DA16200 Thing Plus Hookup Guide

Hardware Overview

Board Dimensions

The SparkFun Thing Plus - DA16200's pin layout has a feather form factor. The board dimensions are illustrated in the drawing below.

USB-C Connector

The USB connector is provided to power and interact with the board. For most users, it will be the primary programing interface for the DA16200 module.

CH340 Serial-to-UART

The CH340 allows the DA16200MOD to communicate with a computer/host device through the board's USB-C connection. This allows the board to show up as a device on the serial (or COM) port of the computer. Users will need to install the latest drivers for the computer to recognize the board (see Software Overview section).

Power

The DA16200 Thing Plus only requires 3.3V to power the board. However, the simplest method to power the board is through the USB-C connector. Alternatively, the 3V3, VBAT, and VUSB pins can also be used to supply power to the board.

• VUSB:
  • The maximum voltage for the LDOs and charge controller is 6V.
  • The minimum voltage for the charge controller is 3.75V.
• VBAT:
  • Should not be connected to anything other than a single-cell LiPo battery.
• 3V3:
  • Requires a regulated 3.3V.
  • Powers the board and the Qwiic connector.

The power pins that are available on the board, are detailed below: Below, is a general summary of the power circuitry on the board:

• 3V3 - Provides a regulated 3.3V from the USB (5V) power and/or battery connections.
  • Powers the DA16200MOD, status LEDs (PWR and STAT), and 3.3V connections of the Qwiic connector (I²C bus) and debug pins.
  • The 3.3V XC6222 LDO regulator can source up to 700mA.
    • The output is controlled by the EN pin on the board.
  • Pin can also operate as an input from an external power source.
• VUSB - The voltage from the USB-C connector, usually 5V.
  • Power source for the entire board.
    • Provides power to the 3.3V voltage regulator and the battery charging circuit.
  • Overides power from the battery through a P-channel MOSFET, when both are connected.
  • Contains ESD protection for the USB-C connection.
• VBAT - The voltage from the JST battery connector; meant for single cell LiPo batteries.
  • Provides power to the 3.3V voltage regulator.
  • The MCP73831 linear charge management controller is powered from the USB (5V) power supply.
    • The charge controller is configured for 500mA (max) rate of charge to a connected battery.
• GND - The common ground or the 0V reference for the voltage supplies.
• Qwiic Connector - Provides a regulated 3.3V output.

For more details, users can reference the schematic and the datasheets of the individual components in the power circuitry.

Power Status LED

The red, POWER LED will light up once 3.3V is supplied to the board; however, for most users, it will light up when 5V is supplied through the USB connection or when a LiPo battery is connected to the JST connector.

Charging Circuit

The charging circuit utilizes the MCP73831 linear charge management controller and is powered directly from the USB-C connector or VUSB. The controller is configured for a 500mA charge rate and active charging is indicated by the yellow, CHG LED. If the charge controller is shutdown or charging is complete, the CHG LED will turn off. For more information, please refer to the MCP73831 datasheet and the Indicator LEDs section below.

Power Control

The power source to the XC6222 is controlled by a P-channel MOSFET. In addition, the 3.3V regulated output from the XC6222 is controlled by the enable (EN) pin, broken out on the board. By default, the chip enable pin (EN) is pulled high, to enable the 3.3V output, supply voltage. To disable and shutdown the output voltage from the XC6222, the chip enable pin (EN) needs to be pulled low (i.e. shorted to ground (GND)). For more information, pleas refer to the XC6222.

DA16200MOD WiFi Module

The DA16200MOD is an ultra low power WiFi module manufactured by Dialog (a subsidiary of Renesas). It contains a 802.11b/g/n radio (PHY), a baseband processor, a media access controller (MAC), on-chip memory, and a host networking application processor, all on a single silicon die. The system on a chip (SoC) has full offload capabilities to run the entire networking OS and TCP/IP stack on chip; therefore, an external network processor, CPU, or microcontroller are not required. The DA16200 is ideal for your next IoT project, thanks to the multiple sleep modes that allow you to take advantage of current draws as low as 0.2 - 3.5 µA.

• Operating voltage: 2.1 to 3.6 V
• Operating temperature: -40 to 85 °C
• Arm® Cortex®-M4F core w/ clock frequency of 30~160 MHz
  • ROM: 256 kB
  • SRAM: 512 kB
  • OTP: 2 kB
  • Retention SRAM: 48 kB
• WiFi processor
  • IEEE 802.11b/g/n, 20MHz channel bandwidth, 2.4GHz (up to 54 Mbps)
  • IEEE 802.11s Wi-Fi mesh
  • WiFi security: WPA/WPA2-Enterprise/Personal, WPA2 SI, WPA3 SAE, and OWE
  • Operating modes: Station, SoftAP, and Wi-Fi Direct® Modes (GO, GC, GO fixed)
• SPI flash Memory: 32 Mb (4 MB)
• On-Chip RTC (± 250 ppm)
• Three ultra-low power sleep modes

The module is Wi-Fi Alliance certified for IEEE802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, WPS functionalities and it has been approved by many countries including the United States (FCC), Canada (IC) and China (SRRC). Using the Wi-Fi Alliance transfer policy, the Wi-Fi Certifications can be transferred without being tested again.

