Atmel SAM4N Xplained Pro [USER GUIDE]
42104A-MCU-06/2013
7
Data Field
Data Type
Example Content
Minimum Voltage [mV]
uint16_t
3000
Maximum Voltage [mV]
uint16_t
3600
Maximum Current [mA]
uint16_t
30
3.3
Power supply
The SAM4N Xplained Pro kit can be powered either by USB or by an external power source through the 4-pin
power header, marked PWR. This connector is described in
“Xplained Pro power header” on page 8
. The
available power sources and specifications are listed in
Table 3-3, “Power sources for SAM4N Xplained Pro”
.
Table 3-3. Power sources for SAM4N Xplained Pro
Power input
Voltage requirements
Current requirements
Connector marking
External power
4.3V to 5.5V
Recommended
minimum is 500mA
to be able to provide
enough current
for extentions and
the board itself.
Recommended
maximum is 2A due
to the input protection
maximum current
specification.
PWR
Embedded debugger
USB
4.4V to 5.25V
(according to USB spec)
500 mA (according to
USB spec)
DEBUG USB
The kit will automatically detect which power sources are available and choose which one to use according to
the following priority:
1. External power
2. Embedded debugger USB
3.3.1
Measuring SAM4N power consumption
As part of an evaluation of the SAM4N it can be of interest to measure its power consumption. Because the
device has a separate power plane (VCC_MCU_P3V3) on this board it is possible to measure the current
consumption by measuring the current that is flowing into this plane. The VCC_MCU_P3V3 plane is connected
via a jumper to the main power plane (VCC_TARGET_P3V3) and by replacing the jumper with an ampere
meter it is possible to determine the current consumption. To locate the current measurement header, please
refer to
Figure 1-1, “SAM4N Xplained Pro evaluation kit overview”
Warning
Do not power the board without having the jumper or an ampere meter mounted. This can cause
the SAM4N to be powered through its I/O pins and cause undefined operation of the device.
3.4
Standard headers and connectors
3.4.1
Xplained Pro extension header
All Xplained Pro kits have one or more dual row, 20 pin, 100mil extension headers. Xplained Pro MCU boards
have male headers while Xplained Pro extensions have their female counterparts. Note that all pins are
not always connected. However, all the connected pins follow the defined pin-out described in
“Xplained Pro extension header”
. The extension headers can be used to connect a wide variety of Xplained Pro
extensions to Xplained Pro MCU boards and to access the pins of the target MCU on Xplained Pro MCU board
directly.
Table 3-4. Xplained Pro extension header
Pin number
Name
Description
1
ID
Communication line to the ID chip on extension board.
