Continuing from my earlier simple circuits that make use of the preloaded RGB quickstart program on the Tiva TM4C123GXL launchpad, i made this simple circuit to see if i can hear any sound. Since the RGB quickstart application seem to be varying the input to the 3 different LED pins, i thought may be if i connect it to a piezo buzzer, i though i can hear some sound. Exactly that's what happened!!!  

Connections:
1. PF1 to Positvie (long pin) of the buzzer. (Red wire)
2. GND to Negative (short pin) of the buzzer. (Black wire)

Here is a video:

Continuing from my earlier circuit to connect external LEDs to the pre-loaded program, here I connected external push buttons to control the LEDS on Tiva. 

Connections are:
1. GND Pin to GND Rail on the Bread Board (Green wire in the picture)
2. One wire from GND rail to one side of the button (White). Do the same with the other button as well.
3. PF4 and  PF0 are the button input pins on Tiva. So Connect one wire from PF4 to other side of button 1 ( blue/black wire). Connect another wire from PF0 to the other side of Button 2.(red wire) 

You are good to go. Now if you press the buttons on the bread board, you should see the same functionality as the buttons on the Tiva Launchpad.

Remember that this circuit works only with the pre-loaded quick start RGB on the Tiva TM4C123GXL launchpad. This is just to do some experiments with the board while I wait for the Edx Embedded systems shape the world MOOC course to start. 

I am sure this is something that most of us who have signed up for the Embedded Systems Shape the world course would be going through while waiting for the course to start on Jan 22. I have been anxious to get a first circuit built ever since I got the Tiva Launchpad for the edx course. Without writing any new code, and without frying the board i wanted to build some kind of circuit. So decided to use the launched QuickStart rgb application that came with the board as the base software and connect my external circuit to it.  

Here is what we know about the pre-loaded RGB Quick Start application from the instruction leaflet that came pre-loaded with the Tiva Launchpad:

1. It controls the LED
2. It uses the two buttons that are present on the board

From the LaunchPad Evaluation Kit Manual I see the following pin mapping used by the RGB Quick start application

Circuit 1: Connecting External LEDs

If you have bought the full kit for the course, you should be having these parts already:

1. 3 LEDS (colors don't matter)
   
2. Jumper wires
3. Breadboard

Here is the circuit: (its better you prepare the circuit before you plug in the USB)

1. Connect a jumper wire from Gnd to the ground rail on breadboard ( Black wire in the picture)
   
2. Plug in 3 LEDs to the breadboard with the shorter leg(cathode) to the ground rail and the longer leg (anode) in column "a" or "b" (color of the LED doesn't matter. But if you have bought the kit recommended for the course, you might have one of each color, Red, Green and Yellow.. ( I used 2 reds and an yellow.)
   
3. Connect a jumper wire from PF1 to the column "d" or "e" in the same row where the Red Led's longer leg is plugged in (Red Wire in the picture)
   
4. Connect a jumper wire from PF2 to the column "d" or "e" in the same row where the Green Led's longer leg is plugged in (Green Wire in the picture)
   
5. Connect a jumper wire from PF3 to the column "d" or "e" in the same row where the Blue Led's longer leg is plugged in (Blue Wire in the picture)
   

Make sure your circuit looks some what similar to the picture. The key part is to be careful about the jumper wires going to the Tiva. The LEDs won't blow out because they are, you guessed it, Diodes. Current flows in only one direction. And if my understanding of the board is correct, there are already resistors present on the board for the LED Pins.

If everything goes smooth, you can see that the intensity of the 3 LEDS change in sync with the LEDS that are already on the board.

If you press the buttons you will see the frequency change in the external LEDs also.

For me it was fun to see them working. I can't wait for the course to start to make use of all the features available in this board.

After getting through the hassles of the software installation for the Tiva LaunchPad, connected the board to the computer.  

Noob Mistake 1: Played around with the pre-programmed RGB quick start application dutifully as instructed in the evaluation kit leaflet. So by now i was anxious to get my first program written and loaded. After jumping through hoops to get to the Program 0, tried to debug the program only to get device not found error. Google has spoiled us so much that at the first sign of trouble we are hitting google instead of thinking for a moment. So after searching around, checking the device name on com port (By the way it still shows up as Stellaris and not Tiva) and driver checks, it suddenly hit me that the last step in the demo application was to enter in to Hibernation mode. 

So kicked the board out of Hibernation mode and i was able to get my program 0 loaded. That raised several questions. Why isn't the IDE kicking the device from hibernation when trying to load something in? What happens when the device goes to hibernate mode and any connected sensor that's supposed to wake up the device fails as well? How to safely get the device back up to pre-hibernate state without resetting? 

On a tangent, how do i get the actual demo program to look at its code? Need to find out..(update: found)

Noob Mistake 2: This is embarrassing. But this is what you get when spoiled by Arduino. So while creating a new Project (all by myself, without googling for may be 5 seconds) in Code Composer Studio,  got stumped by the device selection drop down(it has like a million devices). So i keep looking for TM4C123GXL because that's what the box it came in says its name is.  Then i get this epiphany that may be its the processor name. So i look closely at the board with my dodgy eyes and then at the leaflet. There it is: TM4C123GH6PMI

I really have a long way to go :(