features such as capacitive touch buttons or a full touchscreen. The communications within the IHD depend on the implemented architecture of the HAN (typically RF or PLC). Of course, wireless connectivity can also be supported via Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) cards.”

Interested in learning more about designing in-home display units with Atmel tech? Be sure to check out our extensive device breakdown here.

Hot August Nights Fever? Atmel Automotive Infographic

People love their cars. It’s one of those near universal facts. Whether they live in big cities or small rural hamlets, drive a mini or a hummer, there is just something about the sexy vroom vroom of an engine that excites people on a primal level.

Perhaps it’s the destructive force in us that is drawn to what is basically a controlled explosion on wheels. Perhaps it’s something to do with an automobile’s sleek and contoured chassis – or the human need for speed.

Or maybe, it’s because there is a certain zen to be found in tinkering with an engine. Of souping up and optimizing an already lean, mean machine, and making it purr. Somewhere in all of us is an engineer who simply wants to solve puzzles – and what greater puzzle to solve than the many moving parts to be found under the hood?

We at Atmel are especially passionate about the automotive space, having been one of the first semiconductor companies to enter the market, embracing both the productive and the creative passion from the get-go.

Telefunken (the pre- predecessor of Atmel Automotive) was founded as early as 1903, while the Heilbronn fab in Germany, acquired by Atmel in the 1980’s, was founded way back in 1960.

Atmel’s first success in automotive was (rather fittingly) the electronic ignition IC which, in 1979/1980, was installed in every Volkswagen car.

Another early milestone along Atmel’s automotive roadmap was, ironically, braking. A start-to-stop scenario, so to speak.

The market for connected vehicles is expected to grow to a whopping $53 billion by 2018, with consumers demanding more and more connectivity each year.

A study by Deloitte in 2011 determined that 46% of people between the ages of 18-24 cited connectivity as being “extremely important” to them when it came to cars, with 37% wanting to stay as connected as possible while in their vehicles. A resounding 65% identified remote vehicle control as an important feature in their next automotive purchase; while 77% favored remote diagnostics minimizing dealer visits. And let’s face it, who can blame them?

A 2013 study by Cisco went even further, positing that Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications could enable cars to detect each other’s presence and location, helping avoid accidents, lower road costs and decrease carbon emissions. The report also found that intelligent cars would lead to 7.5% less time wasted in traffic congestion and 4% lower costs for vehicle fuel.

With over 1 billion passenger cars careening through the world’s streets already, increased digitization can’t come fast enough!

Today, Atmel supplies all 10 of the top 10 tier 1 automotive electronic suppliers in the world, not only with microcontrollers (MCUs), but with touch sensor technology too. Indeed, Atmel’s latest touch innovation, the bendable, flexible, printed wonder that is Xsense, has now been fully qualified and is ready to ramp, meaning sexy curved glass dashboards are closer than you’d imagine… Not bad for a feature originally developed as a piece of wood attached to the front of a horse drawn carriage to prevent mud from splattering the driver!

Atmel is also renowned for being a leading car access supplier, meaning we make the chips that enable cool remote keyless entry (RKE) systems with immobilizers, to reduce the risk of anyone stealing your steel beauty away from you. In fact, Atmel has already delivered over 250 Million ICs for this specific application, so that’s a whole lot of key fobs! Speaking of key fobs, here’s a fun fact; holding a remote car key to your head doubles its range because the human skull acts as an amplifier.

Moving from cool keyfobs to total hotness, it’s also worth noting that Atmel sells some of the highest temperature resistant parts in the market, some of which can handle heat of up to 200°C.

Last, but certainly not least, Atmel boasts the world’s largest portfolio of Local Interconnect Network (LIN) devices, for communication between components in vehicles. The firm’s devices have OEM approvals from all major car manufacturers worldwide, which is certainly something to be proud of.

So next time you find yourself on that long and winding road, kicking into high gear and hugging those curves, spare a thought for the components, because when it comes to cars, the devil really is in the details.

Arduino-based satellites for the homebrew masses

Arduino boards are used to power a wide range of electronic designs and DIY hobbyist creations including robots, desk lamps, environmental sensors, 3D printers and even satellites.

Indeed, the San Francisco-based Nanosatisfi is currently prepping two Arduino-powered satellites (ArduSat) for launch on an unmanned HII-B rocket, which Kickstarter backers have “rented” to snap pictures, broadcast a message or conduct experiments, including monitoring radioactivity levels generated by space phenomena such as sun storms and background activity.

