The Serial Wombat 18AB chip…
eighteen really smart expansion pins accessible by I2C or UART
Step 1. Start Here.
This video will show you how to wire up your Serial Wombat 18AB chip and verify that your Arduino board can communicate with it over I2C or UART. Additional Videos cover connection to a Raspberry Pi
Step 2.
Watch tutorials on the Serial Wombat pin modes you’re interested in.
Note: Many of these videos are targeted towards the Serial Wombat 4B, but the same interfaces work on the Serial Wombat 18AB
The Serial Wombat 18AB chip can add Capacitive touch through insulator to your project.
The Serial Wombat 18AB chip can control WS2812 LEDs from I2C or UART.
The Serial Wombat 18AB chip can scan 4x4 matrix keypads.
The Serial Wombat 18AB chip can directly measure resistance to ground up to 60k Ohms.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can add 3 10-bit A/D converters to your project.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can simultaneously monitor 2 Rotary Encoders and report changes back to your project when it’s convenient for you.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can measure pulse width on 4 simultaneous signals. This is great for monitoring incoming R/C servo signals.
The Serial Wombat 18AB chip can drive Seven Segment displays from I2C or UART.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can quickly change an output based on a digital or analog input from another pin, potentially preventing damage to your circuit.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can add an I2C to UART bridge to add an additional Serial Port to your project
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can control 3 servos without consuming any CPU time on the Host.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can report debounced state, hold times, and transition counts for 4 buttons back to your project when it’s convenient for you.
The Serial Wombat 4B chip can add up to 3 output and up to 4 input digital lines with optional weak pull-ups.
Step 3.
Dive into the examples.
Each pin mode has well-documented examples available in the Arduino Examples area of the Serial Wombat library.
Step 4.
Design your circuit.
You can plug your Serial Wombat 18AB directly in a breadboard, or use the included carrier PCB to turn it into a module.
Choose the right pins for the job
Most pin modes can run on most pins, but some modes such as analog inputs are limited to certain pins. Other modes run better when assigned to an Enhanced digital performance pin.
Make your chip a module
The Serial Wombat 18AB carrier PCB provides an easy way to connect your Serial Wombat 18AB Chip via UART or I2C, or add an ESP-01 module to turn it into an IOT Board.
Step 5 (optional).
Learn all the details.
Dive into the API to discover how capable and flexible the Serial Wombat 18AB chip really is.
Learn how pins can be configured to work together without supervision from the Arduino or Raspberry Pi for input based output, or on-chip control algorithms like PID. Learn about the extensive error reporting and processor utilization measurement tools. Learn to control your Serial Wombat chip directly from a terminal.
Step 6 (optional and exceptional).
Become a Serial Wombat Firmware Guru.
Study and modify the on-chip firmware to give the chip new capabilities that no one has thought of before.
The Serial Wombat 18AB firmware is available under an MIT license. Most users will never look at it, let alone modify it. But if you have a special task you want to offload to the Serial Wombat 18AB’s 1mS executive, you can hack the firmware to do it. If you think it’s potentially useful to others, send me a pull request and maybe it will get included in the next official build.