Trout Green SOCKEYE Prototyping
Trout Green specializes in rapid innovation and prototyping of
novel yet practical solutions to customers’ problems.
A limitless number of applications require a microprocessor
interfacing with remote components, such as sensors, and a graphical
user interface (GUI) running on a computer. Trout Green has
extensive experience interfacing many devices and custom GUIs with the
Cypress Semiconductor Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC®) family of microcontrollers.
In order to test new microcontroller-based systems, Trout Green
developed the SOCKEYE™ microcontroller motherboard. The SOCKEYE
801v0 motherboard (MB) contains a CY8C24894 PSoC1 with quick access to its
wide array of functionality through connectors.
The SOCKEYE MB can be powered through a two-pin Molex-brand connector or from a USB Mini-B port, both protected from AC noise by a DC line filter, over-current by a resettable fuse, and overvoltage by a pair of high-wattage Zener diodes. Two positions are available for additional filter capacitors.
Remote devices can be connected to one of four six-position connectors. Each connector includes power, ground/common, and four general-purpose input/output (GPIO) ports. One of the four connectors includes the two pins for Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) communication with the PSoC. All four auxiliary ports support the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) serial communication protocol.
When Trout Green needs to quickly prove a design, we build a daughter board to interface with the SOCKEYE MB. The daughter boards use board-to-board (B2B) connectors to dock onto the MB, giving the daughter board access to power, ground, and forty-five PSoC GPIO pins/ports. Trout Green can quickly change the daughter board design, say using a newer or more powerful LED driver, without needing to redesign, rebuild, re-program, and re-prove the microcontroller and GUI subsystems.
The SOCKEYE motherboard allows us at Trout Green to test different remote, secondary, and auxiliary devices very quickly and very efficiently. We have created and proven multiple systems and redesigns at breakneck speeds due to the flexibility of the SOCKEYE system.