Nu-Pac Programmer
The “Nu-Pac programmer” provides fast and safe in-circuit-programming. Except mechanical systems, all other systems are designed by me. It works with Nugang programmer by Nuvoton Technology Corporation. Nugang has the four-chip gang programming functionality. So users can program up to 24 circuits by quadruple parallel.
Features
· Fast programming under favour of offline quadruple programming.
· Saving up to 250 project panel configurations on control tablet.
· Able to program up to 24 circuits in same panel.
· Checking programming situations of circuits on control tablet.
· Special and modular design provides easy-to-change damaged relays.
System Overview
All system is composed of 4 important units. They are;
Controller Tablet: Master controller of whole system. It has 7” TFT Display and users can manage all programming situations on it.
Nupac Box: It process all commands from tablet. Operating data path to circuits from Nugang by relays is important role of Nupac box. It communicates with controller tablet via UART on my special command set “NU-PAC COMMAND SET”.
Nugang Programmer: It is four-chip programmer tool by Nuvoton.
PCB Testing Frame: It is designed to hold circuits in place and allow it to be programmed by Nugang.
Hardware
Nupac box is designed on Altium Designer. Actually nupac box is composed of a motherboard and 6 modular relay circuits. Mainboard has illustrations of pacman which is most known game in the world. Also pacman was one of my best childhood games.
Mainboard includes 192MHz ARM M4 Cortex Nuvoton M481SIDAE for microcontroller. It has USB micro-B socket and should be powered 5 Volt/1A. Edge connectors are designed special to prevent reverse insertion. It has 4 RGB LEDs to indicates programming situation.
Modular relay circuits can direct data in 2 different ways. One of them by relays and other is by switch ICs. Here I’ve chosen using relays but users also can choose switch ICs. However, there is 74HC595 shift register to control 16 pcs relays. It provides to control total 96 pcs relays with minimum MCU GPIO requirement.
Users can insert modular circuits to mainboard as they need or more.
Communication
Controller tablet and Nupac box communicate via UART by using “NU-PAC COMMAND SET”. I’ve created a command set to register panel sizes, reading situation and PCB and starting independent or gang programming etc.
For example:
If we want to cancel all processing, we send this data “0x55,0xAA,0xCC,0x20,0x20,0x4D,0x0D,0X0A”
Software
Software of tablet and mainboard are developped in C language. Tablet is a no-OS (bare metal) device so i had to design even keyboards, colors, buttons. I used FT810 graphic controller to drive 7" TFT via SPI. Also i used external 64MB flash to save panel features etc. UI design is made in EVE screen editor.
Benefits
· The Nu-pac programmer offers about 10 times faster programming than standart ICP programming. Also it doesn’t need an external computer or monitor.
· Users can program circuits with their panel. This benefits space saving.
· It helps to reduce operator errors. Because operators can’t change software of inside of Nugang easily.
· User friendly UI design provides modern looking environment.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my article.