JTAG

The DA16200 Thing Plus includes JTAG PTH pins for a JTAG header, to be used with debugging probe. The JTAG pins breakout the SWD (software debug) pins to the DA16200MOD module.

RTC Switch

On the DA16200 Thing Plus, a switch is provided to control the state of the RTC_PWR_KEY pin. The RTC_PWR_KEY of the DA16200MOD is a pin that enables the RTC block; the switch essentially controls if the DA16200MOD module is in Sleep Mode 1 and acts as an external WiFi module.

RTC swirtch on the DA16200 Thing Plus. (Click to enlarge)

Position	Notes
G	Sleep Mode 1 - RTC Block Disabled The DA16200MOD module should be controlled/operated by an external MCU.
3V	The DA16200MOD module is in a normal active state. However, the module can still enter the Sleep Mode 2/3 states.

Indicator LEDs

There are three indication LEDs on the DA16200 Thing Plus for:

• PWR: Power (Red)
• CHG: Battery Charging (Yellow)
• STAT: GPIO A11 (Blue)

Power LED

The red, PWR LED will light up once 3.3V is supplied to the board. For most users, it will light up when 5V is supplied through the USB connection and/or when a LiPo battery is attached to the JST connector.

Battery Charging LED

The yellow, CHG LED will light while a battery is being charged through the charging circuit. The LED will be off when no battery is present, when the charge management controller is in standby (after the battery charging has been completed), or when the charge management controller is shutdown (thermal shutdown or when the input voltage is lower than the battery voltage). The LED will be on when the charge management controller is in the process of charging the battery. For more information, please refer to the MCP73831 datasheet.

The battery charging (CHG) LED indicator on the DA16200 Thing Plus. (Click to enlarge)

Charge Cycle State	STATE
Shutdown Thermal Shutdown VDD < VBAT	Off (High Z)
No Battery Present*	Dimmed (High Z)
Charge Complete – Standby	Off (H)
Preconditioning	On (L)
Constant-Current Fast Charge	On (L)
Constant Voltage	On (L)

Status LED

The blue, STAT LED is typically used as a test or status LED to make sure that a board is working or for basic debugging. This indicator is connected to GPIO A11.

Reset Button

The RESET button is connected to the GPIO A7 and is used to factory reset the module; press and hold the button for more than 5 seconds to initialize nvram data.

I²C Bus

The I²C bus for this board utilizes the GPIO connections, detailed in the table below:

Qwiic Connector

A Qwiic connector is provided for users to seamlessly integrate with SparkFun's Qwiic Ecosystem.

What is Qwiic?

The Qwiic system is intended a quick, hassle-free cabling/connector system for I²C devices. Qwiic is actually a play on words between "quick" and I²C or "iic".

Features of the Qwiic System

• No Soldering
• Polarized Connector
• Daisy Chain

Keep your soldering iron at bay.

Cables plug easily between boards making quick work of setting up a new prototype. We currently offer three different lengths of Qwiic cables as well as a breadboard friendly cable to connect any Qwiic enabled board to anything else. Initially you may need to solder headers onto the shield to connect your platform to the Qwiic system but once that’s done it’s plug and go!

Qwiic cables connected to Spectral Sensor Breakout

Minimize your mistakes.

How many times have you swapped the SDA and SCL wires on your breadboard hoping the sensor will start working? The Qwiic connector is polarized so you know you’ll have it wired correctly, every time, from the start.

The PCB connector is part number SM04B-SRSS (Datasheet) or equivalent. The mating connector used on cables is part number SHR04V-S-B or equivalent. This is a common and low cost connector.

1mm pitch, 4-pin JST connector

Expand with ease.

It’s time to leverage the power of the I²C bus! Most Qwiic boards will have two or more connectors on them allowing multiple devices to be connected.

Shown above: Qwiic Shield for Arduino on RedBoard, Spectral Sensor Breakout - NIR, Spectral Sensor Breakout - Visible and SparkFun GPS Breakout

Jumpers

There are six jumpers on the DA16200 Thing Plus.

There are four adjustable solder jumpers on the mikroBUS™ carrier board labeled MEAS, BYP, 3.3V_VE and 3.3V. The table below briefly outlines their functionalities:

Note: When modifying these jumpers, be careful to avoid cutting nearby traces. Although not usually an issue, we thought to mention that this board is also a 4-layer PCB, so be careful not to cut the jumper too deep.

Traces (blue) near the jumpers on the DA16200 Thing Plus. (Click to enlarge)