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Aardvark Control Center User's Manual v3.53

1 Overview

The Aardvark I2C/SPI Embedded Systems Interface is a multi-functional host adapter. The Control Center software interacts directly with the Aardvark adapter.

The Control Center provides basic access to all the functionality of the Aardvark adapter. It is built upon the freely available Aardvark I2C/SPI Software API as detailed in the Aardvark I2C/SPI Embedded Systems Interface datasheet.

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1.1 Changes in version 3.52

New Features

  • XML examples are now included within the GUI package rather than as a separate package.

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1.2 Changes in version 3.51

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed interoperability issue with FW >= v3.40 when doing 10-bit I2C reads.

New Features

  • Added support for 64-bit Windows. Note that Control Center will run on 64-bit systems as a 32-bit application.

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1.3 Aardvark I2C/SPI Host Adapter

The Aardvark I2C/SPI Adapter has 5 core functional modules: I2C , SPI,GPIO, Batch Scripting and I2C Bus Monitor.

I2C and SPI are serial protocols for communicating between devices. Information about their specifications can be found in the Aardvark I2C/SPI Embedded Systems Interface datasheet and on the Total Phase website: http://www.totalphase.com/

GPIO, General Purpose IO, allows the users to take the six pins that are normally used for I2C and SPI and use them to send and receive general signals. These six pins are SCL, SDA, MOSI, SCLK, MISO, and SS. GPIO functionality can be used concurrently with either I2C or SPI, or can be used by itself.

Batch Scripting allows the user to write scripts in an XML based language to automate tasks. The batch scripting functionality in the Control Center software encompasses a subset of the I2C , SPI and GPIO functionality of the Aardvark adapter.

I2C Bus Monitoring allows the user to unobtrusively record traffic on an I2C bus. The Aardvark adapter supports monitoring of bus speeds up to 125 kHz.

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1.4 Aardvark I2C/SPI Host Adapter Functional Modes

The Aardvark I2C/SPI Host Adapter has six functional modes:

  1. I2C + SPI

    \includegraphics[clip=true]{1_2a-i2cspi}
    Figure 1: I2C and SPI

  2. I2C + GPIO

    \includegraphics[clip=true]{1_2b-i2cgpio}
    Figure 2: I2C and GPIO using the 4 available SPI pins: MOSI, SCLK, MISO, SS

  3. SPI + GPIO

    \includegraphics[clip=true]{1_2c-spigpio}
    Figure 3: SPI and GPIO using the 2 available I2C pins: SCL, SDA

  4. GPIO Only

    \includegraphics[clip=true]{1_2d-gpio}
    Figure 4: GPIO using the 6 available I2C and SPI pins: SCL, SDA, MOSI, SCLK, MISO, SS

  5. Batch Scripting

    \includegraphics[clip=true]{1_2e-batch}
    Figure 5: Batch Scripting Module

  6. I2C Bus Monitoring

    \includegraphics[clip=true]{1_2f-monitor}
    Figure 6: I2C Bus Monitoring Module. This module does not use the transaction log. Recorded transaction will appear in the main text field of the module.