1.1 Driver Libraries

This Smart Energy distribution package contains three types of drivers:

  • PLC drivers that manage an external PLC transceiver (PL360 or PL460). Two drivers are available:

    • PLC PHY driver: The PLC transceiver runs the Physical layer (G3-PLC or PRIME).

    • G3 MAC RT driver: The PLC transceiver runs the G3-PLC Physical and MAC Real Time layers.

  • Metrology driver that manages the metrology firmware running on Core 1 (PIC32CXMTSH or PIC32CXMTC).

  • RF215 driver that manages an external RF transceiver (AT86RF215 or AT86RF215M).

PLC Drivers

PLC stands for Power Line Communications, a communication technology that enables sending data over existing AC or DC power cables.

The Smart Energy PLC Drivers are software components designed to act as interface between the Host MCU where it is running and a PLC transceiver (PL360 or PL460).

Figure . MCU Host and PLC Transceiver Connected Blocks
host_and_transceiver_connected_blocks

PL360 and PL460 devices operate in the Narrowband segment (35-488 KHz), running a binary file which implements low layers of Standard Protocols. Available binaries are:

  • G3-PLC PHY layer

  • G3-PLC PHY + MAC Real Time layers

  • PRIME PHY layer

HW resources used by PLC Driver

Each PLC Driver requires some HW resources in order to control the slave PLC Transceiver. These resources are:

  • SPI Peripheral

  • DMA Controller (XDMAC) or Peripheral DMA Controller (PDC)

  • 4 GPIOs in case of PL360:

    • An interrupt-capable input GPIO to receive interrupts from PL360

    • An output GPIO to drive the LDO Enable pin of PL360

    • An output GPIO to drive the NRST pin of PL360

    • An input GPIO to receive Carrier Detect signal from PL360

  • 5 GPIOs in case of PL460:

    • An interrupt-capable input GPIO to receive interrupts from PL460

    • An output GPIO to drive the LDO Enable pin of PL460

    • An output GPIO to drive the NRST pin of PL460

    • An output GPIO to drive the TX Enable pin of PL460

    • An input GPIO to receive Thermal Monitor signal from PL460 (optional)

Figure . PL360 and Host Connection
PL360_host_connection
Figure . PL460 and Host Connection
PL460_host_connection

Metrology Driver

The Metrology driver is only available for PIC32CXMTSH and PIC32CXMTC devices. It is the interface between the application (running on Core 0) and the metrology library (running on Core 1).

RF215 Driver

The RF215 is a software component designed to act as interface between the Host MCU where it is running and an RF transceiver (AT86RF215 or AT86RF215M).

The RF215 transceiver implements IEEE 802.15.4 SUN-FSK and SUN OFDM Physical layers.

AT86RF215 is a dual transceiver for the Sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz bands, while AT86RF215M is a single transceiver for the Sub-GHz band.

HW resources used by RF215 Driver

The RF215 Driver requires some HW resources in order to control the slave RF Transceiver. These resources are:

  • SPI Peripheral

  • DMA Controller (XDMAC) or Peripheral DMA Controller (PDC)

  • 4 GPIOs:

    • An interrupt-capable input GPIO to receive interrupts from RF215

    • An output GPIO to drive the RSTN pin of RF215

    • An output GPIO to drive a LED to indicate transmissions (optional)

    • An output GPIO to drive a LED to indicate receptions (optional)