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By Geoff Graham
Ultrasonic Garage
Parking Assistant
This Garage Parking Assistant will display the distance from the
back wall of your garage or carport to your car’s bumper bar, in
large digits and with a colour coded background: green for go,
yellow for slow down and red for stop. It makes positioning the
car a breeze as you will always know just how many centimetres
you are from the wall or an ideal stopping point.
T
HIS PROJECT is based on the Micromite LCD BackPack described
in last month’s SILICON CHIP. The BackPack is a low-cost, touch-sensitive LCD
panel coupled with an even lower cost
microcontroller programmed in BA-
SIC. Turning this into our Digital Garage Parking Assistant only requires
the addition of an ultrasonic distance
sensor and a suitable BASIC program.
As you drive the car into the garage
the display will light up, with the dis-
TRIGGER
ULTRASONIC
DISTANCE
SENSOR
MICROMITE
MK2
TOUCH-SCREEN
LCD PANEL
ECHO
Fig 1: this block diagram shows the main components in the Garage Parking
Assistant. The Micromite is in control: using the trigger line, it signals
the ultrasonic distance sensor to transmit an ultrasonic sound pulse then
measures the round trip time on the echo line. The result is converted to
centimetres and displayed on the touch-screen LCD panel.
26 Silicon Chip
tance in centimetres displayed on a
green background. As you come closer,
the background changes to yellow and
then finally to red. During this time, the
display will tell you the exact distance
to the wall or an ideal stopping point
in large 25mm-high digits. Finally, after the vehicle has been stationary for
a little while, the display blanks, ready
for the next time you park the car.
By making some small changes to
the software program, you could use
the same design for other applications
where you need to know the distance to
an object. For example, with a simple
modification, the unit could display
the water level in a rainwater tank.
Based on the dimensions of the tank,
it could also calculate and display the
content in litres, with the background
colours serving as a warning when the
siliconchip.com.au
REG1 MCP1700-3302E
+5V
CON1
POWER
AND
CONSOLE
CHASSIS-MOUNT
DC SOCKET
(WIRED TO
USB PLUG)
RED
GND
10 µF
+3.3V
OUT
IN
10 µF
100nF
100nF
5V
ILI9341
BASED
LCD DISPLAY
Tx
13
Rx
BLACK
GND
CON2
MICROMITE
I/O
DATA OUT
11
DATA IN
12
RESET
1
3
3
4
4
5
5
9
9
10
10
14
14
16
16
17
17
18
18
21
21
22
22
24
24
GND
25
25
ECHO
26
26
TRIG
+3.3V
5V
+5V
4-PIN
MICROPHONE
PLUG &
SOCKET
GND
HC-SR04
ULTRASONIC
DISTANCE
SENSOR
28
15
T_IRQ
T_DO
T_DIN
7
T_CS
T_CLK
SDO (MISO)
MICROMITE
MK2
LED
IC1
PIC32MX170F
–256B
SCK
SDI (MOSI)
2
D/C
23
RESET
6
CS
VR1
14 25
20
8
19
27
3
PINS
ON IC1
47 µF
TANT
BACK
LIGHT
+5V
GND
VCC
CON3
ICSP
1
+3.3V
4
1 – MCLR
2 –Vcc
5
3 – GND
RESET
5 – PGC
4 – PGD
S1
6 – NC
10k
CON4
+3.3V
+5V
MC P1700
SC
20 1 6
GARAGE PARKING ASSISTANT
IN
OUT
GND
Fig.2: the circuit is based on a Micromite LCD Backpack, a touch-screen LCD and an ultrasonic distance sensor. IC1
does most of the work, while REG1 is a 3.3V voltage regulator. The ultrasonic distance sensor is triggered by pin 21 of
the Micromite and the subsequent echo signal is then fed to pin 22. A 5V USB charger powers the circuit.
water has dropped to a low level.
The program running on the Digital
Garage Parking Assistant is written in
BASIC. This is an easy-to-learn programming language and the program is
stored in plain text. And because the
Micromite has its own program editor, you can connect it to a laptop and
easily change the program to suit your
preferences, even when it is attached
to the garage wall.
