SAML Touch Click Board™

Product Code: MIKROE-3414

The SAML Click Board™ is a perfect example of how simple the implementation of the Q-Touch ® technology from Microchip can be. Besides the ATSAML10 MCU itself, the Click board™ contains a few additional hardware components. Thanks to the highly integrated PTC module supported by the Q-Touch ®, the development of complex touch applications becomes extremely simple and fast. Featuring many inherited benefits compared to mechanical buttons and sliders, this Click board™ can be used for the development of various HMI interfaces, touch-operated control panels, interfaces used in very harsh and humid environments, etc. How Does The SAML Click Board™ Work? The main component of the SAML Click Board™ is the ATSAML10, an ultra-low-power 32-bit ARM ® Cortex ® MicroController Unit (MCU) from Microchip. Among many other features, this MCU contains the enhanced Peripheral Touch Controller (PTC) module, making it a perfect solution for various capacitive touch-based applications that require superior noise immunity.

One of the key features of the PTC module is its ability to reliably sense touch events, even when covered with water. SAML click demonstrates the overall hardware simplicity of one such application: capacitive pads are directly connected to the MCU pins, with no additional components required. Everything is already integrated within the PTC module of the ATSAML10 MCU itself, allowing very fast development. The only passive components on this click are the resistors that limit the current through the LEDs and accompanying filtering capacitors. As mentioned before, the enhanced PTC module provides many benefits over similar solutions. The most distinctive is its parallel acquisition capability, allowing it to process all the inputs in parallel and simultaneous detection of multiple touch events. This increases the responsiveness of the touch interface, compared to traditional sequential acquisition circuits. It also provides better noise immunity and more robustness when used in harsh and humid environments. This allows the Click board™ to use an acrylic overlay, and still detects touch events with perfect accuracy. Another feature of the enhanced PTC module is the Driven Shield Plus capability. This capability adds another layer of noise protection to the application. It allows touch sensors to work while exposed to moisture, sweat, rain, and even running water. Any of the capacitive touch channels can be used as a driven shield channel, offering IP-68 compliant protection. A cleverly designed firmware is responsible for events detection, visual feedback over LED indicators, and for communication with the host MCU. The MCU firmware is written using Q-Touch® libraries from Microchip, which offer full support for PTC modules. The communication with the ATSAML10 is realized over the UART interface. A set of UART command strings are available for touch detection, as well as for the touch slider position. However, the Click board™ is supported by a mikroSDK compatible library, offering simple functions, saving the developer to write UART command parsers. These functions allow faster development and simplified software design. The Click board™ is designed to work with 3.3V only. If interfacing with systems that use 5V for their operation, an appropriate level translating circuitry has to be used. Specifications Type Capacitive Applications Featuring many inherited benefits compared to mechanical buttons and sliders, this Click board™ can be used for the development of various HMI interfaces, touch-operated control panels, interfaces used in a very harsh and humid environment, etc. On-board modules ATSAML10, a powerful, low-power, 32-bit ARM® Cortex® Micro Controller Unit (MCU) by Microchip. Key Features ATSAML10 onboard, a powerful MCU with the Integrated PTC capacitive touch peripheral module, parallel acquisition greatly improves responsiveness, Driven Shield Plus feature offers immunity to using the Click board™ in humid conditions, clean and visually appealing indication of the touch over LEDs, two buttons plus one slider, etc. Interface UART Compatibility mikroBUS Click board size L (57.15 x 25.4 mm) Input Voltage 3.3V Pinout diagram This table shows how the pinout on the SAML Click Board™ corresponds to the pinout on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns). Notes Pin Pin Notes NC 1 AN PWM 16 NC NC 2 RST