I am programming memory chips and I am providing power to the target device from a separate power supply. I will not be using USB power because the memory chips use 3.3V. I have a voltage regulator installed before the chip power pins, which seems to interfere with using the Cheetah SPI Host Adapter.

My question - do I need to isolate Cheetah adapter pins 4 and 6 from the power source?  If there's another way to do this, please tell me how.

Thanks for your question! You do not need to physically isolate Cheetah SPI Host Adapter pins 4 and 6 from your target devices. You have the option of powering the target device with the Cheetah SPI Host Adapter or an external power source.  You can disable or enable power from the Cheetah SPI Host Adapter with our software tools - Cheetah GUI Software, Flash Center Software or Cheetah Software API.

With Flash Center Software, you can set target power on or off (see Figure 1). For more information, please refer to section 3.2.3 of the Flash Center Software User Guide.

Figure 1: Flash Center Software Host Adapter Panel

You can also control target power using Cheetah GUI Software (see Figure 2).  For more information, please refer to section 3.2.7 of the Cheetah GUI Software User Guide.

Figure 2: Cheetah GUI Software Control Panel

API software examples are available, which you can download and then modify as you wish. For information about using API software, please refer to chapter 5 of the Cheetah Host Adapter User Manual.

We also provide Level Shifter boards, which can used to interface our Host Adapters and Protocol Analyzers to target devices with the selected voltage level of 1.2V, 1.5V, 1.8V, 2.5V, 3.0V or 3.3V.

For more information about the Cheetah SPI Host Adapter, support software and other tools, please refer to the following:

Flash Center User Guide

Cheetah GUI Software User Guide

Cheetah SPI Host Adapter

Cheetah Host Adapter User Manual

Level Shifter Boards

Total Phase Products

We hope this answers your question. If you have other questions about our Host Adapters or other Total Phase products, feel free to email us at sales@totalphase.com or support@totalphase.com.