You might, for example, prefer the
distance to be displayed in old-fashioned inches. That would require the
modification of just one line in the program and could be done in minutes.
How it works
Fig.1 shows the block diagram of
the Garage Parking Assistant, while
Fig.2 shows the full circuit (including
siliconchip.com.au
the LCD BackPack). The key components are an ultrasonic distance sensor, Micromite microcontroller IC1
and the LCD panel. The Micromite is
completely in control; it uses the ul-
trasonic transducer to measure the distance and then displays the result on
the LCD panel.
The distance sensor emits an ultrasonic pulse and then listens for the reThe ultrasonic
sensor unit is
mounted on the
garage wall at
bumper height,
while the display
unit is mounted
above it at eyelevel, where it
can be easily
seen, and shows
the distance to
the vehicle in
centimetres.
March 2016 27
The background colours on the LCD provide a simple visual warning to the driver – green to continue, yellow to slow
down and red to stop. In addition, the LCD shows the distance readout in centimetres. You can change the thresholds
used for the three colours via the touch-screen and the various options menus.
turn echo, under the control of the Micromite. The microcontroller starts the
measurement cycle by triggering the
ultrasonic signal with a short positive
pulse on the trigger line of the sensor.
The sensor then raises the echo line
to a logic high level to acknowledge
that it has sent the ultrasonic pulse
and then drops it low again when the
echo is received.
The time that the echo pin is held
high by the sensor represents the round
trip time for the ultrasonic pulse to
leave the sensor, reach the distant object and bounce back to the sensor.
The microcontroller must accurately
measure this time and then calculate
the distance to the target.
In a normal microcontroller, this operation can be complex but on the Micromite it’s easy. The BASIC program
just needs to use the DISTANCE() func-
tion which will automatically generate the trigger pulse and calculate the
distance to the target. The result is returned as a floating point number representing the distance in centimetres
to one decimal place.
For example, if you had an ultrasonic transducer connected to pins 21
(trigger) and 22 (echo), the following
command would display the distance
(in centimetres) to the target:
PRINT DISTANCE(21, 22)
The output from running the above
command would be a number. For example, 26.1 would mean that the distance is 26.1 centimetres.
The sensor will work with a target
that ranges from 30mm to 3m. The precision will vary depending on several
factors, such as the reflectivity of the
object and the air temperature, but is
generally accurate to within 10mm.
This range and accuracy is more than
adequate for our Garage Parking Assistant.
The ultrasonic sensor goes by the
part number HC-SR04 and can be
found on eBay or purchased from the
SILICON CHIP Online Shop. Compatible
sensors are the SRF05, SRF06, Parallax
PING and the DYP-ME007 (which is
waterproof and therefore good for locations that are exposed to the weather).
All of these work exactly the same as
the HC-SR04.
The Micromite
The ultrasonic distance sensor used
in the Garage Parking Assistant.
The righthand transducer is used
to transmit the sound pulse and the
lefthand transducer receives the
reflected signal. The sensor will work
with targets ranging from 30mm
to 3m and is generally accurate to
within a centimetre.
28 Silicon Chip
The Micromite has been described
many times before in SILICON CHIP and
has evolved into a powerful but inexpensive controller. The IC used here
is a 28-pin dual-in-line (DIL) package
which can be plugged into an IC socket
and is programmed using a version of
BASIC called MMBasic.
BASIC stands for “Beginner’s Allpurpose Symbolic Instruction Code”.
Originally designed as an interactive teaching language by Dartmouth
College in the USA in 1963, it subsequently became widely used on early
personal computers. Because of its
simplicity, BASIC is often used for
teaching the fundamental concepts of
programming.
The program for the Garage Parking
Assistant is written in BASIC and because of this, it can be easily modified
to suit your preferences. For example,
if you do not like the colours you can
change them to suit yourself.
The Micromite is coupled with a lowcost touch-screen LCD panel which can
display 320 by 240 pixels in any one
of 65,535 colours. We chose the larger
2.8-inch version for our prototype because the displayed digits are easier to
see from the driver’s seat; they are just
over 25.4mm (1-inch) high. If you already have the 2.4-inch LCD, this could
be used instead. Its mounting arrangement (on the lid of the case) will be
slightly different, however.
