Cytron Technologies UC00A User manual
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
UC00A Rev3.0
Cytron USB to UART Converter
User's Manual
V1.1
December 2018
Information contained in this publication regarding device applications and the like is intended through
suggestion only and may be superseded by updates. It is your responsibility to ensure that your application
meets with your specifications. No representation or warranty is given and no liability is assumed by Cytron
Technologies Incorporated with respect to the accuracy or use of such information or infringement of
patents or other intellectual property rights arising from such use or otherwise. Use of Cytron Technologies’
products as critical components in life support system is not authorized except with express written
approval by Cytron Technologies. No licenses are conveyed, implicitly or otherwise, under any intellectual
property rights.
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
Index
1. Introduction 3
2. System Overview 5
3. Packing List 6
4. Board or Product Layout 7
5. Product Specification 9
5.1 6 ways header socket 10
5.2 Extra RS232 pin feature 11
6. Installation 12
6.1 Software Installation 12
7. Getting Started 13
7.1 Using UC00A with Microcontroller 13
7.2 Using UC00A for Communication between 2 PCs 19
7.3 Using UC00A for loading program to Arduino Pro Mini 21
8. Warranty 23
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Serial communication is most popular interface between devices and this applies to microcontroller
and computer. UART is one of those serial interfaces. Classically, most serial interface from
microcontroller to computer is done through serial port (DB9) or sometime is called RS232. However,
since computer serial port used RS232 protocol and microcontroller used TTL UART, a level shifter
is needed between this interface. Recently, serial port of computer have been phase out, it has been
replaced with USB. Of course most developer chooses USB to serial converter to obtain virtual serial
port. The level shifter is still necessary for UART interface. Thus, Cytron decided to develop a USB
to UART converter which offers USB plug and play, direct interface with microcontroller and it
provides 5V power supply from USB port. This is User’s Manual for UC00A Rev3.0
Traditional Method
(a) PC (Serial Port)
(b) PC (USB)
Using UC00A Method
The UC00A offers low cost, easy to use USB to UART converter.
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
It has been designed with capabilities and features of:
●Develop low cost USB to UART converter.
●Easy to use USB to UART converter, aiming development between computer and
microcontroller, 3.3V or 5V logic.
●USB powered, no external source is required to use this converter
●5V from USB port is available for user.
●Configurable for 3.3V/5V UART interface.
●Standard 6 pin interface: DTR, TX, RX, GND, CTS and VCC.
●Compatible with Bootloader for Arduino board such as BBFuino, Boarduino, Arduino
Mini Pro, etc.
●Plug and Play, driver is needed for 1st time user only.
●New! Utilize USB Micro-B socket.
●New! Selectable Switch 5V and 3.3V.
●Dimension: 4.4cm x 2cm
NOTE: UC00A are compatible for Window XP, Vista,Win 7,8 and 10. It appears as
Virtual COM port on computer.
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
2.0 SYSTEM OVERVIEW
Cautions: “Vsel” and “5V” on UC00A is supply directly from USB of computer; it is
advised not to use this power source to power application circuit or device. Wrong
connection such as wrong polarity, wrong voltage, shorted might permanently damage
computer.
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
3.0 PACKING LIST
Please check the parts and components according to the packing list. If there are any parts
missing, please contact us at [email protected] immediately.
1. 1 x UC00A Rev3.0.
Optional accessories:
●USB Micro B Cable
●USB driver and User’s Manual should be downloaded from Cytron Website.
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
4.0 BOARD OR PRODUCT LAYOUT
Label
Function
A
MicroB USB socket
B
Power LED
C
Extra UART pin
D
FTDI’s TX indicator LED
E
Standard 6-way header socket
F
FTDI’s RX indicator LED
G
Vsel, VCC and UART pin logic level (3.3V or 5V) selectable Switch
MicroB USB socket
MicroB USB port socket at “A” is for USB connection to PC desktop or laptop. Please
connect the MicroB USB cable to this socket.
Power LED
Green LED at “B” is used to indicate the main power supply of UC00A. It should be
illuminated once USB connection from UC00A to computer or laptop is ready.
Extra UART pins
JP4 and JP6 at “C” is extra UART pin. User may use these pin if needed. The pin logic level
(5V or 3.3V) will base on “Vsel” slide switch at “G”. “5V” will always be 5V from USB
port.
TX LED
LED at “D” is FTDI’s TX indicator LED. This LED is to indicates the transmit activity from
FTDI chip, or transmit activity from computer virtual COM port. It will only work if UC00A
is connected to PC or laptop.
