Which Controller boards support Pmods?

[Rich]

Howdy. I have what I think is a fairly basic question:  Which (non-FPGA) processor boards support Pmod modules?  

Is there any chance to see a table that shows each of the current ARM and PIC32 processor boards down a left-hand column and then the quantity of each of the Pmod ports (of each different configuration) on the middle of the chart?

Thanks

[JColvin]

Hi @Rich,

Unfortunately, I don't think such a table exists for Digilent's microcontroller boards; part of the reason for this is because even if the microcontroller does not have a Pmod host port, you can still individually wire the pins from the Pmod to the microcontroller, utilizing either dedicated communication pins for the appropriate protocol (SPI, I2C, etc) or bit-banging out the appropriate protocol on a GPIO pin.

In general though, all of our non-FPGA boards support all of our Pmods (with exception of perhaps the Pmod VGA which would require faster signaling than our microcontrollers can support).

If you have a question on a particular combination of microcontroller/microprocessor board with a Pmod or if Digilent has a certain style (temperature sensor, motor driver, etc) of Pmod or a Pmod with certain specifications, I can more readily answer that.

Thank you,
JColvin

[Rich]

18 hours ago, JColvin said:

Hi @Rich,

Unfortunately, I don't think such a table exists for Digilent's microcontroller boards; part of the reason for this is because even if the microcontroller does not have a Pmod host port, you can still individually wire the pins from the Pmod to the microcontroller, utilizing either dedicated communication pins for the appropriate protocol (SPI, I2C, etc) or bit-banging out the appropriate protocol on a GPIO pin.

In general though, all of our non-FPGA boards support all of our Pmods (with exception of perhaps the Pmod VGA which would require faster signaling than our microcontrollers can support).

If you have a question on a particular combination of microcontroller/microprocessor board with a Pmod or if Digilent has a certain style (temperature sensor, motor driver, etc) of Pmod or a Pmod with certain specifications, I can more readily answer that.

Thank you,
JColvin

Hi and thanks for the reply.  Here is an example. Suppose I use Digilent Pro MX7: PIC32-based Embedded Systems Trainer Board

and I want to accept inputs from Pmod AD5: 4-channel 24bit A/D,    and then drive output to a display such as Pmod OLED: 128 x 32 Pixel Monochromatic OLED Display.

Would these work together?   Would I be able to just load up the header files/libraries and start working with them or would I need to code up my own communications logic to talk to these Pmods?

Related question:   Is it possible to connect a Pmod board to the microcontroller board using a ribbon cable or does the Pmod module need to plug directly into the microcontroller board?  

Slightly unrelated question: How come you don't put the physical dimensions of the Pmod boards and processor boards on your web site?

Thanks again

Rich H.

 

[Cristian.Fatu]

Hello,

I am trying to provide some answers on this matter.

For the first question:

You can connect any number of Pmods, as long as you have proper available Pmod connectors. What I mean by "proper" is that you should check the needed pins functionality for a Pmod. As James was saying in this answer, you might need hardware SPI or I2C communication. And only some specific PIC32 pins provide this. You can check to which Pmod connector pins they are routed in the board reference manual, usually in the appendix at the end of document. For your example:  https://reference.digilentinc.com/_media/chipkit_pro_mx7:chipkit_pro_mx7_rm.pdf

So, take the needed Pmods one by one and try to find a place where to plug them.

Related to the software, include each Pmod library in your project.  You might need to change the hardware interface number: for example the Digilent library implements access to hardware interface SPI1, while you need access to hardware interface SPI2. This is not difficult.

For to the second question:

Yes, you can use any cable to connect pin to pin from the Pmod connector to the Pmod itself. Of course, if you are interested in high speed, this can come with a cost. But most of the time, high speed is not an issue. In fact, Digilent even provides such a cable: https://store.digilentinc.com/pmod-cable-kit-6-pin/

You can find some more details of the Digilent Pmod specifications in this document https://www.digilentinc.com/Pmods/Digilent-Pmod_ Interface_Specification.pdf.

Related to mechanical dimensions: yes, would be nice to have them on the website. Until then, we are providing them upon request.

Good luck.