The Garage Parking Assistant uses
the touch input to set its various options. All you need do is tap the screen
and the main options menu appears.
Touch support is another area where
the BASIC language makes programming easy. The TOUCH() function will
return the X and Y coordinates of the
touched location in pixels. Using this
and a selection of drawing commands,
it is possible to create touch sensitive
buttons and other screen objects that
make sense to the casual user.
Options
The photo at top-right on the facing
page shows the main options menu that
appears when the screen is touched. In
particular, it shows the timeout, offset and thresholds for the background
colours.
The timeout is simply the length of
time after the car has stopped moving
before the display is blanked. By contrast, the offset is the distance from
the sensor at which the displayed dissiliconchip.com.au
tance will be shown as zero. It is useful if the sensor is mounted on a wall
but the car must stop before the wall
is reached, perhaps because of some
other obstruction.
For example, if the offset is set at
10cm, the display will read zero when
the distance between the car’s bumper
bar and the sensor has been reduced
to 10cm.
Either of these two settings can be
changed by touching the CHANGE button. In this case, a virtual on-screen
keypad will be displayed which allows the required number to be keyed
in. An example of this is shown in the
photo below left. The keypad includes
the ability to delete the previously entered digit (the DEL key) or cancel the
entry and return to the menu (the CAN
key). Pressing the ENT key will store
the keyed-in number and return to the
previous menu.
The third entry on the main options
screen shows the thresholds for the
colour changes. Pressing the change
button for this entry will open up a
new menu as shown in the photo below right. By default the threshold for
green is 200cm, for yellow it is 50cm
and for red it is 10cm.
Initially, as the vehicle approaches,
the LCD will be blank but when the
vehicle’s distance reaches the green
threshold, the display will light and
show the distance with a green background. Similarly, when the yellow
threshold is reached, the background
will change to yellow and so on.
These colour changes provide a
simple visual warning for the driver
– yellow means slow down and red
means stop immediately. You can easily change these thresholds by touch-
Touching the screen on the Garage Parking Assistant displays the options
settings. This photo shows the main menu, which displays the current settings
for the timeout, the offset and the thresholds. Touching the CHANGE button for
a particular parameter brings up a virtual keypad (see photo below) so that the
setting can be changed.
ing the CHANGE button and keying in
the new number.
The FINISHED button will save the
options and return to the previous
screen. All options are saved in nonvolatile memory, so they will be retained even if the power is removed.
Building the LCD Backpack
The first step in the construction is
to build the Micromite LCD BackPack
and test it to make sure that it’s working correctly. This was described in
last month’s issue of SILICON CHIP so
we won’t go into too much detail here.
Besides, with the silk screening on
the PCB, it’s obvious where the parts
go and it should take less than half an
hour to build.
This is a typical virtual keypad which allows the user to
enter a new number. It includes the ability to delete the
previously entered digit (the DEL key) or cancel the entry
and return to the menu (the CAN key). Pressing ENT will
store the number and return to the previous menu.
siliconchip.com.au
Loading the firmware and the BASIC
program is essentially a 3-step process.
First, the blank PIC32 microcontroller must be programmed with the Micromite firmware which includes the
BASIC interpreter (MMBasic). That
done, the interpreter needs to be configured to suit the LCD panel. And finally, the BASIC program that drives
the ultrasonic sensor and the display
needs to be loaded.
You have a few choices when it
comes to this process:
Option 1: the first option is to download
the file “ParkingAssistFull.hex” from
the SILICON CHIP website and program
the PIC32 yourself. This file has the Micromite firmware, the settings for the
LCD panel and the BASIC program all
The thresholds for bringing up different background colours can be changed using this menu. The Finished button
saves the options and return to the previous screen. All
options are saved in non-volatile memory so they will be
retained even if the power is removed.
March 2016 29
STARTUP
LCD
TOUCHED?
