64 replies to this topic

[mjr]

> Is it possible to run both LIS3DH and VCNL4010 on the i2c0 bus simultaniously?

 

Yes!  That's the magic of I2C.  It's a "bus" design, which means that multiple devices can be attached to the same SDA/SCL lines.  Just connect all of the SDA pins together and connect all of the SCL pins together.  It's a great feature especially for the Pico, since the Pico doesn't have all that many GPIO pins to spare.  You just need two GPIO pins to connect essentially any number of devices.  (Within limits; you can't realistically have more than about ten or twelve devices on a single I2C bus, and there are times when you might want to deliberately segregate devices into separate buses for other reasons, such as when they have clashing addresses, or when one device needs all of the bandwidth for itself.  But the accelerometer and proximity sensor can happily share a single bus.)

[Daveytron]

My pinscape seems to of died after I programed it . It has no lights when connected to USB but does if connected to the other port. Is there a way doing a factory reset orany other way of resetting it .

[mjr]

When the OpenSDA port is connected (it’s labeled on the board in small print), you should see a FRDM-KL25Z virtual thumb drive on your Windows desktop.  You can drag and drop a firmware .bin file onto that drive to reinstall the firmware with default settings.

[ThomasKL]

Hey there. Mouser also sold just the new kl25z board. I try to install them in my first cabinet last weekend with same problem after step 5. Now I know,that the chip on position ACcl. Is missing.

Now I am looking for get the old KL25Z board in Germany. Does anyone know where I can get them.

[Suikazz]

i don't have an old kl25z anymore but i have a few unpopulated pinscape pico diy boards, if you want one of those

your best bet with the kl25z from mouser would be to simply return it as it doesn't have the accel chip as per description

[mkotek]

I have just purchased my KL25Z Rev. I board from RS Components (delivered from Germany to Poland) and same issue - accelerator missing, programming successful, but failing on Joystick connection. What is really crazy is, the board is advertised as micro USB and still has an old leaflet Rev 3 inside and only the NXP now website says Rev I is missing an accelerator, but there is no updated schematics available and the board consists of J200 and J201 pin headers of undisclosed purpose. The board has square corners, so it seems it is easy to distinguish it.

Edited by mkotek, 16 May 2025 - 02:29 PM.

[PennyBailey]

First time builder in the UK and just had a board delivered from DigiKey in the US.

Sadly I discovered that it is the newer version without the Accelerometer

 

Is it possible that the board has been redesigned and the Accelerometer is now contained within one of the other IC packages?

I note in the instructions that the board comes preloaded with a 'bubble level' demo that changes the LED based on tilt of the X and Y access.

I jumped straight in and tried to load Pinscape on it, so am just working out how to revert it back - I'll report back with my findings (if I manage to work out how to program it - lol)

[PennyBailey]

I located 'accelero_i2c_rgb.srec' in the quick start package for that board, and the LED appears to display Cyan (Green and Blue)

The instructions state the the Red and Blue LEDs illuminate based on the degree of tilt.

 

However, any tilting has no effect which indicates either there is no Accelerometer at all, or if there is one somewhere else, that specific code doesn't see it.

[fhjui]

Since quite a few people have bought the new KL25z board without the ACC chip, here's my idea for a workaround:
Adafruit still has a breakout board with the missing MMA8451 chip in stock ($7.95). https://www.adafruit.com/product/2019

You could desolder the chip and solder it onto the KL25z board. However, you'd need to be a fairly good solderer to do this.

And with the breakout board you can test the chip before using as a donor

I would only buy this chip from reputable retailers like Adafruit, less from Chinese sources. They also sell the chip individually, but you don't know if it's a fake.

The old and new versions of the KL25Z are almost identical except for the USB-C ports

Edited by fhjui, 19 May 2025 - 12:54 PM.

[PennyBailey]

OK - confirmed with NXP that no accelerometer at all.

Raised an issue with Digikey since their datasheet primarily focussed on the Accelerometer functionality of it - they literally refunded me 3 minutes after I raised the issue on their website.

Back to the drawing board for this one!