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Standard 6-way header socket
Header socket at “E” is breakout of pins which are commonly used for loading program to
Arduino PROMini, BBFuino, Fio and others.
RX LED
LED at “F” is FTDI’s RX indicator LED. This LED is to indicates the receive activity from
FTDI chip, or receive activity at computer virtual COM port. It will only work if UC00A is
connected to PC or laptop.
Vsel, VCC and Logic selectable Switch
Vsel at “G” is a slide switch to determine voltage option for TTL level of UART interface
pins, and also the voltage at VCC pin at header socket at “E”. User may choose either 3.3V or
5V. If 5V is chosen, all the interface pins include TX, RX, DTR, CTS, RTS, DSR will be in
5V TTL logic and the VCC at “E” will be 5V too. On the other hand, if Vsel at “G” is 3V3,
all interface pins will be in 3.3V TTL logic and VCC at “E” will be 3.3V too.
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5.0 PRODUCT SPECIFICATION
UC00A is designed to ease serial communication between microcontroller and PC. The
specifications are as listed below:
5.1 6 ways header socket
Label
Definition
Function
DTR
UC00A Data Terminal
Ready pin
In Arduino compatible board, this pin is use for
auto-reset.
RXI
UC00A’s UART
Receive pin
This is UC00A receiver pin. It should be connected to
device’s transmitter pin.
TXO
UC00A’s UART
Transmit pin
This is UC00A transmitter pin. It should be connected
to device’s receiver pin.
VCC
3.3V or 5V power
output from UC00A
Power output from UC00A to connect to
microcontroller or external devices. The optional power
output is 3.3V or 5V. If 5V is selected at Vsel slide
switch, this pin will supply 5V, and vice versa for 3.3V.
CTS
UC00A’s Clear To
Send pin
Hardware Hand-shaking pin.
GND
Ground or negative
Ground of power and signal. This pin should be
connected to device’s GND pin.
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5.2 Extra UART pin feature
Label
Definition
Function
5V
5V Power output from
UC00A
5V supply from USB, optional for user to power
external device, maximum current is limited from USB
port, normally is 900mA. This is constant 5V from
USB. It will not be affected by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
GND
Ground or negative
Ground of power and signal. This pin should be
connected to device’s GND pin, common ground.
CTS
UC00A’s Clear To
Send pin
This pin is unused under normal UART operation. TTL
level will be determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
DCD
UC00A’s Data Carrier
Detect pin
This pin is unused under normal UART operation. TTL
level will be determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
DSR
UC00A’s Data Set
Ready pin
This pin is unused under normal UART operation. TTL
level will be determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
RI
UC00A’s Ring
Indicator pin
This pin is unused under normal UART operation. TTL
level will be determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
RX
UC00A’s UART
Receive pin
This is UC00A receiver pin. It should be connected to
target device’s transmitter pin. TTL level will be
determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
RTS
UC00A’s Request To
Send pin
This pin is unused under normal UART operation. TTL
level will be determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
DTR
UC00A Data Terminal
Ready pin
This pin is unused under normal UART operation. TTL
level will be determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
TX
UC00A’s UART
Transmit pin
This is UC00A transmitter pin. It should be connected
to target device’s receiver pin. TTL level will be
determined by Vsel slide switch at ‘G’.
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6.0 INSTALLATION
6.1 Software Installation
UC00A used USB to UART chip and it requires USB driver to be installed (1 time) on
computer. Thus, this section, user may refer to document name “Driver Installation Guide”
and “Driver Installation Guide for Win 7” which provides users a simple procedure for
installing drivers for this device driver. All the documents are available in the product page.
You can also refer to this link for installation guide available for Win/Mac/Linux. Latest
driver for Win/Mac/Linux are available here.
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Product User’s Manual – UC00A
7.0 GETTING STARTED
This section will shows example on how to use UC00A. Generally, there are 2 methods to
use UC00A. It can be used to connect any 3.3V/5V UART device to computer, or between 2
computers. Bare in mind that UC00A can be connected to any device which offer 3.3V/5V
UART interface, this includes microcontroller, RFID reader,XBee,Bluetooth,WiFi, wireless
module and more.
