Introduction: Cypress Devices Intro (Part 1)
Arduino is probably one of, if not the most popular micro controller for the typical home gamer, but there are good alternatives that shouldn't be dismissed too easily. Cypress provides many cost effective and powerful micro controller boards that are programmed using their PSoC Creator software. They provide some tutorial videos themselves, but can sometimes gloss over points, as well as lots of documentation that is easy to access through their PSoC Creator software that is written very well. They are a fairly easy micro controller to learn and to teach yourself once you get the basics down of using their software.
The idea behind this Instructable is to show the process for creating a work space and project from start to finish and run it on one of the cheapest boards available from Cypress while trying to be informative, concise and get beginners able to use the software effectively and find the documentation they require so that the problems they may face will be narrowed down to coding issues more then incorrect software usage.
This is also a two part Instructable, with the next part being a bit faster and focusing on a PSoC 5 device instead of a PSoC 4 device and using the debugger and programmer rather then the bootloader host. It can be found at this link;
Step 1: BOM
You will need a computer to run PSoC Creator 4.0 which can be downloaded from Cypress' website after creating an account. The package you will need to download is the CY8CKIT-049-42xx CD ISO (CD Creator) and this will install everything you need for this kit;
The hardware for the kit is available through Digikey here;
And it is also advisable to get headers like these to solder to the board as these do no come with pre-soldered headers;
You will also need a common cathode RGB LED, two 1k ohm resistors, a 680 ohm resistor, a breadboard, and some hook up wire or DuPont cables (if you are unsure if you need male or female, you can often find them in packs that have male to male, male to female, and female to female all together), but I can't list sources for these as I frequently buy these materials from eBay, and listings come and go frequently, but there are many available and easily found searching eBay.
Beyond that, as long as your computer has a USB port, and you have a soldering iron and solder, you have all the materials required.
Step 2: Breadboard the Circuit
The circuit is quite easy to set up a a breadboard. We wire up our common cathode RGB LED with 1k ohm resistors on the blue and green pins (the two pins on one side of the longest lead), and a 680 ohm resistor on the red pin (the single pin on the other side of the longest lead) We also need to connect the longest lead on the LED to a ground (GND) pin on our micro controller board.
From our pin layout in PSoC Creator, we will want to connect the other leads of our resistors to P1.0 for red (680 ohm resistor), P1.1 for green and P1.2 for blue on our micro controller board. The picture has the wires colour coded, with black being our ground.
Step 3: Creating Our Project
I have done the instructions as a video so that you can pause, rewind and play at your leisure while following along building and programming this project yourself. With a video, rather then telling you where many buttons are and when to click them, you have visual aids to see what I am clicking on at any point in time and can re-watch any step at any point in time. I have also included some pause points for you to pause at and catch up if required.
I would also greatly appreciate feedback on things that are helpful, and on areas that could be improved to make tutorial videos more helpful in the future.
Step 4: Source Material & Conclusion
If for some reason you are having trouble you can download the zip file of this project, the exact one from the video, and extract all files to a folder on your desktop. From the PSoC Creator locate the file on your desktop, open the work space and run it yourself or use it to verify your project schematic or code. Everything should be there and it should build, and program through the Bootloader Host correctly and will give you a working example as reference as well as have an accompanying video to help familiarize yourself with PSoC Creator.
Once you have familiarized yourself with PSoC Creator and how to build projects, you can start building your own projects, playing with components and getting help from the wealth of documentation that Cypress provides as well as the PSoC community expand your knowledge and ability using these fantastic micro controllers. With their use of components and a schematic as well as coding and excellent documentation they are a powerful, yet easy to use device.