YES
GET THE
OPTIONS
FINISHED
NO
BLANK
DISPLAY
GET THE
DISTANCE
FORWARD
MOVEMENT?
NO
YES
Program operation
NO
YES
> GREEN
THRESHOLD?
TIMEOUT
OCCURED?
YES
NO
> YELLOW
THRESHOLD?
YES
BCOLOUR = GREEN
NO
> RED
THRESHOLD?
YES
BCOLOUR = YELLOW
NO
BCOLOUR = RED
DISPLAY THE
DISTANCE
combined into one “package”. It must
be programmed into the PIC32 microcontroller using a programmer such as
the PICkit 3.
Using this firmware is quite convenient because this single operation
combines all three steps and sets up
the chip so that it’s ready to do the job.
Option 2: the second (and easiest) option is to purchase the PIC32 microcontroller pre-programmed with the combined firmware file from the SILICON
CHIP Online Shop. Then, all you need
to do is plug the chip into its socket
and you are ready to go.
Option 3: the third option is to go
through all three steps individually.
Step 1 is to download the file “Micro
mite_V5.1.hex” from the SILICON CHIP
website and program it into the PIC32
microcontroller using a PICkit 3. Step
2 is to connect a USB-to-serial converter to the Micromite’s console and
configure the chip to work with the
30 Silicon Chip
cover that the touch calibration is inaccurate, this can be corrected by connecting a USB-to-serial converter to
the console, halting the program with
CTRL-C and re-running the calibration. The calibration procedure was
also described in detail last month.
Note that if you already have a working Micromite LCD BackPack, then it
will only be necessary to load Parking
Assist.bas into the PIC32 micro. Alternatively, you can choose to reprogram
the chip with the combined software
(ie, ParkingAssistFull.hex).
Fig.3: the software
flowchart diagram. The
BASIC program runs
in a continuous loop.
After checking for a
touch on the screen the
program then measures
the distance to the car.
Following this, a series
of decisions are made to
determine if the display
should be blanked or to
select the background
colour.
LCD and touch. And finally, step 3
involves loading the BASIC program
“ParkingAssist.bas” (again available from the SILICON CHIP website).
This can be loaded using either the
XMODEM protocol or using the AUTOSAVE command.
The above process was described in
detail in last month’s article on the Micromite LCD Backpack and isn’t hard
to do. When you have run through all
three steps, the result will be exactly the same as if you had loaded the
combined firmware containing the interpreter, the settings and the BASIC
program (or if you purchased a preprogrammed chip).
The only issue that you need to be
aware of is that the touch calibration
in the combined firmware was done
with a reasonably standard LCD panel
but yours might require re-calibration
if it is significantly different from the
“standard” that we used. If you dis-
If you wish to modify the BASIC
program, you need to have some idea
of how it works. Fig.3 provides a highlevel flow diagram of its operation.
As shown, the program runs in a continuous loop. First, it checks if the LCD
is being touched and if it is, branches
to a subroutine which will display the
menus and the options.
The program then retrieves the distance from the ultrasonic sensor which
is averaged over five successive readings to reduce noise. It then checks
for forward movement and if there is
none it checks for a timeout. This is
the time that the display remains on
after the vehicle has stopped moving.
If the vehicle is stationary, a counter
will increment every second and the
program will blank the display when
the counter reaches the timeout setting.
The program next checks the vehicle’s distance and compares it to the
green threshold. If it is greater than
this threshold, it blanks the display
and returns to the start of the loop for
another “go around”. If the distance
is less than the green threshold, the
program checks the other thresholds
to determine the colour to be used, ie,
green, yellow or red.
Finally, the program displays the
distance in centimetres with the specified coloured background. It then loops
around to get another distance reading
and repeat the process.
If you are going to modify the program there is one feature that you need
to be aware of. In the main program
loop, the watchdog timer is set to one
second. This timer is used to automatically restart the program if an error occurs.
In operation, the timer must be constantly reset to one second to prevent
a restart under normal operation. This
means that you must make sure that the
siliconchip.com.au
program can execute the loop in less
than one second to avoid an automatic
restart of the Micromite.