7.1 Using UC00A with microcontroller
This section will shows an example using UC00A. UC00A will be connected to SKPS. SKPS
is a SONY PS2 Controller Converter developed by Cytron Technologies. SKPS can be
connected to PC for functionality test. Normally, user will need to develop RS232 level
shifter for communication to serial port. This introduce additional work just to check the
functionality of SKPS. Furthermore, laptop and computer nowadays have phase-out the serial
port, USB has replaced it. Using UC00A, no extra work is required. Simply plug SKPS to
UC00A and USB port of computer (PC or Laptop), install driver (1 time work) and there is
an extra virtual COM port ready for SKPS. Checking functionality is simple and
straightforward.
a. User will need to connect the RX and TX pins of SKPS to UC00A. Of course, these
two pins should be cross connected to UC00A. In other words:
a. RX of SKPS should be connected to UC00A’s Transmitter pin (TXO)
b. TX of SKPS should be connected to UC00A’s Receiver pin (RXI).
c. No extra component is necessary between these connections.
b. Please refer to document named “Driver Installation Guide” for driver installation.
This is mentioned in section 6.1, software installation.
c. After plug in the UC00A to computer and installation of driver, user is ready to test
the functionality of SKPS. Open the HyperTerminal. Enter a name and choose an icon
for connection as picture below then click OK.
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e. If you do not know which COM port to select, go to Start Menu, right click on My
Computer and choose Properties. At System Properties Table, click on Device
Manager. Device Manager Table will show out.
f. At Device Manager Table, choose Ports (COM & LPT) and USB Serial Port COM
will be visible. The Serial Port COM is “COM142” in this case. The COM port
number will differ from computer to computer, please do check the COM port of your
own computer.
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g. Set the Port Setting as picture below. Bits per second must be same with SKPS Baud
Rate and Flow control must be set to none. After finish setting, click Apply and then
click OK.
h. Go to File and select Properties. SKPS Properties table will be shown. Choose Setting
tab and click ASCII Setup tab. Click on “Echo typed characters locally” and then
click OK.
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i. After all settings are complete, now SKPS is ready to communicate with PC and the
communication will be shown on HyperTerminal. Do refer to User’s Manual of SKPS
for further information. Easiest way is to type “ae” at HyperTerminal and try to press
buttons and joystick on PS2 Controller.
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7.2 Using UC00A for Communication between two PCs
a. Two PCs can communicate to each other by connecting them to UC00A each.
Connect each PC like diagram below. Recommended to use Male to Male jumper
wire to link the header socket and connect to UC00A, and simply plug it to each PC.
The connection should be:
a. RXI of UC00A on Computer A to TXO of UC00A on Computer B
b. TXO of UC00A on Computer A to RXI of UC00A on Computer B
c. GND of UC00A on Computer A to GND of UC00A on Computer B
b. Upon completion of connection, open HyperTerminal in each PC. Follow steps
mentioned in Section 7.1 (c) to (i). The baud rate for each PC must be same.
c. User may start typing any character in HyperTerminal, for example: chatting between
two PCs. Example computer 1 (C1) and computer 2 (C2) are connect. Any character
typed in HyperTerminal C1 will also shown in HyperTerminal C2. Pictures below
show HyperTerminal for each PC.
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7.3 Using UC00A for loading program to Arduino Pro Mini
Arduino Pro Mini is a compact Arduino board and comes without on-board USB to UART
chip. User may use UC00A for loading program into Pro Mini. UC00A has the socket ready
(header socket) for user to easily plug into Arduino bootloader pin.
To load program, user need to extend the Arduino PRO Mini bootloader pin out. User may
use right angle or straight header pin. And user may solder from bottom or from top.
Figure below is an example of Arduino Pro Mini. Reset pad has a “GRN” label at the site,
indicating Green and GND pad has a “BLK” label at the site to indicate Black.
To connect UC00A to Arduino Pro Mini, user need to ensure that Green label from UC00A is
connect to “GRN” label of Arduino Pro Mini. And Black label from UC00A is connect to
“BLK” label of Arduino Pro Mini. Also please do make sure the TTL logic and power is
compatible with the Arduino Pro Mini as there are 5V and 3.3V version. UC00A Rev3.0
support both, but user must select the voltage from Vsel slide switch at ‘G’ in product layout
section. Default Vsel is 5V.
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The connection UC00A to Arduino Pro Mini is shown as below.
UC00A
Arduino PRO Mini Bootloader
DTR (Green)
RESET
RX
TXD
TX
RXD
Vsel
5V
CTS
GND
GND (Black)
GND
Besides Arduino Pro Mini,UC00A can be used to load program for Arduino FIO,ArduPilot,
Rainbow LED Ring V3,BBFuino. Do make sure the UART TTL level and power voltage is
correctly selected.
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