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Winterbloom VoltageIO

This is a CircuitPython helper library for setting a digital-to-analog Converter (DAC) to a direct voltage value. That is, instead of setting a 16-bit integer value you can set the DAC to a floating-point voltage value. It also provides similar helpers for reading voltage values from analog-to-digital converters (ADCs).

For example you can replace this code:

import board
from analogio import AnalogOut
 
analog_out = AnalogOut(board.A0)

# 0-3.3v range, so this should be ~0.25 volts.
analog_out.value = round(65535 * 0.25 / 3.3)

with this code:

import board
from winterbloom_voltageio import VoltageOut
 
voltage_out = VoltageOut.from_pin(board.A0)

# 3.3v range.
voltage_out.linear_calibration(3.3)

# And 0.25v out.
voltage_out.voltage = 0.25

While this is a useful convenience for when you want to skip doing the math to set the DAC to a specific voltage, it's also incredibly useful for working around any non-linearity in your DAC. Real-world DACs have some degree of imperfection. You can measure the DAC's output voltage at various output values and then use VoltageIO.direct_calibration to get more accurate voltage output:

voltage_out.direct_calibration({
    # Voltage: DAC value
    0: 0,
    0.825: 16000,
    1.65: 32723,
    2.475: 49230,
    3.3, 65535,
})

This library is also extremely useful if your DAC's output is scaled. For example, if you have an op amp after your DAC that's scaling its output to 0v-10v. You can use VoltageIO to set the output based on the final, scaled voltage:

# While the DAC itself only ouputs up to 3.3v,
# it's scaled up to 10v by an op amp.
voltage_out.linear_calibration(10)

# 5.5v output.
voltage_out.voltage = 5.5

Very similarly and for similar reasons, you can use VoltageIn to read voltage values from ADCs. For example, you might replace this code:

import board
from analogio import AnalogIn
 
analog_in = AnalogIn(board.A1)

# 3.3v range
voltage = analog_in.value * 3.3 / 65536

print(voltage)

with:

import board
from winterbloom_voltageio import VoltageIn
 
voltage_in = VoltageIn.from_pin(board.A0)

# 3.3v range.
voltage_in.linear_calibration(3.3)

print(voltage_in)

Just like with VoltageOut, you can directly specify the calibration values. This allows you to counteract any non-linearity:

voltage_in.direct_calibration({
    # ADC value: voltage
    0: 0,
    16000: 0.825,
    32723: 1.65,
    49230: 2.475,
    65535: 3.3,
})

And again, just like with VoltageOut, this class is useful for dealing with cases where your input voltage is scaled up or down for your ADC.

Installation

Install this library by copying winterbloom_voltageio.py to your device's lib folder.

License and contributing

This is available under the MIT License. I welcome contributors, please read the Code of Conduct first. :)