Driving a Mote APA102*16 ledbar using FEZ Flea

SITCore SBC
#1

So I need help with the following:

I have Fez Flea board and a Mote APA10*16 RGB led bar. I want to drive the led bar using the flea board and I am running it on TinyCLROS using Visual studio 2022.

Hardware connection:

Connected my fez flea board to my pc using a usb c to usb A cable.
Connected the Mote APA led bar to the board using a usb mini connector on the led bar side and soldered wires to the flea board: red to 5V, black to GND, white to pin 10 (PB15 MOSI2), green to pin 8 (PB13 SCK2)

What works:
I can let the onboard LED of the fez flea blink using the following code:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Gpio;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.BasicGraphics;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.Worldsemi.WS2812;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Pins;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ShijiLighting;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ShijiLighting.APA102C;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Spi;

var LED = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PA8);
LED.SetDriveMode(GpioPinDriveMode.Output);

while (true)
{
    LED.Write(GpioPinValue.High);
    Thread.Sleep(100);

    LED.Write(GpioPinValue.Low);
    Thread.Sleep(100);
}

When I tried to drive the LED bar using SPI communication, it won`t work, there is simply not sufficient documentation. First of all: is my hardware connection OK? If not, what needs to change?
Second, is my code OK (see below)?
Third is there any in depth guide about how to this? And yes, I already checked the ghi electronics website and tutorials, but is very very short and missing alot of information.

Code that doesn`t work for driving the led bar:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Gpio;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.BasicGraphics;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.Worldsemi.WS2812;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Pins;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ShijiLighting;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ShijiLighting.APA102C;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Spi;

var cs = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PB15);

var settings = new SpiConnectionSettings()
{ ChipSelectType = SpiChipSelectType.Gpio,
    ChipSelectLine = cs,
    Mode = SpiMode.Mode1,
    ClockFrequency = 4_000_000,
};

var spiBus = SpiController.FromName(SC13048.SpiBus.Spi2);
var led = new APA102CController(spiBus, 24);

led.SetColor(1, 255, 0, 0); // 2nd LED is Red
Thread.Sleep(100);
led.Flush();
#2

Are you sure the white is data and green is clock? Do you see any lablels on the bar?

#3

No, that I am not sure of. I will try to swap them.
But does the code seem correct?

#4

you need to remove

var cs = GpioController.GetDefault().OpenPin(SC13048.GpioPin.PB15);

That pin is MOSI. Don’t you see any exception?

#5

Those are enough

#6

Hi,

No exception, everything compiles without errors. That pin is indeed MOSI and I guess that is what is required to drive the led bar? MOSI is Master Out Slave IN, so that should be correct pin?

#7

Compile has no exception, only run time give exception.

Yes.

So proper full code should be:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Gpio;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.BasicGraphics;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.Worldsemi.WS2812;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Pins;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ShijiLighting;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Drivers.ShijiLighting.APA102C;
using GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Spi;



var spiBus = SpiController.FromName(SC13048.SpiBus.Spi2);
var led = new APA102CController(spiBus, 24);

led.SetColor(1, 255, 0, 0); // 2nd LED is Red
Thread.Sleep(100);
led.Flush();
#8

Ok so I tried this code, but now I have reversed the green wire and white wire and it does not work.
I will try to reverse those back again right now and see if that works.

#9

Send us the exactly model so we can take a look for wire

#10

Exact model of Mote APA102-16 is following:

Fez Flea is only one model, it is revision B, firmware version 2.1.0.6500.

#11

Also,

var led = new APA102CController(spiBus, 24);

24 means total led is 24 led. If you have 16 then need to be 16.

#12

I don’t see wires? where is black, blue, green you said?

#13

Please check the following pictures:

#14

This is the response from the debugger:

Found debugger!

Create TS.

Loading Deployment Assemblies.

Attaching deployed file.

   Assembly: mscorlib (2.1.0.0)  Attaching deployed file.

   Assembly: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Spi (2.1.0.0)  Attaching deployed file.

   Assembly: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Native (2.1.0.0)  Resolving.

Link failure: some assembly references cannot be resolved!!


Assembly: GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Spi (2.1.0.0) needs assembly 'GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Gpio' (2.1.0.0)

Error: a3000000

Waiting for debug commands...

The program '[29] TinyCLR application: Managed' has exited with code 0 (0x0).
#15

you need to add “GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.Gpio 2.1.0.0”

#16

That nugget I already downloaded and added to the project, so it`s strange…
To be sure i also downloaded and added “GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices.GpioLowLevel" now.

#17

No need that one. Just show us how your “Solution Explore” look like?

#18

One more thing. Can you please erase all and reflash firmware , application again?

#19

This is how it looks like:

#20

Look good.

  1. Erase Application and deploy again?
  2. if still not work, select Erase All and reflash and deploy again?

Note: To enable / select Erase All, need to enter bootloader by holding LDR and press reset buttons.

In tinyCLR config, you will see this button once connect SC13

image

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