I2C extender connected on TAG4 startup

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Anonymous
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Hi all,

I am having problems starting the board when an I2C device is connected (GND, VCC and one or both of CLK and SDA) to J9. Even when I comment out all code that uses I2C and P2/P8 initialization, the board just won't start (on a coin cell battery) if external I2C is initially connected. Once started, I can connect the external I2C device no problem. Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks,

Filipp

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1 Solution

The original team that designed this board is no longer with us, but I did find one individual that supported the PCB design and he shared the following guidance.

The I2C expander caused a reverse current during initialization that prevented the I2C bus from working properly; to counter this, one needs to connect the I2C expander after initialization.

In addition, he said to make sure on SW8, only positions 1,3,5 are selected (i.e. select EEPROM). Since I2C and SPI are sharing the same pins, you want to make sure only I2C is used. Once SPI is selected, the pins cannot be used for I2C until you re-initialize.

Hope this helps.

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5 Replies
BoonT_56
Employee
Employee
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I think my colleague gave some advice in the similar context. Does it work out?

I2C header in TAG4 (J9)

Anonymous
Not applicable

Well, that topic was about enabling the expander (which helped a lot!), but the problem I have right now is that the application won't start at all if an I2C device is connected to J9 when I switch it on. Not just my application, but the sample applications as well. I have to resort to disconnecting the I2C device, turning the board on, and connecting the I2C device back to J9.

If I only connect VCC and GND, the application starts just fine, so I don't think it's about excessive power consumption. It only happens when I connect VCC, GND and at least one of the signal wires (SCL and/or SDA)

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Anonymous
Not applicable

I've just tried starting the same application ("watch" from samples) with the same I2C device connected to my TAG3, and that starts fine, so the problem seems to be specific to TAG4.

The VCC current consumption of the I2C device(TCA9548A) is just 5 microamps.

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The original team that designed this board is no longer with us, but I did find one individual that supported the PCB design and he shared the following guidance.

The I2C expander caused a reverse current during initialization that prevented the I2C bus from working properly; to counter this, one needs to connect the I2C expander after initialization.

In addition, he said to make sure on SW8, only positions 1,3,5 are selected (i.e. select EEPROM). Since I2C and SPI are sharing the same pins, you want to make sure only I2C is used. Once SPI is selected, the pins cannot be used for I2C until you re-initialize.

Hope this helps.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks - that does help! I think that leaves me with attaching my SCL/SDA to TP5/TP6 to bypass the I2C expander altogether.

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