Today we are going to do a brief overview on using static I/O with the Analog Discovery 2 and the Digital Discovery.
With static I/O you have access to virtual LEDs, switches, buttons, seven segment display, progress bar, and slider switch. You can use them to sense or generate inputs and outputs without having to wire up the physical input or output. It is commonly used for sensing or generating change of state instances. The Analog Discovery 2 and the Digital Discovery are great tools for working with static I/O!
All you need to get started is one of the two hardware devices and WaveForms 2015 software.
First order of business is to make sure your device is set up and calibrated. Once this is complete, open the static I/O by clicking the “StaticIO” button, as seen below.
Now the static I/O window will open.
It is important to note that unlike other tools, the static I/O window opens with the tool running. The next step is to configure the channel. Each digital channel is set as an input, specifically a virtual LED by default. You can find more in-depth information on this topic on the wiki page.
One very important thing to keep in mind when using static I/O is that the digital channels are not meant for large loads.
Don’t connect much more than a single LED and resistor directly to the channel. If you need to drive larger loads, the channels can be used to trigger high current drivers such as MOSFETs, H-bridges, etc., but are not to be used as primary sources.
As long as you keep this note in mind and follow the instructions, you should be good to go when getting up and running with static I/O.