The watchdog timer is also used
when the program detects a touch on
the screen and branches to the menus
where the options are set. In this case,
the timeout is set to 10 minutes every time a button is touched. This was
included in the program so that the
Micromite will automatically restart
and return to normal operation after
10 minutes of inactivity within any
menu – handy if you have been called
away while fiddling with the settings
and forget to return.
M3 x 10mm
MACHINE SCREW
CLEAR ACRYLIC LID WITH CUT-OUT FOR LCD
(REPLACES ORIGINAL UB3 BOX LID)
TOUCH-SCREEN LCD
2 x M3
WASHERS
M3 x 6mm
MACHINE SCREW
M3 x 12mm
TAPPED SPACER
2.8" LCD PCB
MICROMITE
BACKPACK PCB
Fig.4: here’s
how to attach
the LCD &
Micromite
BackPack PCB
to the clear
acrylic lid.
The LCD goes
through a cutout in the lid
and sits flush
with its top
surface.
Building it
The first job in the assembly is to
build and calibrate the Micromite LCD
BackPack, as detailed in the February
2016 issue of SILICON CHIP. It’s then just
a matter of mounting the LCD BackPack
assembly and the ultrasonic sensor assembly in separate enclosures and connecting them together.
As shown in the photos, the Micromite LCD Backpack is mounted inside
a UB3 ABS box, while the ultrasonic
sensor goes in a smaller UB5 box. A
4-core cable joins the two units and
allows the sensor to be mounted at
bumper bar height, while the Micromite LCD BackPack can be mounted
above it at eye height.
In each case, the lid supplied with
the box is discarded and replaced with
a laser-cut clear acrylic panel (available
from the SILICON CHIP Online Shop; see
parts list). The panel for the BackPack
assembly comes with all the mounting
holes plus a precision cut-out for the
touch-screen LCD, while the panel (or
lid) for the UB5 box comes with corner
mounting holes plus neat circular cutouts for the two ultrasonic transducers.
Fig.4 shows how the LCD BackPack
assembly is mounted. First, the touchscreen LCD is attached to the acrylic
lid at each corner using an M3 x 10mm
machine screw, two stacked M3 washers and an M3 x 12mm tapped spacer.
This arrangement ensures that the LCD
sits flush with the clear acrylic lid.
Note that the LCD itself is offset to
the left on its PCB, so be sure to fit the
module the right way around, so that
the viewing area is centred horizontally on the acrylic panel. Once it’s in
place, the Micromite BackPack PCB is
then plugged into CON3 on the LCD
board and secured in place using M3
x 6mm machine screws.
siliconchip.com.au
This view shows the LCD/BackPack PCB assembly
just before it is lowered into the case.
The next step is to drill holes in the
lefthand side of the case to accept a
panel-mount DC power socket and a
4-pin microphone socket (used for the
sensor connection). These holes can be
centred vertically on the panel, with
each hole about 20mm in from its adjacent outside edge.
Drill small pilot holes to start with,
then carefully enlarge each hole to size
using a tapered reamer, so that the part
just fits.
That done, the DC socket can be
wired to a 4-pin female header as
shown in Fig.5, with the red wire going to the centre pin terminal. The DC
socket is then be secured to the case,
after which the microphone socket can
be fitted and wired to an 8-pin female
header – see Fig.6.
March 2016 31
5V
4
Tx
3
2
Rx
1
USB CONNECTOR
TYPE A MALE
GND
DC PLUG
DC INPUT
SOCKET
(ON END OF BOX)
4-PIN FEMALE
HEADER
CONNECTOR
MICROMITE
CON1POWER
AND CONSOLE
CONNECTOR
Fig.5: the Garage Parking Assistant is powered from a standard USB plugpack charger. To make a suitable power
cable, cut off one end of a USB cable (retaining the type A male connector on the other end) and solder the red wire to
the centre terminal pin of a DC plug and the black wire to the outside pin. The matching DC socket is mounted on the
side of the UB3 box and is connected to a 4-pin female header which then plugs into CON1 on the Micromite PCB.