According to Nanosatisfi CEO Peter Platzer, Arduino technology is key to the company’s philosophy.

“I’ve really wanted to use something that everyone across the world can use, that has wide appeal to everyday people,” Platzer recently told NPR. “There really was no alternative.”

To be sure, ArduSat is designed to give ordinary people – students, teachers, individuals and enterprises – the chance to carry out experiments by controlling over 25 different sensors integrated in the unit, (spectrometer, magnetometer, radiation, camera, gyroscope, accelerometer, temperature, etc.)

As noted above, the goal of the ArduSat project is to make space accessible to consumers, relatively cheaply.

Unsurprisingly, Atmel-powered Arduino boards are also widely used in the art world, with Alberto Gaitán, a Washington, D.C.-based artist, telling NPR  that Ardunio’s popularity is “growing, and growing fast.”

For example, an artist by the name of Joyce Yu-Jean Lee told NPR she wanted to use the Arduino in her next video art project.

“I’ve been wanting for a very long time – since graduate school – to work with sensors to make my videos interact with the viewers,” she explained. “I’ll have a solo show in the fall. I think I can get it down by then.”

And why not? As Arduino’s Massimo Banzi says, you don’t need anyone’s permission to make something great.

A closer look at Atmel’s Xplained kits

Earlier this summer, Bits & Pieces took readers on a brief virtual tour of Atmel’s Xplained Pro kits. Today, we want to familiarize our readers with Atmel’s Xplained evaluation kits for our extensive lineup of 8- and 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs).

“Essentially, Atmel’s Xplained lineup consists of a series of low-cost MCU boards to help devs evaluate and demonstrate product features and capabilities for different Atmel microcontroller families,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “In addition, a rich selection of example projects and code drivers are provided in Atmel Studio, while code functionality is easily added by pulling in additional drivers and libraries from the Atmel Software Framework.

The Atmel Xplained series also includes a range of add-on boards that can be stacked on top of the MCU boards to create platforms for specific application development. This means a wide range of add-on boards is available, including inertial pressure and temperature sensors, ZigBee RF and Cryptographic authentication.

However, it should be noted that due to difference in features such as pin count or memory size, some add-on boards may not work with all MCU boards, so be sure to look at the the table below which summarizes recommended combinations.

On the X/MEGA side, Xplained kits include the XMEGA-E5 (ATxmega32E5) , XMEGA-C3 (ATxmega384C3), XMEGA-A3BU (ATxmega256A3BU), MEGA-1284P (ATmega1284), XMEGA-A1 (ATxmega128A1) and the XMEGA-B1 (ATxmega128B1 and LCD controller).

Additional Xplained kits include the UC3-A3 (AT32UC3A3256), the SAM4S (SAM4S ARM Cortex-M4), CryptoAuthentication add-on (ATSHA204) , UC3-L0 (picoPower AT32UC3L064), Temperature Sensor Xplained (add-on) and the Sensors Xplained (add-on).

Powering industrial communications with Atmel

Industrial communications are a critical aspect of current-gen automated systems – with defined standards that continue to evolve as new industrial Ethernet protocols emerge. Atmel’s versatile portfolio of microcontrollers (MCUs) provides engineers with the peripherals and internal system architecture required to efficiently interface new products with leading field busses, industrial Ethernet standards and wireless communications.

Field Bus

Atmel offers a dedicated RS485 mode for USART peripherals which is available on most ARM processor-based AT91SAM and AVR 32-bit microcontrollers. Meanwhile, a rich number of DMA channels on Atmel megaAVR, AVR XMEGA, AVR 32-bit and AT91SAM MCUs unload the CPU during industrial communication transfers, with multi-layer bus implementation on Atmel 32-bit microcontrollers enabling true parallel data transfers and effectively minimizing bus load limitation.

In addition, there is an (optional) external bus interface on several Atmel microcontrollers, with up to 32-bit data supports dedicated ASSP for protocols such as Profibus. Plus, up to 12Mbps USART on the SAM3U and SAM9 microcontrollers provides support for external transceivers. In terms of single or dual CAN controllers, select Atmel MCUs are V2.0A and V2.0B standard compliant, supporting independent message objects that are programmable on the fly and ideal for field bus such as CANopen and DeviceNet.

Industrial Ethernet

The vertical integration of management execution systems with factory floor equipment has resulted in the continued convergence of the Ethernet TCP/IP protocol with industrial field busses. As noted above, several industrial Ethernet protocols have emerged, including Profinet, Ethernet/IP, ModbusTCP/IP, EtherCat and Ethernet Powerlink.

