Designing with the MAXQ2000 USB "Thumb" Evaluation Kit

Designing with the MAXQ2000 USB "Thumb" Evaluation Kit

This application note describes the steps required to quickly develop with the MAXQ2000 RISC microcontroller using the USB "thumb" evaluation (EV) kit. The document explains how to install and configure the EV kit's hardware and software, and how to develop and load an application that can be executed by the on-board MAXQ2000 microcontroller. An example program is provided to read and display the ambient temperature.

introduction

The MAXQ2000 USB Thumb Evaluation Kit is a convenient and reliable platform for evaluating the MAXQ2000 RISC microcontroller. The evaluation (EV) kit circuit board is packaged in a "thumb" form factor with a USB interface ( Figure 1 ). Applications can be developed and debugged on the EV kit circuit board using the MAX-IDE assembly language integrated development environment installed on a computer. The MAX-IDE program is available on the USB flash drive included in the kit or can be downloaded from the Maxim website.


Figure 1. MAXQ2000 USB Evaluation Board

The MAXQ2000 USB board includes a DS18B20 temperature sensor; a 4-digit, 7-segment liquid crystal display (LCD); a 32kHz crystal for the MAXQ2000's internal real-time clock (RTC); and a prototyping header that provides access to some of the processor's general-purpose I/O pins.

The EV kit is shipped with the circuit board and USB flash drive, which includes software, schematics, data sheets, and other useful documentation.

Software Setup

Before using the MAXQ2000 USB EV kit, several software packages must be installed on your PC. The following sections explain the installation and setup of each software package.

Install USB to Serial Driver

For the PC to properly interface with the MAXQ2000 USB board, the appropriate drivers for the on-board USB-to-serial converter must be installed. The instructions below detail how to install the Windows® XP drivers. For more detailed information on installing the FTDI drivers for Windows 2000 or Windows 98, refer to the Installation Guide.

Install Virtual COM Port (VCP) FTDI Driver

To install these drivers, follow these steps:

• Insert the supplied USB flash drive into an active USB connector on your computer. Depending on your operating system and its settings, the autorun feature in the flash drive may cause the program to start automatically. If the program does not start automatically, open your browser and double-click the Setup.exe file in the root directory. This will bring up the MAXQ2000 EV kit main menu, as shown in Figure 2 .
• Click the USB Serial Drivers button on the right side of the screen. This will open another window where you can see the progress of the installation. When the installation is complete, a confirmation message will appear.
  
  
  Figure 2. The MAXQ2000 EV Kit Main Menu
  
  
• Now, connect the MAXQ2000 USB board to an active USB port on your PC. Although not required, it is recommended that you use a different port than the one to which the USB flash drive is currently connected so that you can access all USB devices without having to switch back and forth. The "Found New Hardware" message will appear. After a while, you will see the message "Your hardware is installed and ready to use."

Determine the virtual COM port

The MAX-IDE program and development tools must be configured to work with the Virtual COM Port (VCP) interface provided by the MAXQ2000 USB Thumb EV Kit. First, you must determine which COM port the operating system has assigned to the USB serial port. To do this, click Start Control Panel and select System Hardware Device Manager. Look in the Ports (COM & LPT) section to determine the COM port number assigned to the VCP ( Figure 3 ). Figure 3. USB Serial Port COM Location in Device Manager In this example, the USB serial port is assigned to COM4. When you first start MAX-IDE (or another program begins communicating with the MAXQ2000 EV Kit), you must configure the IDE to use this COM port. This configuration process is described in detail below. For now, just remember the COM port assignment so that you can configure it later.