21
22
GND
ECHO
3.3V
TRIG
5V
+5V
4-PIN FEMALE
HEADER CONNECTOR
ULTRASONIC
DISTANCE
SENSOR
GND
4-PIN MICROPHONE
PLUG
4-PIN MICROPHONE
SOCKET ON
END OF BOX
8-PIN FEMALE
HEADER CONNECTOR
MICROMITE
CON2 I/O
CONNECTOR
Fig.6: a cable with a 4-pin female header at one end and a 4-pin microphone plug at the other end connects the ultrasonic sensor to the display unit via a matching 4-pin socket. The microphone socket in turn is wired to an 8-pin female
header which then connects to CON2 on the Micromite PCB. Note that the female headers shown in Figs.5 & 6 are not
polarised, so make sure that they are orientated correctly when plugging them in.
The main unit can now be completed
by plugging the headers into CON1 &
CON2 on the BackPack PCB, then lowering the PCB assembly into the case
and securing it at the corners using the
supplied self-tapping screws.
Be careful when plugging in the two
headers, as the connectors are not polarised. Basically, it’s just a matter of
making sure that ground (GND) from
the DC socket (black wire) goes to GND
on CON1 and that GND on the microphone socket goes to GND on CON2.
Note also that CON2 on the BackPack PCB has 18 pins; the 8-pin female
header must be plugged in at the end
that has the GND pin.
Fitting the sensor PCB
The ultrasonic sensor unit comes
pre-assembled. It’s just a matter of
pushing the two sensors through their
The sensor unit is connected to
the Micromite LCD Backpack via
a 4-core cable. Power is derived
from CON2 on the BackPack PCB.
32 Silicon Chip
front panel holes as far as they will go
to secure the unit in position. The sensors are a firm fit in the holes and that
will usually be enough to hold the assembly in place.
Alternatively, a couple of small dabs
of neutral-cure silicone can be used
on the inside to ensure that the sensor
unit can’t be pushed back into the case.
The next step is to drill a 9.5mm hole
through one side of the case (or through
the top) and fit a rubber grommet. A
4-way cable (used to connect the sensor to the Micromite BackPack PCB)
is then pushed through this grommet
and wired to a 4-way female header as
shown in Fig.6.
Either 6mm-diameter 4-core audio
cable (with the shield braid cut short)
or 4-wire telephone cable can be used
here. The audio cable is a tight fit into
the grommet, so it won’t be necessary
to secure it with a cable clamp. Conversely, some sort of clamping arrangement will probably be required if telephone cable is used.
The other end of this 4-way cable
is connected to a 4-pin microphone
plug. Make sure that the wires go to
the correct pins on this plug, so that
they mate with the correct wires on
the socket when the two are connected
together. If you are using audio cable,
the shield braid can either be cut short
or connected to the plug’s metal shell.
siliconchip.com.au
Firmware Updates
For firmware updates for the Micromite and the Garage Parking Assistant, please check the author’s website at geoffg.net/micromite.html
Note that the ultrasonic sensor assembly derives its power (5V) via this
cable from CON2 on the Micromite
BackPack PCB.
Power supply
5V USB plugpack chargers are cheap
and the Garage Parking Assistant works
perfectly with one of these. Be sure to
select one with a generous current rating (500mA or more), as the unit can
draw up to 250mA.
Fig.5 shows the details for the USB
supply cable for one of these supplies.
It’s just a matter of cutting off one end
of a USB cable (retaining the male type
A connector at the other end) and soldering the red and black wires to the
DC plug (red wire to the centre-pin
terminal).
The other two wires in the USB cable
(generally green and white) can be cut
short, as they are not needed.
Another option is to use a 5V DC
plugpack with a captive lead fitted
with a DC plug. If the plug is the incorrect size, cut it off and fit one that
does match the socket.
Loading BASIC
If you are going to load the BASIC
program yourself or edit it later, you
also need to make up a cable with a
USB-to-serial converter as described
last month. Then, after you have the
program running, you can remove
the converter and use the power cable instead.
This is because the program is designed to start running automatically
whenever power is applied and after
the program has been run once, you
don’t need to use the console again.