“Most industrial Ethernet automated systems do not require compliance with a PLC cycle times lower than a few milliseconds. For these applications, the industrial Ethernet protocol can be cost-effectively implemented in software on a microcontroller with an integrated standard Ethernet MAC peripheral,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“Due to their moderate flash size requirement, protocols like Modbus TCP can be implemented in a microcontroller. Atmel offers ARM-based and 32-bit AVR microcontrollers with up to 512KB of flash and an integrated Ethernet MAC unit.”

According to the rep, one of the most noteworthy features includes a 10/100 Ethernet Media Access Controller (EMAC) peripheral with chained buffer Direct Memory Access (DMA). This acts as a master on the internal multi layer bus with multiple internal SRAM blocks – enabling a true parallel data transfer between the Ethernet frames and the application data.

“Atmel’s  SAM9  MPUs are also price-competitive solutions for implementing industrial Ethernet protocols, such as the Ethernet/IP standard, which requires a higher flash size and faster execution time,” the engineering rep continued.

“Atmel’s  SAM9 MPU, like the SAM9G45, offers a variety of benefits, including a 400Mhz clocked ARM926EJ core with 32KB instruction and data caches speed execution time. There is also deterministic execution time with the use of the TCM (Tightly Coupled Memory) interface, enabling access to the internal SRAM with zero wait state at 400MHz. Indeed, by dynamically configuring the SRAM as TCM, Ethernet frames can be analyzed at full speed without any copy to the cache.”

For motion control applications, synchronism and short latency aspects are crucial. Protocols such as Profinet IRT or Ethercat address these requirements and are suited for systems with a sub-millisecond PLC times. In this case, specific ASSP or FPGA solutions must be used. The Atmel SAM9G45, with its dual EBI feature, lets designers integrate the industrial Ethernet communication module with minimal performance impact. Data transfers between the ASIC or FPGA can be handled by the DMA unit, in parallel with external RAM access.

Wireless Communication

Wireless communication in the industrial automation sector is increasingly popular, as it provides an easier way to install and connect mobile or inaccessible equipment. To be sure, industrial control equipment such as PLC and DCS IO modules primarily utilize IEEE802.11 WLAN and Bluetooth standards. And that is one of the reasons Atmel’s 32-bit microcontrollers and microprocessors feature an embedded multimedia card interface which supports connection to an SDIO WLAN or Bluetooth module. In fact, a full reference design based on the Atmel AVR 32-bit microcontroller and the industrial Wifi Module from H&D is available for evaluation and development here, while a Linux-based solution for Atmel SAM9 microcontrollers can be found here.

And last, but certainly not least, industrial sensors and actuators have demanding requirements for power consumption, board space and implementation cost. For these products, IEEE802.15.4 technology, such as Zigbee or Wireless-HART is most appropriate, with Atmel offering complete wireless solutions based on our low-power microcontrollers and RF transceivers. Benefits include excellent RF performance, which enables longer range and more robust RF link, optimized power consumption and lowest system cost.

Additional information about Atmel MCUs that can be used to power a wide range of industrial communication devices is available here.

Powering HID ballasts with Atmel MCUs

This month, Bits & Pieces is taking a closer look at Atmel’s versatile lighting (MCU) portfolio. First, we discussed the role Atmel MCUs (microcontrollers) have to play in brightening LED ballasts. Specifically, we’ve highlighted the AVR AT90PWM microcontroller which supports the DALI standard and is used to network multiple ballasts to a centralized system for tighter light level control and significant energy savings.

We’ve also talked about how Atmel MCUs are used to light up fluorescent ballasts, producing warm and inviting light without flickering or humming. And today we are getting up close and personal with the Atmel-side of HID ballasts.

Due to their high light (lumen) output per watt, HID lights work quite well in large indoor and outdoor public areas. They are also being increasingly used for vehicle headlights, projection TVs and displays. However, HID ballasts do require sophisticated wattage control.

Fortunately, the embedded EERPROM on Atmel’s stalwart AT90PWM is capable of storing tube wattages and parameters for accurate wattage detection and parameter adjustment without additional components. Meanwhile, Integrated Power Stage Controllers (PSCs) help reduce electromagnetic interference (EFI), manage lamp power and control voltage in HID lamps.

