Mikroelektronika d.o.o.
SKU: MIKROE-4784LDC Click Board
LDC Click Board
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The LDC Click Board™ is a compact add-on board that measures inductance change when a conductive target moves into the inductor's AC magnetic field. This board features the LDC1312-Q1, an I2C configurable two-channel, 12-bit inductance to digital converters (LDCs) for inductive sensing solutions from Texas Instruments. This Click Board™ is easy-to-use, requiring only the sensor frequency within 1kHz and 10MHz to begin sensing. It has well-matched channels, which allow for differential and ratiometric measurements. Also, it supports remote sensing enabling the performance and reliability benefits of inductive sensing to be realized at minimal cost and power. This Click Board™ is suitable for improving significantly existing sensing solutions and introducing brand new sensing capabilities to products in all markets, especially consumer and industrial applications.
The LDC Click Board™ is supported by a mikroSDK compliant library, which includes functions that simplify software development. This Click Board™ comes as a fully tested product, ready to be used on a system equipped with the mikroBUS™ socket.
How Does The LDC Click Board™ Work?
The LDC Click Board™ as its foundation uses the LDC1312-Q1, two-channel, 12-bit inductance to digital converters (LDCs) for inductive sensing solutions from Texas Instruments. This Click board™ is easy-to-use, requiring only the sensor frequency within 1kHz and 10MHz to begin sensing. It measures the oscillation frequency of an LC resonator and outputs a digital value proportional to frequency. Inductive sensing offers better performance, reliability, and flexibility than competitive sensing technologies at lower system cost and power. That's why this board is ideal for exact short-range measurements of the position, motion, or composition of conductive targets.
Conductive objects brought in contact with an AC electromagnetic (EM) field will induce field changes that can be detected using a sensor such as an inductor. Conveniently, an inductor and a capacitor are used to construct an LC resonator, also known as an LC tank used to produce an EM field. In the case of an LC tank, the effect of the field disturbance is an apparent shift in the inductance of the sensor, which can be observed as a shift in the resonant frequency - using this principle, the LDC1312-Q1 works.
The LDC Click Board™ communicates with MCU using the standard I2C 2-Wire interface with a maximum clock frequency of 400kHz. In addition to I2C communication, two GPIO pins connected to the mikroBUS™ socket pins are also used. The SD pin, routed to the RST pin of the mikroBUS™ socket, is used to place the LDC1312-Q1 in Shutdown mode, saving current, while the INT pin may be configured as an interrupt to notify the host MCU of changes in system status. Besides, it also allows the choice of the least significant bit of its I2C slave address by positioning the SMD jumper labelled as ADDR SEL to an appropriate position marked as 1 and 0.
It also comes with the ability to connect additional external LC sensors, allowing you to replace the provided onboard sensor and solder your own at places marked with COIL1 and COIL2.
The LDC Click Board™ can be operated only with a 3.3V logic voltage level. The board must perform appropriate logic voltage level conversion before use with MCUs with different logic levels. However, the Click board™ comes equipped with a library containing functions and an example code that can be used, as a reference, for further development.
Specifications
| Type | Inductance |
| Applications | Can be used for improving significantly existing sensing solutions and introducing brand new sensing capabilities to products in all markets, especially consumer and industrial applications |
| On-board modules | LDC1312-Q1 - two-channel, 12-bit inductance to digital converters (LDCs) for inductive sensing solutions from Texas Instruments |
| Key Features | Low power consumption, qualified for automotive applications, easy-to-use, remote sensing, supports a wide frequency range from 1kHz to 10MHz, high performance, reliability, and more |
| Interface | I2C |
| 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 LDC Click 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 | ||
| Shutdown | SD | 2 | RST | INT | 15 | INT | Interrupt |
| NC | 3 | CS | RX | 14 | NC | ||
| NC | 4 | SCK | TX | 13 | NC | ||
| NC | 5 | MISO | SCL | 12 | SCL | I2C Clock | |
| NC | 6 | MOSI | SDA | 11 | SDA | I2C Data | |
| Power Supply | 3.3V | 7 | 3.3V | 5V | 10 | NC | |
| Ground | GND | 8 | GND | GND | 9 | GND | Ground |
Onboard settings and indicators
| Label | Name | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| LD1 | PWR | - | Power LED Indicator |
| JP1 | ADDR SEL | Left | I2C Address Selection 1/0: Left position 1, Right position 0 |
| J1 | COIL1 | Unpopulated | External LC Sensor |
| J2 | COIL2 | Unpopulated | External LC Sensor |
LDC Click electrical specifications
| Description | Min | Typ | Max | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supply Voltage | - | 3.3 | - | V |
| Sensor Current Drive | - | 1.5 | - | mA |
| Resolution | - | - | 12 | bits |
| Operating Temperature Range | -40 | +25 | +125 | °C |
Software Support
We provide a library for the LDC Click as well as a demo application (example), developed using MikroElektronika compilers. The demo can run on all the main MikroElektronika development boards.
The package can be downloaded/installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager(recommended way), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on Mikroe GitHub account.
Library Description
This library contains an API for the LDC Click driver.
Key Functions
ldc_cfg_setup- Config Object Initialization function.ldc_init- Initialization function.ldc_default_cfg- Click the Default Configuration function.
Example Description
This example showcases the ability of the device to detect metal objects. It configures the device for reading data from channel 0, checks if ID's are OK and reads data when the interrupt is asserted and logs result.
void application_task ( void )
{
if ( ldc_get_interrupt( &ldc ) )
{
float frequency = 0.0;
float inductance = 0.0;
err_t ret_val = ldc_get_frequency( &ldc, LDC_REG_DATA_CH0, divider, &frequency );
if ( !ret_val )
{
log_printf( &logger, "> Freq[MHz]: %.3frn", frequency );
if (frequency > 0 )
{
inductance = ldc_calculate_inductance( frequency );
}
log_printf( &logger, "> L[uH]: %.3frn", inductance );
log_printf( &logger, "> ************************rn" );
Delay_ms( 500 );
}
else
{
log_error( &logger, " Reading data: %ld", ret_val );
}
}
}
The full application code, and ready to use projects can be installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager(recommended way), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on Mikroe GitHub account.
Other mikroE Libraries used in the example:
- MikroSDK.Board
- MikroSDK.Log
- Click.LDC
Additional Notes and Information
Depending on the development board you are using, you may need a USB UART click, USB UART 2 click or RS232 click to connect to your PC, for development systems with no UART to USB interface available on the board. The terminal available in all MikroElektronika compilers, or any other terminal application of your choice, can be used to read the message.
mikroSDK
This Click board™ is supported with mikroSDK - MikroElektronika Software Development Kit. To ensure proper operation of mikroSDK compliant Click board™ demo applications, mikroSDK should be downloaded from the LibStock and installed for the compiler you are using.
LDC Click Board
Frequently Asked Questions
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