3.6.2 Xplained Pro Connector
The Xplained Pro connector (J10) is Atmel’s proprietary interface port intended to connect different evaluation platforms from AVR® and ARM microcontrollers.
This connector lets you manage the PL360 with an MCU other than SAM4CMS. The PL360MB Xplained Pro provides the following features:
- SPI
- UART
- I2C
- 2 ADC inputs
- 1 IRQ input
- 5 GPIOs
Important: By default, the output
resistors to the connector are not populated in the board.
In the default configuration of the PL360-EK board, the SAM4CMS microcontroller controls the PL360B, and the pins of the Xplained Pro port are left unconnected. To allow external control of the PL360 by the Xplained Pro port, some hardware modifications are required. The modifications can be performed by populating and removing some resistors, as shown in the following table:
| PL360 | Resistors | Xplained Pro Pin | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | Pin | Populate | Remove | |
| LDO_EN | 9 | R154 | R153 | 5 |
| NRST | 1 | R109 | R80 | 6 |
| INT | 16 | R38 | R35 | 9 |
| CD | 13 | R117 | R115 | 14 |
| NPCS0 | 17 | R42 | R41 | 15 |
| MOSI | 19 | R18 | R17 | 16 |
| MISO | 20 | R40 | R39 | 17 |
| SPCK | 18 | R33 | R32 | 18 |
Warning: In
this configuration, the host controller board connected to the Xplained Pro typically
provides the 3V3 voltage to the PL360-EK, so the jumper J17 has to be removed to disable
the 3V3 buck converter. Otherwise, the inductor FB8 has to be removed to avoid circulating
currents between the PL360-EK and Xplained Pro 3V3 rails.