In addition, Atmel accelerates time to market for engineers with its ATAVRFBKIT light ballast demonstration kit which incorporates a broad range of design features, including universal line input, low harmonic distortion, low stand-by power and aging protection features.

“In short, digital HID ballasts are fast replacing magnetic HID ballasts because of their significant energy and cost savings,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “With the Atmel AT90PWM microprocessor family, you can embed up to three Power Stage Controllers (PSCs) to drive your lighting system according your lamp power.”

Interested in learning more about Atmel devices for HID ballasts? Be sure to check out our extensive portfolio here.

Designing gas and water meters with Atmel MCUs

Gas and water meters – deployed by utility companies to measure usage stats – are typically designed to display data on a small segment LCD screen. Unlike standard electricity meters, gas and water meters are usually battery-operated, so power efficiency is clearly a key requirement.

RF communication has also become a critical feature for gas and water meters due to the advent of AMI architecture – with the Smart Electricity Meter often acting as the gateway to a utility for meter reading. In addition, an increasing number of gas and water meters are tapping into home area networks, requiring optimized security to protect data communications between devices.

The microcontrollers used in gas and water meters are generally 8- or 16-bit MCUs with ultra-low power features, often with integrated LCD segment drive capability. As such, selecting Atmel’s extensive MCU portfolio to design water and gas meters offers engineers a number of advantages.

“These include potentially best-in-class embedded 12-bit ADC and analog comparators to provide analog peripheral support, 1 µA watchdog and brown-out (monitor), picoPower to extend battery life, an event system to facilitate measurement whilst CPU is in SLEEP modes, 1.6V operation and lowest power 32 kHz crystal oscillator (650nA RTC),” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“There is also an option for embedded display controller, with high EMC performance reducing the need for external protection. Meanwhile, ±1% internal oscillators enable communications to run from internal oscillator (RC), as hardware authentication products with ultra-low standby current coupled with onboard microcontroller encryption enhances security for networked applications. In terms of transceivers, Atmel RF Transceivers offers best-in-class power consumption, while our single-chip Atmel ATmega128RFA1 combines a microcontroller and RF transceiver for efficient BOM.”

Unlike electricity measurement (voltage/current), notes the engineering rep, gas and water meters utilize a variety of parameters and techniques for flow metering. Examples include turbine and pelton wheel, optical acoustic doppler, thermal mass, vortex, magnetic, ultrasonic and coriolis flow meters (see the metrology sensor, shown in the block diagram above).

Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog (DAC) can also be useful peripherals to embed in the microcontroller, as they help facilitate flow measurement. Remember, flow meters are battery-powered, requiring power-efficient solutions capable of supporting up to 20 years of operation.

“Of course, LCD support is an important requirement. This capability can be driven serially with chip on glass, but must often be integrated into the microcontroller. Essential peripherals include serial communications and, frequently, security through encryption,” the engineering rep added.

“Dual clock input for high accuracy main clock (often used for timings in metrology) and second clock input for 32KHz for RTC. For Smart Meter and Smart Grid implementations, RF is the communication medium of choice to connect to the HAN to support AMR.”

Interested in learning more about using Atmel MCUs to design gas and water meters? Be sure to check out our extensive portfolio of MCUs that can be used to power such designs.

A closer look at Atmel’s AVR CPU

Atmel’s 8- and 32-bit AVR CPUs are based on advanced Harvard architecture – which is perhaps best known for neatly balancing power consumption with performance.

Like every Harvard architecture device, the AVR CPU is equipped with two busses: one instruction bus where the CPU reads executable instructions; and a second data bus to read or write the corresponding data.

“This ensures that a new instruction can be executed in every clock cycle, which eliminates wait states when no instruction is ready to be executed,” an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces. “The busses in AVR microcontrollers are configured to provide the CPU instruction bus priority access to the on-chip Flash memory. The CPU data bus has priority access to the SRAM.”

To make the AVR instruction set as efficient as possible, Atmel engineers invited compiler experts from IAR Systems to co-develop the first AVR C compiler. Following extensive refinement, the AVR architecture became optimized for C-code execution, with bottlenecks completely eliminated during the construction phase. This is why AVR has become synonymous with small code size, high performance and low power consumption.

“Usually, when the CPU executes a program, it requires frequent access to a limited set of data, including pointers, loop counters, semaphore status bits and array indexes. In fact, close inspection of source code will reveal that most of the data is only required for a very short amount of time, then later discarded,” the engineering rep explained. “That is why the AVR CPU contains multiple ‘working registers,’ which store dynamic data inside the CPU. Organized in a ‘register file,’ they eliminate the need to move temporary data from CPU to SRAM – only to read it back a few cycles later.”