[mjr]

> Adafruit still has a breakout board with the missing MMA8451 chip in stock ($7.95).

> https://www.adafruit.com/product/2019

> You could desolder the chip and solder it onto the KL25z board. 

 

That would be a great trick if you could pull it off, but it seems really difficult to me.

 

But I'll have to order one of the Adafruit MMA8451 boards and get it working with Pinscape Pico.  It'd be nice to have that as an option as long as they're still available.

[fhjui]

>But I'll have to order one of the Adafruit MMA8451 boards and get it working with Pinscape Pico

great idea Michael, but this board has a 5V levershifter at the outputs for SDA/SCL.

https://learn.adafru...om/assets/18513

Edited by fhjui, 19 May 2025 - 08:52 PM.

[mjr]

>>But I'll have to order one of the Adafruit MMA8451 boards and get it working with Pinscape Pico

> great idea Michael, but this board has a 5V levershifter at the outputs for SDA/SCL.

 

Adafruit says:  "Since it's a 3V sensor, we add a low-dropout 3.3V regulator and level shifting circuitry on board. That means its perfectly safe for use with 3V or 5V power and logic."  And indeed, it looks to me like the level-shifting circuit is the kind that'll shift to whatever level you put on the nominal +5V input.  So I think "+5V" is a misnomer; it should really be labeled "V[IO]".  I'd have to experiment with it to be sure it really works that way, but I think if you feed it +3.3V on V[IO] (the misnamed +5V in), it'll "shift" from 3.3V to 3.3V and Pico will be happy.

Or perhaps more simply, you just put 3.3V on the 3.3V line and leave +5V unconnected for 3.3V operation.

[fhjui]

You're right, the connection is labeled as Vin on the PCB, but the 3.3v should be connected directly to the 3.3v line, because the voltage regulator has a drop voltage of about 0.3V

[GregGreg]

Hi guys,

I've bought K25Z board, downloaded the newest Pinscape Tool. After successully uploading software using Pinscape Tool and swithing to Joistick USB, board is not detected. Basically nothing happens. No any lights turned on etc.


Any advice how to fix this issue? Does that mean my newest board is useless?
Maybe some switch or jumper needs to be adjusted, dunno.

 

Yes, I know that I can switch to PinscapePico, but I've already bought the board and I would like to use it.

Edited by GregGreg, 31 July 2025 - 08:43 AM.

[fhjui]

but you know that the new board version doesn't work with the pinscape software because of missing accelerometer chip?

[GregGreg]

Yes, I can live with that...  I just wanna to make it run.

Edited by GregGreg, 31 July 2025 - 11:52 AM.

[mjr]

I'm afraid the newer version of the KL25Z (the one with square corners and no accelerometer chip installed) seems to be incompatible with the software, for reasons I haven't tracked down yet.

 

I've posted warnings about this to all of my project pages, but I know it takes a while for the information to make it around to all of the different places it's linked.  My recommendation is to look at the Pinscape Pico project, since it has all of the same features and runs on the Rasbperry Pi Pico, which is widely available.

[Tesla]

> My main drivers for going with the KL25Z were the nudge and physical plunger features.

 

I think that's true for a lot of people, which is what makes it so disappointing that the accelerometer is missing from the new boards.

 

Agreed.

 

I first used mine for Nudge in PC-Mode for my ALP ... long before I even got my headers soldered in.

 

This little KL25z is the coolest thing ever. On my cabinet, about as vital-hardware and the gaming-computer or playfield-screen.

 

Thanks MJR for all you do. Still wish you would let me send you some money to show my appreciation.

[Tesla]

Hello,

I bought one here in February this year: https://www.amazon.c...ed_asin_title_1 just to have a spear part.

 

 

Same here ... from NXP, but I got both of mine in 2023 (and if I click that link, Amazon says I have purchased two). I bought one and used it as nudge-only for a while. Before I soldered-in the headers, I bought another as a backup in case I messed it up. It worked fine, so I still have my new-spare.

Edited by Tesla, 11 September 2025 - 05:03 PM.