IO board

IO Board

"IO Board" project aim is to build a powerful multi-purpose input/output board which could be used in a number of computer driven experiments. It is a part of a bigger project, "labcenter", which goal is to build remote, web-controlled laboratories for digital electronics and automation technology courses.
We hope the projects will be versatile and powerful enough to let people from other academic fields build laboratories based on out work.

The board will be built around a powerful ColdFire V2 microcontroller.

Goals:

easy reprogramming: available MCU BDM and EzPort pins; preinstalled USB bootloader
possibility to control the device using either USB or ethernet
available source files of all developement stages (schematics, layouts, gerbers, c source files, and more)
open and well documented USB and ethernet protocols
small embedded www server allowing to perform some simple tasks

NOTE: "IO Board" is just a working name and may change in future.

Board elements

microcontroller (MCU)

Main component, controls ALL the devices on the board.

Ethernet

Used to communicate with the board at high speed and control all of its functions.

USB

Used to communicate with the board and control some or all of its functions. May also be used to reflash the microcontroller.

JTAG

Direct access to JTAG pins on the MCU helps with electric debugging.

BDM

Background debugger may be used for reflashing the MCU in case of usb bootloader missing. Should also be helpful in code debugging.

LED display

Indicates most important events and errors.

Voltage monitor

Monitors internal board voltages and temperatures.

Current monitor

Monitors current and power of board main power supply.

UART

RS-232 or RS-485 ports used to control other devices.

CAN

Isolated CAN port. Bus power lines may be used as transceiver voltage input. Isolated (external) 5v power source may also be used for the transceiver and to distribute the power over CAN.

I²C

Isolated I²C master. May be used to control most I2C devices. Reference voltage (3.3v or 5v) must be connected. Contains pull-up resistors.

CPLD

Used as JTAG master for external devices and as fast parallel port. JTAG input is directly wired to MCU which allows easy reflashing. Any functionality may be programmed as needed.

CLK

Clock output. May be used as synchronization clock for other boards.

SPI

Isolated I2C master. May be used to control most SPI devices. Reference voltage (3.3v or 5v) must be connected. The device must have active-low Chip Select input.

SD card

May be used to write usage logs or data acquisition values.

DAC

SPI-controlled digital to analog converter provides high quality analog output.

PWM

PWM provides low quality analog voltage output. May be configured as 0..5v, -5..5v, 0..10v or -10..10v.

PWM 4..20

PWM controlled current limiter. May be used to simulate industrial 4..20 device.

analog input

Medium quality analog input with selectable gain. Allows 0..5v, -5..5v, 0..10v and -10..10v signals.

ohm-meter

May be used to connect 2-wire or 4-wire PT100 temperature resistor. MCU-selectable current also allows connection of other resistors, like other PTCs or NTCs.

industrial I/O

Provides up to 16 industrial-compatible (12v/24v) outputs and allows up to 16 inputs.

IO Board

Table of contents

Basic structure

Board elements

Current progress

Contact information