Mounting it in place
Having made the connections, the
next step is to mount the two units in
place. The LCD unit should be mounted on the garage wall at eye height,
while the sensor should be mounted
at bumper bar height.
Don’t forget that you can easily adjust the green, yellow and red threshold
values if necessary. Depending on how
close you want to park to the wall, the
siliconchip.com.au
Parts List
Micromite LCD BackPack Unit
1 PCB, code 07102122, 86 x
50mm (for 2.8-inch LCD)
1 ILI9341-based LCD, 320 x 240
pixels, 2.8-inch diagonal
1 UB3 ABS box, 130 x 67 x 43mm
(Altronics H0153 or H0203,
Jaycar HB6013 or HB6023)
1 pre-drilled clear acrylic lid to
suit UB3 box
1 4-pin tactile switch, throughhole hole
1 100Ω vertical-mount side adjust
trimpot (Altronics R2579,
element14 9608044 or similar)
1 28-pin DIL low-profile IC socket
1 4-pin 0.1-inch male header
(CON1)
1 18-pin 0.1-inch male header
(CON2)
1 14-pin 0.1-inch female header
socket (CON3)
1 6-pin 0.1-inch right-angle male
header (CON4)
1 4-pin 0.1-inch female header
1 8-pin 0.1-inch female header
1 2.1mm or 2.5mm panel-mount
DC socket (Altronics P0622 or
P0623)
1 4-pin panel-mount microphone
male socket (Altronics P0955
or Jaycar PP2010)
4 M3 x 12mm tapped spacers
4 M3 x 10mm machine screws
4 M3 x 6mm machine screws
8 M3 flat washers
Semiconductors
1 PIC32MX170F256B-50I/SP
microcontroller programmed
with ParkingAssistFull.hex
(IC1) – see text. Note: a PIC32
MX170F256B-I/SP can also
be used but will be limited to
40MHz)
1 Microchip MCP1700-3302E/TO
voltage regulator (REG1)
Capacitors
1 47µF 16V tantalum or SMD
ceramic (3216/1206)
default values should be fine in most
cases. However, some people might
want to increase the red threshold to
(say) 15cm or even 20cm.
As stated earlier, all you have to
do is touch the screen to bring up the
main options menu and then touch the
2 10µF 16V tantalum or SMD
ceramic (3216/1206)
2 100nF monolithic ceramic
Resistors (0.25W 5%)
1 10kΩ
Sensor Unit
1 ultrasonic distance sensor, HCSR04, SRF05, SRF06, Parallax
PING or DYP-ME007
1 UB5 ABS box, 82 x 54 x 30mm
(Altronics H0155 or H0205 ,
Jaycar HB6005)
1 pre-drilled clear acrylic lid to suit
UB5 box
1 9.5mm rubber grommet to suit
6mm-dia. cable (Jaycar HP0702)
Cable Parts
1 USB cable with a male type A
connector (length to suit)
1 2.1mm or 2.5mm DC plug to suit
DC socket (Altronics P0634A
or P0635A, Jaycar PP0510 or
PP0511)
1 4-pin female line microphone
connector (Altronics P0950 or
Jaycar PS2012)
1 4-pin 0.1-inch female header
1 length 4-core audio cable
1 200mm length of rainbow cable
Where To Buy Parts
A complete kit for the Micromite
LCD BackPack is available from the
SILICON CHIP Online Shop. The clear
lid with cut-out, to suit a UB3 Jiffy
box, is available separately. We are
also offering the ultrasonic distance
sensor with a custom-cut UB5 jiffy
box lid. See the Online Shop ad on
page 88 for more details.
The Micromite BackPack PCB and
programmed microcontroller can also
be purchased separately.
Note that the kit does not include
the boxes, mounting hardware, plugpack power supply, rubber grommet
off-board headers and connectors or
cable parts.
CHANGE button for the colour thresh-
olds to bring up the relevant options
menu. You then hit the CHANGE button
for the threshold you want to change,
enter in the new number on the virtual
keypad, touch ENT and then FINISHED,
SC
and that’s it!
March 2016 33
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