Up to AtlasMichiganMezzCard or MezzNgBreakoutBoard

The Mezzanine board contains an Atmel ATMega88 microcontroller (very similar to that used on the Arduino). It is loaded with firmware (available here: ​rev1.2) which implements a simple command-line interface. ASD and TDC settings are loaded by default from EEPROM on power-up, and may be reset at any time by typing serial commands through a terminal, or using python code (see MDT-ASD Configuration).

The interface is old-fashioned asynchronous serial 9600/N/8/1 on the pins formerly used for TDI and TDO of the ribbon cable.

Command Format

<command> [<argument>...]

Where <command> is a word beginning with a letter (upper/lower case are equivalent) and <argument> are numbers or text strings separated by whitespace.

Numeric arguments are assumed decimal unless they have a prefix "0x" in which case they are hexadecimal. They are 16 bit integers, so 0xffff (65535) is the largest permitted value.

A prompt character '$' indicates that the interface is ready for a new command.

LED command

There is an LED on the board which flashes 3 times at power-up if the EEPROM data is loaded successfully, or 10 times if EEPROM is empty/corrupted. The LED may also be controlled via a command.

  LED 1    turn LED on
  LED 0    turn LED off

ASD command

This command allows setting and display of ASD chip parameters. By default the command operates on all 3 ASD chips together. ASD parameters are named as detailed here: MDT-ASD Configuration.

  ASD D                                        display all current settings
  ASD <param>                                  display one parameter on all 3 ASDs
  ASD <param> <value>                          set one parameter on all 3 ASDs
  ASD <param> <asd> <value>                    set one parameter on one ASD (0..2)

TDC command

This command allows read/write of TDC configuration registers. Note that the TDC has a total of 14 registers numbered 1 to 14. Registers 0 and 15 are displayed but not used. TDC registers are accessed by number only

  TDC D                                  display all registers
  TDC W <reg> <value>                    set register (1..14) to value
  TDC R                                  reset TDC

EEPROM command

Configuration of ASD and TDC can be stored in EEPROM to load at power-up. If the message "ERR EEPROM" appears it means that the EEPROM contains invalid data, and must be restored using the "EEPROM W" command.

  EEPROM W                write current settings to EEPROM
  EEPROM R                read current settings from EEPROM