Cerebot MX7cK Reference Manual
www.digilentinc.com
page 4 of 34
Copyright Digilent, Inc. All rights reserved. Other product and company names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Using the Cerebot MX7cK with the
chipKIT MPIDE
ChipKIT and the MPIDE is a PIC32 based
hardware and software system compatible with
many
existing Arduino
™
code examples,
reference materials and other resources. The
MPIDE development platform was produced by
modifying the Arduino™ IDE and is fully
backward compatible with the Arduino IDE.
The Cerebot MX7cK board is designed to be
fully compatible with the chipKIT MPIDE
system, version 20111221 or later.
The MPIDE uses a serial communications port
to communicate with a boot loader running in
the target board. The serial port on the MX7cK
board is implemented using an FTDI FT232R
USB serial converter. Before attempting to use
the MPIDE with the MX7cK, the appropriate
USB device driver must be installed.
The USB serial converter on the Cerebot
MX7cK uses USB connector J2, labeled UART
on the board. This connector is a USB micro-
AB, and is located on the lower left side of the
board adjacent to the power switch. Use a
standard USB-A to micro-B cable (provided
with the board) to connect the board to an
available USB port on the PC.
In the MPIDE, use the
“Tools.Board”
command
to select the Cerebot MX7cK from the list of
available boards. Use the
“Tools.Serial Port”
command to choose the appropriate serial port
from the list of available serial ports on the PC.
When the MPIDE needs to communicate with
the MX7cK board, the PIC32 microcontroller is
reset and starts running the boot loader. The
MPIDE then establishes communications with
the boot loader and downloads the user’s
program, programming it into the flash memory
in the microcontroller
When the MPIDE opens the serial
communications connection on the PC, the
DTR pin on the FT232R chip is driven low.
This pin is coupled through a capacitor to the
MCLR pin on the PIC32 microcontroller.
Driving the MCLR line low resets the
microcontroller, restarting execution with the
boot loader.
The automatic reset action when the serial
communications connection is opened can be
disabled. To disable this operation, remove the
shorting block from jumper JP11. The shorting
block is reinstalled on JP11 to restore
operation with the MPIDE.
Two red LEDs (LD9 and LD10) will blink when
data is being sent or received between the
Cerebot MX7cK and the PC over the serial
connection.
The header connector J1 provides access to
the other serial handshaking signals provided
by the FT232R. Connector J1 is not loaded at
the factory but can be installed by the user to
access these signals.
Additional Reference Documentation
Additional information about the Cerebot
MX7cK board and the use and operation of the
PIC32MX795F512L microcontroller can be
obtained from the following sources.
The Cerebot MX7cK Schematic, as well as
various support libraries, and example
reference designs are available on the board
product page on the Digilent web site:
www.digilentinc.com
The PIC32MX5XX/6XX/7XX Family Data
Sheet and the PIC32MX Family Reference
Manual available from the Microchip web site:
www.microchip.com
Reference material for the chipKIT MPIDE
system is included in the MPIDE software
download, and on-line in the chipKIT wiki. Help
with questions and problems using the board
with the chipKIT MPIDE software can also be
obtained in the chipKIT forums:
www.github.com/chipKIT32
(software
download)
www.chipKIT.org/wiki
www.chipKIT.org/forum