To be sure, the register file is extremely fast, allowing the CPU to read, execute and store the result back into a register in a single clock cycle. They also require far less energy when accessed, compared to accessing a large SRAM with long address and data lines. Because no cycles are wasted, power consumption for executing code is greatly reduced.

In terms of DSP Instructions, the 32-bit AVR contains a very wide instruction set – with integer, fixed point and floating point DSP instructions – giving it the highest CPU performance of any AVR CPU.

“The 32-bit AVR instruction set also includes saturation and rounding instructions that help speed up loops by requiring no internal range check of intermediate results,” the engineering rep added. “With fast multiply, accumulate, and divide instructions, the 32-bit AVR is the perfect choice for applications that require extensive digital signal processing.”

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s 8- and 32-bit AVR portfolio? Check out our official product page here.

Accessing your vehicle with Atmel

The automotive industry has certainly come a long way since Henry Ford’s Model T first rolled off the assembly line in 1908. To be sure, car (access) keys have radically evolved from the simple, unassuming steel key of yore to acting as the human interface to a vehicle.

Photographed at the Bay State Antique Automobile Club’s July 10, 2005 show at the Endicott Estate in Dedham, MA by Sfoskett

Similarly, Atmel’s automotive portfolio has also rapidly evolved since 1997 when we introduced our very first dedicated car access transmitter.

Indeed, Atmel now offers a wide range of car access devices that are ideal for developing complete system solutions with the highest levels of security and convenience, supporting remote keyless entry, immobilizer, passive entry/go or combi key applications.

“Remember, providing a high level of security is a must for car access applications, something which is also required by insurance companies worldwide,” an Atmel automotive engineering rep told Bits & Pieces.

“And that is why Remote Keyless Entry (RKE) systems combined with immobilizers are standard in nearly all cars today, while passive Entry/Go (PEG) applications offer the ultimate convenience for car users and are well-established in current luxury vehicles.”

Unsurprisingly, such features are increasingly making their way into medium-class cars. To meet these demands, developers require cost-efficient electronic system solutions that support a high level of integration.

As such, Atmel offers a comprehensive line of ICs (RF, LF, Atmel AVR microcontrollers) to create complete car access and remote start systems, along with dedicated RF transmitters, receivers and transceivers, as well as microcontrollers.

In addition, Atmel enables a uni-directional RF link for the keyless entry function to open or lock the doors. The immobilizer system is built with a bi-directional LF link operating with the AUT64 crypto algorithm.

And last, but certainly not least, Atmel supports a bi-directional RF link for the RKE function as well as for the extremely secure duplex RF link in a Passive Entry Go system. The lF link is used for the wake- up channel in a PEG system and the immobilizer function to start the RF communication.

Interested in learning more about Atmel’s expansive automotive portfolio? Be sure to check out some of our related blog posts from earlier this week, including “A closer look at Atmel’s vehicle portfolio,” “Atmel expands MaXTouch auto lineup,” and “LIN networking for the automotive masses.”

A sure touch with buttons, sliders and wheels

Yesterday, we discussed Atmel’s comprehensive QTouch Library, which makes it easier for developers to embed capacitive-touch button, slider and wheel functionality into general-purpose AT91SAM and AVR microcontroller (MCU) applications.

And today we’re going to take a closer look at Atmel’s touch portfolio by focusing on said buttons, sliders and wheels. To be sure, Atmel offers versatile tech for the implementation of buttons, sliders and wheels on any touch-sensitive device.

As an Atmel engineering rep told Bits & Pieces, these integrated circuits (ICs) enhance the user experience with excellent precision and reliability.

“They also deliver superb low-power characteristics, a critical requirement for today’s battery-powered handheld and mobile devices,” the engineering rep explained.

“The technology supports simple 1–10 button configurations as well as more complex scanned-matrix configurations of up to 48 buttons — at very low cost per button.”

Atmel also offers the above-mentioned QTouch Suite for embedding buttons, sliders, and wheels into the the AT91SAM and AVR microcontrollers.

Additional key specs? Long-range proximity sensing (enables capacitive proximity range over 10-inches), cutting-edge interfaces, design flexibility, low power consumption and robust operation.

Interested in learning more about what Atmel can offer you in terms of buttons, sliders and wheels?  Additional information can be found here.