Touchpad 4 Click

How does it work?

Touchpad 4 Click as its foundation uses the IQS7211A, a tiny trackpad controller designed for multitouch applications using a projected capacitance touch panel from Azoteq. The IQS7211A is part of Azoteq’s latest range of ProxFusion combination sensors, a multi-sensor technology that offers combinations of capacitive sensing, Hall-effect, inductive, and temperature sensing on a single integrated circuit. It allows users to control a trackpad of up to 32-channels and offers high resolution and fast response, low power consumption, and long-term activation supported by environmental tracking. It is also characterized by embedded gesture engine recognition for simple gestures (tap, swipes, hold) and built-in noise detection and filtering.

On the Touchpad 4 Click front side, there is a clearly defined field that represents a touchpad area. This area is a matrix of conductive electrodes on the PCB, electrically isolated from each other, arranged as rows and columns of X and Y. An electrode consists of multiple diamond-shaped elements, each connected to the next with a conductive neck.

The controller uses the principle of projected capacitance charge transfer on the touchpad area. When a conductive object such as a human finger approaches the sense plate, it will decrease the detected capacitance. Observing the measured results at various sensing points on the touchpad area enables the controller to determine proximity/hover detection and contact (touch) detection on all channels and accurately determine the coordinates on the touch area.

Touchpad 4 Click communicates with MCU using a standard I2C 2-Wire interface, with a clock frequency up to 1MHz in the Fast Mode. An additional ready signal, routed on the INT pin of the mikroBUS™ socket, is added, which indicates when the communication window is available. Thus, it is optimal for the response rate to use the INT pin as a communication trigger. Alongside this pin, this Click board™ has a Reset feature routed to the RST pin on the mikroBUS™ socket, which with a low logic level puts the module into a Reset state, and with a high level operates module normally.

This 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

Pinout diagram

This table shows how the pinout on Touchpad 4 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
Reset	RST	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

Touchpad 4 Click electrical specifications

Software Support

We provide a library for the Touchpad 4 Click as well as a demo application (example), developed using MIKROE compilers. The demo can run on all the main MIKROE development boards.

Package can be downloaded/installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager (recommended), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on MIKROE github account.

Library Description

This library contains API for Touchpad 4 Click driver.

Key functions

• touchpad4_reset Reset function.

• touchpad4_get_touch Read touch informations.

• touchpad_get_channels Read channel information.

Example Description

This example showcases ability of the device to read touch coordinates, active/inactive channels, and gesture informations.

 void application_task ( void )  
 { 
     if ( !touchpad4_get_ready( &touchpad4 ) ) 
     { 
         switch ( example_selector ) 
         { 
             case TOUCHPAD4_EXAMPLE_TOUCH: 
             { 
                 touchpad4_touch_reading( ); 
                 break; 
             } 
             case TOUCHPAD4_EXAMPLE_CHANNEL: 
             { 
                 touchpad4_channel_reading( ); 
                 break; 
             } 
             case TOUCHPAD4_EXAMPLE_GESTURE: 
             { 
                 touchpad4_gesture_reading( ); 
                 break; 
             } 
             default: 
             { 
                 log_error( &logger, " Select Example" ); 
                 break; 
             } 
         }  
     } 
 }

The full application code, and ready to use projects can be installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager (recommended), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on MIKROE github account.

Other MIKROE Libraries used in the example:

• MikroSDK.Board
• MikroSDK.Log
• Click.Touchpad4

Additional notes and informations

Depending on the development board you are using, you may need 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. UART terminal is available in all MIKROE compilers.

mikroSDK

This Click board™ is supported with mikroSDK - MIKROE 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.

For more information about mikroSDK, visit the official page.