Typically, to start tuning a new application, first of all the Reference Delay and Alpha settings need to be set. For this, the ‘mon2’ monitor mode can help to directly show the effect of changed settings.
The Reference Delay is set by the ‘srd nn’ command, where ‘nn’ is the desired value from 0-
127.A warm reset command is issued automatically to activate the new setting. Typical starting value will be
The Reference Delay value moves all of the bars (mon2 mode) to the left (higher RD value) or to the right (lower RD value). Using the Reference Delay, the average (idle) impedance of all touch sensors can be placed somewhere in the middle of the FMA1125 dynamic range, indicated by the bars. Incrementing the Reference Delay by one step has a similar effect as attaching an external capacitor of 0.078pF to the PAREF pin of the TSC (depending on the R_SEL settings of the TSC, please refer to the FMA1125 register description for details). So, in case the reference delay maximum value of 127 is not sufficient, an additional capacitor of max. ~10 pF can be connected to the PAREF pin to increase the reference impedance value.
If the difference between the sensor idle impedances of the channel is too high (e.g. some channels smaller ~30, others bigger ~100), small tuning capacitors (some few pf; 1 count step = 0.078pF depending on R_SEL settings) should be added (from the touch pads to ground), so that the idle capacitances of the different channels are in the same range. However, a difference of
After setting the Reference Delay, the Alpha of the channels can be set. Alpha is the difference between measured impedance and the reference in idle (not touched) state. A smaller value of Alpha makes the pad more sensitive, while increasing Alpha decreases sensitivity. Typical values for a directly touched (only solder stop or thin foil between electrode and finger) pad will be ~20 or higher. If some mm of plastic is used as front cover, typical Alpha values will be in the range of
NOTE:
When a front panel with high dielectric constant, such as glass, is pressed against the touch electrodes during operation (no front panel present at
Based on these Settings, the Alpha values can be set for all input channels (‘sax’), for one channel only (‘sa’), or it can be incremented / decremented for all channels (a+nn /
The current values of Alpha and Reference Delay can be checked with the ‘sv’ command.
All remaining registers can be accessed by the ‘set’ and ‘setx’ commands using their addresses. Please note that after writing to certain registers, a ‘warm reset’ has to be performed e.g. using the ‘wr’ command. This also will trigger a calibration.
Up to 10 register settings (all read/writable registers) can be stored to and loaded from the internal Flash memory of the Microcontroller using the ‘stp’ and ‘ldp’ commands.
Please refer to the application note ‘FMA1125_Init_Reg_Description’ for further register description.
